Government contracting

I met someone my school's library today who is a consultant for the government. I told him when I go full time I will be pushing for equivalent of $22-23/hour. He said that working as a contractor for the government, I could make $65/hour.

Is government contracting a good idea? What are the pros and cons?

Take a look at this link. It should help you get some more insight into government contracting.

Also, you may want to check out your local SBA and/or SCORE office. They may have workshops on government contracting coming up. I know my local SCORE office has one this month (another week or so)...

Unless you're extremely sharp and have an extremely impressive GPA and some experience already under your belt I am dubious you're going to make $135k salary fresh out of college.

The actual job and the regional market and the economic market all play into this. It's not a good time to be looking for a job at all right now.

In most companies salaries will range from near minimum wage (the front line) to what would be equivalent to over $500/hr (the CEO) so that someone makes $65/hr anywhere is not surprising at all.

However contractors will make more than a salaried employee because contractors don't get benefits. You may want to work this out because for me health and dental benefits, 401(k) matching plus my 25 days of PTO I get every year are worth at least half my salary. In other words if I was offered a 50% raise but would lose all my benefits (not to mention stability and job security) I would likely decline the offer.