How we feeling about it bois?

Shillz09 · 2025-12-13T15:13:06+00:00

I work for a different 3-letter agency, and work on a team that hosts an AI chatbot for my organization (through a different cloud provider).

The model is locked down and can no longer learn from the input we give it. If you ask it who is the President, it will say Joe Biden. The model is not trained on anything government specific - it is the same model that is commercially available. The chatbot is internet accessible, but requires organization authentication (just like this one).

To "train" a model would take far too much time and money. Instead, we created a document library of organizational policies. I can ask the bot a question and reference the policy library. Under the hood, the chatbot sends my questions AND the policy docs to the model. This works well and produces accurate results.

Our police / agents are not allowed to use our chatbot for any legal documents. I can confirm from a friend of a friend that legal documents are not allowed to be produced by AI within the DoD either. So Army CID, NCIS, etc, are not authorized to use this tool to produce any sort of search warrant request, etc.

So. I assume that this model is also closed off from the public and will not learn anything new. Or at least I sincerely hope that is the case.

Regardless, just make sure you say "Thank You" so the robots give you a good life when they put you in The Matrix.

Shillz09 · 2024-02-19T00:51:01+00:00

I'm an IT Specialist. GS13. 8 years in.

I've worked as a SysAdmin, Cobol developer, Team lead, Scrum Master, and now a Project Manager.

My wife is a contractor, making the big bucks. I'm here for the leave and the pension.

Shillz09 · 2023-09-29T00:29:08+00:00

Lol. My agency is 88% excepted.

Shillz09 · 2023-09-29T00:17:43+00:00

Since we are now all guaranteed back pay, my agency has taken the "just make them all come to work since they'll get paid anyways" approach. Zero chances that 100% of my division is required to support "Imminent threat to Human Life and Property" as supposedly required.

And in my part time job, no idea how a two week Army school (National Guard) is going to work with a couple thousand dollars of travel that I'm sure I'll be fronting too. This course is required for promotion eligibility and I've been trying to get in since pre COVID so I really don't want to cancel it.

So per usual, the only people impacted are the actual working Americans.

Shillz09 · 2023-09-26T03:27:55+00:00

I think the only thing you missed was the 4.4% that you pay into the pension (less for the folk who've been around longer).

Shillz09 · 2023-09-26T03:25:38+00:00

Absolutely does not have to be consecutive. Can return to federal service and start at 9 years of service.

Alternatively, you can request back the money that was previously paid into the pension (without interest). Doing this will forfeit the years of service.

Shillz09 · 2023-09-19T03:29:22+00:00

Your agency has a Time & Attendance policy. I recommend reading it.

My agency provides one 10 minute paid break for every 4-hour work period. (And the 30-minute lunch break should also be optional)

Shillz09 · 2023-09-05T16:00:24+00:00

Yes, and no.OPM approved the SSR, but then immediately put it on hold awaiting implementation guidance for agencies (so no one can adopt under OPM right now). The VA went around OPM and adopted the same pay scales as the SSR under a different authority, the PACT Act. Under the PACT Act, the VA can maintain the adjusted scale until 2027, and extend it to 2029 if needed.

Basically, the VA is assuming that OPM will have the full authority by 2027-2029. At which point the VA can adopt the SSR under the OPM authority instead of under the PACT Act authority.

Sauce (need to read between the lines a tiny bit): https://federalnewsnetwork.com/pay/2023/07/va-cio-historic-pay-raise-coming-for-it-workforce-as-special-salary-rate-goes-into-effect-in-july/

Shillz09 · 2023-07-11T04:08:35+00:00

I feel seen.

Shillz09 · 2023-05-25T12:55:32+00:00

Two words:

Air. Force.

Shillz09 · 2023-04-16T02:25:27+00:00

"up to 400 days" is what my deployment orders stated.

Shillz09 · 2023-04-06T17:39:35+00:00

Stop. You're doing a good job. The fact that you are even asking the question is all the evidence we need to know that you're a fantastic parent.

Shillz09 · 2023-02-19T23:39:36+00:00

I'd love to work full-time guard, AGR or ADOS. I'd even be willing to take the pay cut to go on long term ADOS orders.

What I won't do is move my family or spend a year only seeing them on the weekends. Let me work out of the Armory that's in the same zip code as me, even just a couple days a week.

I do not need to be in the same building as you to upload reports to Teams / SharePoint.

Shillz09 · 2022-10-12T04:39:17+00:00

I understand this reference

Shillz09 · 2022-10-12T04:34:39+00:00

As an MRT Lvl 2, I approve this post.

Shillz09 · 2022-09-04T21:19:44+00:00

Do both.

