Interviewed with DISA for a position in the cyber excepted service. I prepared for the interview and was able to anticipate the five questions they asked me in a 30-minute interview. On the basis of that interview I was offered a GS-15 technical position which is not normal in my experience. The offer letter stated in the excepted service extra leave and a higher starting step could be negotiated for superior qualifications. The hiring manager called me and said she would put in for a Step 10 and extra leave. I passed the drug screen and did all the paperwork but then HR offered me less than the two step rule (a $4,000 raise) and said take it or leave it. I wasn’t going to significantly disrupt my life for four grand and a title when I already have a decent job as a GS-14 at another agency. I found the whole process to be a waste of time and disappointing. One of my former employees now works for the Office of Personnel Management. She warned me about DoD and DISA in particular, and about the disadvantages of leaving the competitive service. She told me they have been proposing closing DISA for several years and rolling its functions back into the separate services. She also told me people are leaving DoD for the competitive service en masse, and that under the excepted service and in DoD the competitive service worker protections do not apply and it is like being in an “at will” employment situation. A guy at my gym who works at DISA told me several years ago they retracted hiring bonuses from many new hires days before they were to start after they had already given their notices. He also told me that when DISA moved from Northern VA to Fort Meade MD they would not pay relocation for their workers as they considered it “the same locality.” It’s a two and a half hour drive one way, but they classified it as the same locality. He also told me DISA makes a big deal out of the cyber excepted service (CES) but in practice they never offer people consideration for any of the advertised offerings of that program such as higher steps, more leave, signing bonuses, and moving assistance unless the candidate has inside contacts. It is a total bait and switch tactic.