I called the agency, they said, "You should print out the PDF, fill that out and bring it to our office."
Can you believe that?? There aren't enough programmers to make the .gov stuff work right because FAANG is buying them all. So, I'm not sure you are right on that.
There are enough. There certainly are in the US and likely so other places. It's that government often pays peanuts compared to private sector and adds poor management and poor advancement prospects on top.
If people aren't willing to work for you because your working conditions suck, it might be worth considering better ones.
I agree with you. This is just a huge side conversation.
Also, there is a TON of great educational content on youtube produced by governments. Google won't show me those videos on web pages at the government website, but they'll show me the youtube video with ads on it.
Secondhand anecdotes recount fistfights in the office and the unfireable-until-the-election official viewing porn during working hours and continually infecting their desktop and the intranet with malware.
You should also look at volunteering with Code for America.
The joke is they can easily pay a contractor 150$/hour though. But can’t pay an employee hourly wage of 100$/hour