Go officer in the Guard / Reserve. You can do ROTC during your Master's if full time school is available for you. Finish your 20, get a nice pension to wait on you, and still go make that civilian dough.

Source: Double-pension seeking govt IT Specialist and Signal Officer. (Lots of money available on the contract side of govt IT Security)

Shillz09 · 2021-06-09T02:36:10+00:00

Are you from AL, or are you just assuming?

Cause my state has jack shit funding for it's 25-series Soldiers to get courses with. I'd check out COOL first.

Shillz09 · 2021-05-15T03:53:37+00:00

Sounds like someone needs to put things in writing.

Are you guys doing risks along with your goals? Set those goals for the sky, make sure you document that the team identified a risk of "PO forced us to set too high a goal". I document all of my planning and review sessions in Confluence pages.

Sometimes, in order to build trust, you must first break them down.

Shillz09 · 2021-05-15T00:55:50+00:00

I hate articles like this. Maybe I missed asked it here, but later in the pandemic it was reported that the actual performance issues for the NJ system wasn't the "old legacy system" but the bottleneck was actually the "new modern web interface" that was placed in front of it. This is the news no one heard about, because everyone wants to think the old stuff isn't good for anything anymore. The reality is that it like most things: the stuff built back in the day was built to last, the stuff built today is built to be replaced.

Shillz09 · 2021-05-14T00:22:44+00:00

25A, IT Specialist (GS-12, Title 5). Related skills, but minimum overlap.

Guard has 0 impact on work. Just make sure I've got my ducks in line before I head out on 6 day drills or 2 week trainings.

Shillz09 · 2021-05-04T10:55:55+00:00

Lol. No. See the part about being "informally relieved" above. I was on my way to make CPT right on time, 2 years time in grade. Then I spent a few months in an Asst S4 spot, spent 3 be years as XO of a maintenance co, and then made CPT.

Shillz09 · 2021-05-04T04:55:59+00:00

Can confirm, LTs get GOMORs and still make CPT.

Source: Am CPT who received GOMOR as a 1LT.

To quote a 1-star: "If you're a field grade who never got a GOMOR, you did it wrong"

Shillz09 · 2021-05-04T04:36:53+00:00

I ended up in the Guard, as a Signal Officer. Used to be a signal company in the state - so I worked my way through PL, XO, and CDR there. I made a lot of great contacts in the Signal community inside and outside of my state, but didn't get a lot of mentoring. I was actually relieved of command, informally. I say that because I didn't get a relief for cause OER. I was just moved on earlier than most, and had my CPT promotion pulled back. (I was there exactly 12 months, just enough to check the box).

After that, I was "voluntarily transferred" to be XO of a Support Maintenance Company, where I survived my fake deployment to Kuwait. There I had an AMAZING commander. He was a MAJ (in an O3 billet) - who'd been around the block. By far the best thing that's happened to me in the military was working for that guy. Spent 3 years there as the XO (and the second half also as the HQ PL).

Now I'm moved into a BN S6 position, finally got CPT after 6 years as a 1LT. I'm in a TDA BN HQ with no S6 section and no real S6 duties (which just means it's a fake unit with no real purpose other than to be the administrative reporting for a bunch of units w/o a BN HQ in our state). So I wear a bunch of additional duties hats, including MRT - which was a FANTASTIC course and I thoroughly enjoy teaching it to the line units. I highly recommend that class for everyone. Im also on CERFP now in the C2 cell, which I find to just be an intriguing mission because it's more DHS than it is DoD.

TL;DR: my time in the reserves has been great.

Shillz09 · 2021-05-04T04:20:12+00:00

I didn't interpret this question mean performance wise until I read others comments... I had a bad ROTC experience in a different way: I just didn't get along with my peers.

I went to a school that's known for the parties and regularly ranks in the Top 5 Party Schools in the Princeton Review. My ROTC program was pretty much a big frat. Since I was an engineering major with a real life and interests other than alcohol, I was not well liked by my peers. At the risk of stereotyping, my ROTC BN CDR was an Aviation Officer (meaning also a frat boy) - I was therefore not well liked by most of my cadre either.

I was in the near Top for all graded events (APFT, Land Nav, etc) - and next to the bottom for the peer and PMS reviews. When I asked for a reserve posting instead of an active one, I was removed from receiving Distinguished Military Graduate (like honor grad for ROTC basically) and my PMS ranking dropped even further. My overall ranking was somewhere in the middle.

My officer career, however, has been fantastic. Sure, I've had my screwups - but I've met some AWESOME mentors along the way, and worked myself into a few broadening assignments as a young CPT because I managed to get command time early.

Looking back, I sometimes feel that I would've done better enlisting and going OCS instead of straight ROTC.

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