When I was growing up, my folks insisted that working for the government was for dullard types who couldn’t excel or even compete in the private sector. Well, they weren’t wrong, but the pay levels even average gov’t employees sometimes earn is amazing, and the fact that they are inevitably pensioned and can’t be fired no matter how lousy their performance is is not a nothing.
When I was in high school you needed political connections to obtain a teaching job in Illinois. Prison guards as well and they had to make donations to keep the job.