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Originally Posted by Wolferz
Just out of curiosity, Platapus, what industry is that and how many lifers die at their post?
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I work for what is called an FFRDC (Federally Funded Research and Development Center), It is often, humorously and erroneously, called a "think tank" . It is one of many non-profit organizations that are funded by the government to handle such issues. By law we are severely restricted in what sorts of business we can and can't do on order to maintain our unbiased position in the industry.
We do operations and procurement research for the government. The reason longevity is so important is that much of our value to the government is based on our individual (and to some part corporate) reputation. The government is simply not going to base a policy or ops decision based on a report from someone without a proven track record. It is not fair or even logical, but it is how my world works.
Most of our work is in evaluating the work of government contractors. Contractor A is telling the government one thing, Contractor B is telling the government another thing. Government assigns us to evaluate and report back to the government.
Most of our people have Multiple Master's degrees or Doctorates as often we need to evaluate technical designs.
In some way, many of our employees die at their post. When you "retire" from my organization, most likely you will be put on a casual employment status. This is kinda like a ready reserve for researchers. When there is a particularly tricky problem, we have the ability to bring back some of these old timers who have the industry history (hell they made the history!) to assist on the problem. Then we kick them out!
It is a sweet deal and in about 30 years, I hope to be one!
