&gt; What the frack?!? Isn&#x27;t the whole point of working for the Federal Government to have a job for life?<p>No, though certainly the opportunity for a long-career with a stable employer is part of the attraction for some people of some federal positions.<p>OTOH, even term-limited positions like those at 18F don&#x27;t really conflict with this, they just mean you need to find a <i>different</i> federal position before the term ends, leveraging your 18F experience.<p>&gt; 18F is actually worse than (non-startup) private sector jobs in that your contract says you cannot stay in the job longer than 2 (or 4) years.<p>Limited-term-contract, non-startup, private sector jobs where you need to line up a new gig before the contract expires to keep working are not exactly uncommon, so I&#x27;m not sure how you characterize 18F as worse than non-startup private sector jobs based on a feature it shares with many non-startup, private sector jobs.