So I'm an active-duty military paralegal with 3 years of paralegal experience, and I'm getting out of the service in the near future. I also have a BA from before I joined (if anyone's wondering why I didn't go officer, I enlisted specifically for job training in the paralegal field; there are no officer paralegal positions).
I'm being heavily considered for a permanent/full-time GS-5 legal assistant position on another military base, but I have a lot of reservations about it. Mainly due to the fact that it begins and ends at GS-5, so there is no promotion potential. The duties as they were explained to me during the interview sound more akin to a receptionist than a paralegal, so I don't know if I would be challenged enough; I didn't work this hard only to answer phones and greet clients. The salary at that level would start at $32k (substantially less than my current military pay), however the southern state where the job is located has a much lower cost of living than where I'm currently at.
Basically, I'm not sure it would be worth it to move across the country for a job that pays so little and has no promotion potential, even if it is a federal position in a place I'd really like to live. I'd be looking for something better almost immediately, which wouldn't be fair to my employers. Then again, I've read a lot of advice online that if you want to work for the feds, you get in wherever you can and it's much easier to land new positions once you're in the system.
I'll also mention that I've been referred for several other legal assistant GS positions with promotion potential, however I haven't been contacted for interviews yet and that whole saying about 'a bird in hand,' etc.
Any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Submitted January 07, 2017 at 11:34AM by throwaway27d http://ift.tt/2i0OCWE
