Government positions are even cushier. Things move slowly, they value consistency, and the hiring process is such a pain that you won't be fired for anything short of malicious or criminal behavior.
And if you automate a government task, there's a good chance you won't need to update it for at least a decade.
The pay is usually very noncompetitive. But the OP is okay with that.
The local universities around me have some dev/it positions posted on various job sites, and they are all offering bottom 30% or so in pay, like $45-60k/yr
But the benefits are usually top notch (e.g. healthcare). If the position comes with a generous defined-benefits government pension, it can actually end up being more lucrative than working in the private sector.
You have to make sure that this pension actually pans out. I've worked at a semi-government job for 10 years. However only 1 of the ten years, they indexed their current payouts with inflation.
I'm a freelancer now, and I've been counting on that pension. But if this continues, that government pension will be worth a whole lot less. I'll probably have to work longer.
It's interesting to look at this in the context of ballooning tuition costs. Could it be that part of the problem is that university staff positions attract a high proportion of unmotivated time-servers? How is this possible at the same time that instructional staff are being squeezed so hard?
How is this possible at the same time that instructional staff are being squeezed so hard?
If I had to guess, supply and demand. There is a massive surplus of PhD’s looking for any job whatsoever in academia. Meanwhile, the demand for university IT jobs is probably low given that many other jobs in tech will pay more.
The problem is the exact opposite. The unmotivated time servers fill unnecessary positions created by the ambitious climbers. Doing a better job would likely make the problem worse as the bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.
And if you automate a government task, there's a good chance you won't need to update it for at least a decade.