There are people who will excel in the government and people who won't. I have friends who do well teaching in JC, enjoying the good hours, overseas attachments and generally great work life balance, while other teachers teaching in sec schools quitting after their first contract due to huge marking workloads, additional commitment to CCA and not given enough time to spend with students.

I was with the air force for 7 years as a senior technician. I harbored childhood fantasies of working on the plane, looking at how the planes gloriously take off into the skies and mingling with the pilots/captains telling stories of how their sorties go. I knew during the first year that they were all fantasies. There were many slackers in the team who only knew how to pass the buck. Warrants were the worst of the bunch, as they were promoted based on their seniority, and most of them had no management nor administrative skills. They are skilled specialists and treasured as such, but they had no idea of what management is, how to uplift team's morale, utilize the strengths of individuals and sort of the pressing issue of responsibility evasion. Their was no fairness nor equal division of work. Indeed when problems occur, the warrants will shirk responsibility, even though they were the ones deciding on the course of action and instructing in the first place.

Needless to say, I was immediately disillusioned but I made the best out of my days. Together with a few good man, we completed our degrees and some of us even did our masters during our tenure. We sallied forth into the real world and some of us did well in totally different fields. We now have pilots, oil traders, brokers, bankers and consultants in our midst. Some did really well in sales too.

Since you are discontented, give your career a deep and hard thought. It's not the end of the road, you are still young and the road is long. There's much to be done and experienced even while working. I thoroughly enjoy what I do now, and I can tell you that the hardest part perhaps is to make the decision to step out.