The gap between technology and government is legendary. In 2010 tech talent flocked to startups and big platforms where they could move fast, break things, and get people to click on ads. Venture capital flowed freely as firms jumped farther and faster to stake claims on businesses that valued user acquisition above all else. With the exception of a handful of businesses, the single easiest way NOT to get funding during those boom years was to list government as a market in your ad deck. Too slow, too uncertain, too irrational.
Until 2024 technology’s dislike of government will transform into a healthy appetite. Talent has already made that change. Thousands of engineers, product managers, user researchers and data scientists flock to government technology job fairs. Executives assume key leadership roles in agencies. Layoffs in the tech sector will get credit for much of this migration, but a closer look at where these people are going suggests that the desire to make an impact is the main driver.
Technologists shocked by the nation’s response to Covid joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The desire to help Ukraine and prevent a confrontation in Taiwan attracted talent to the State Department and the US military. In states that have allowed paid family leave, computer engineers are raising their hands to help implement these programs. Many look back on their careers and wish for something more meaningful.
Institutions are also changing. Venture capital is already moving toward much greater collaboration with government, focusing on problems typically solved by governments—healthcare, defense, supply chains—that require larger capital commitments, longer time horizons, and more public- private cooperation. In the US, we will not follow the Chinese model where the government explicitly directs where capital can and cannot go. Instead, the government acts as a signal, shining a light on priority areas and providing increasing incentives to address those areas, as it did with Operation Warp Speed during the pandemic and continues to do through the CHIPS and Science Act and the Reduction Act of inflation.
The role of strategic government funding in the rise of new technologies is often overlooked or conveniently forgotten. Tesla (no less than the bankrupt Solyndra) received huge government loan guarantees; SpaceX would never have succeeded without NASA’s strategic commitments to customers. Google started with a “digital libraries” grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and NSF, the public health standards body. And of course, without GPS, which was developed with the support of the government, there would be neither Google Maps, nor Uber or Lyft, nor the real-time tracking that is so important to modern logistics. Investors are beginning to realize that treating government as a partner, co-investor and market is a winning strategy.
Government work is hard but rewarding. Despite the stereotype of Marge Simpson’s sisters working slowly and unhelpfully at the DMV, the government is full of purposeful people working purposefully to solve huge problems on a massive scale. It’s catnip for developers, designers, and product managers who miss the days when the tech industry was also idealistic and dreamed of impact, not just a big paycheck. Back in 2011 Facebook data pioneer Jeff Hammerbacher made the observation that “the best minds of my generation are working on getting people to click on ads. That sucks. Since then, tens of thousands of others have come to the same conclusion.
This point comes just in time. Solutions to the world’s great problems require our ingenuity. Many will choose to work to solve these problems in the private sector, at startups or tech giants. But many more have realized that some of the greatest opportunities for impact at scale can be found by working with or for government.
WIRED teamed up with Jobbio to create WIRED Hired, a dedicated career marketplace for WIRED readers. Companies looking to advertise their jobs can visit WIRED Hired to post open positions, while anyone can search and apply for thousands of career opportunities. Jobbio is not involved in this story or any editorial content.
