BigFed hiring timeline Forum

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know if BigFed (SEC/DOJ/USAO) is flexible about start dates? I know government fiscal year starts Oct. 1. Do they generally want to sync up to that if at all possible? Would be really nice if they could wait until Jan. 1 so I can get my firm bonus . . . do you think that is generally accepted since you'd be walking away from SO much money, or does government not care?

[lawfan2012]

If you are interviewing/getting an offer now, I don’t think there is any chance you can wait 6 months to start. There will probably be some flexibility but I would expect it to be on the order of weeks, not multiple months. And yes, probably they will need you to start in this fiscal year.

I don’t think the fact that you are leaving money on the table will change the amount of time they give you. That’s what taking a fed job means. There are tons of other great candidates who would be willing to start immediately. And also keep in mind that federal hiring has been very slow and so whatever agency is hiring you probably really needs your slot filled ASAP.

[Anonymous User]

Re: fiscal year, I may not understand what you mean by syncing up with the fiscal year. Offices hire year round. If the money to hire is allotted in a particular fiscal year, yeah, that may make a difference (like that may explain why a bunch of my recent colleagues all started in September).

At least from what I've experienced, there can be some flexibility, but they only hire when they actually need a person (they have to justify funding for the position by showing an actual need), so there will only be so much time they're willing to wait because the whole point is that they need someone to come in and do the work.

Do you actually have an offer or have you interviewed or what? If you have an offer right now, no, asking to start after January 1 probably won't fly - if you didn't want to leave until after your bonus you shouldn't have applied now. If you're starting applications now and end up getting hired, say, sometime in the fall, maybe something can be worked out. If you need to do a background check that can take a couple of months (or longer maybe?), so that may work in your favor, and they can certainly wait a bit for the right candidate, but there are limits. For one thing, there may be other, equally good candidates who can start sooner (I have a colleague who got offered the job and it wasn't going to work out because they couldn't leave their current job for some chunk of time, I forget exactly how long but I want to say 6 months+. Ultimately that changed and they did come work for us, but because their timeline changed, not on our end).

And to be honest, no, I don't think they'd care that you're walking away from a lot of money. The largest bonus I've ever had was $2k (and we don't get them every year), and we all live just fine on much lower salaries than you make in biglaw, so I don't think there'd be tons of sympathy. But this is just me speculating. Also, I've worked mostly with public service lifers and in offices without a lot of turnover from/to biglaw. (Like thinking about it, none of the top bosses in my current or past office, the people who would be involved in hiring, has ever worked in biglaw.) If you were going to an office with tons more biglaw people/a revolving door with big firms, people might have a different attitude.

tl;dr - start dates are flexible but it will depend on how much time you're really talking about.

[Anonymous User]

OP here. I wouldn't have a provisional offer for a little while yet. Part of the reason I ask is that we are expecting in the fall, so I wanted to set expectations with myself and my spouse about future income and paid parental leave (or lack thereof), but I have no idea how long my background check would take. I have reasons to believe my background check would take longer for reasons I won't disclose because it will out me, but it's nothing bad - just complicated. (Yes, I understand it's a bit early to be considering all of this, but I like to play out scenarios when they involve finances.)

[lawfan2012]

For an agency where the background check is not as intense and/or you can start while it is still in progress I honestly think that 2 months from accepted offer to the start date you are asking for is likely the outside limit. If the agency is somewhere that the background check or security clearance process needs to be completed first and there is nothing else administrative that is holding you up from starting tomorrow, I would think a few weeks would be the limit.

There’s no harm in asking I suppose (whatever annoyance it sparks would likely not be held against you long term) but I would be prepared for the answer to be no. You should think ahead of time about whether the start date will be a deal breaker. If you ask, I definitely wouldn’t say it is because you want to wait for a bonus. Just say personal or job reasons or whatever.

One other thing to think about is whether, with an accepted offer for a government position, you will even be welcome to stay on at the firm for months and months. If your practice at the firm is related to the new job you may have to get permission from clients to continue working on matters that involve your new agency and the firm might not be happy to have a less useful and time-limited employee staying on just for a bonus. Or maybe they won’t care, I’m sure it depends on the firm and the situation.

In terms of paid leave, I believe most (all?) federal jobs have 0 paid maternity/paternity leave and you just have to take sick days or vacation days. If there are agencies that offer paid benefits I’m not aware of them.

[TheProsecutor]

If you want to take parental leave stay at the firm. The only parental leave at government - at least for USAO —is annual leave and you have to earn leave before you can use it. Takes about a year to build up meaningful AL. Otherwise you’ll have to get people to donate their leave to you and no one is gonna do that for someone who just started.

[Anonymous User]

If you want to take parental leave stay at the firm. The only parental leave at government - at least for USAO —is annual leave and you have to earn leave before you can use it. Takes about a year to build up meaningful AL. Otherwise you’ll have to get people to donate their leave to you and no one is gonna do that for someone who just started.

You should be able to do advance leave within the same calendar year - I don't know the logistics of it exactly (like if it requires special permission/procedures), but I know people who've done it. But if you're expecting in the fall you would only be able to access the amount of leave left to you from the calendar year, which wouldn't be very much.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks all. I guess the moral of the story is wait until provisional offer and then ask . . .

[claptrap]

If you are taking a job that requires a TS/SCI clearance (i.e. certain AUSA or DOJ gigs), the background check alone can take 3-5 months to complete and receive an adjudication. Not sure if it's relevant to your situation, but FYI.