i received a job offer to work at area 51 on extremely sophisticated projects primarily as a c++ engineer. this is the highest pay offer i have ever seen, which i can not discuss right now, but what else to expect when you work for the government. i have bad perception about this. should i take this job or refuse?

No personal experience, but from others I've known:

The whole "this is top secret and therefore so cool" aspect is definitely one you should try to ignore, or even treat as a disadvantage (it'll quickly wear off, and then you realise that you can't talk in any kind of detail about your experience and projects outside of work or at future job interviews...)

Also expect *very* heavyweight code processes - if you're someone that can't stand bureaucracy or someone who values agile based workflows, it's probably going to drive you nuts.

...and the very nature of working at a research base means that while you may end up working on an integral part of an amazing new defence system, you could also end up spending a decade fine tuning a project that's then scrapped without warning, and your time & effort goes along with it.

The job is gone now anyway because NSA has already seen your posting and tracked it back.

@TheNSA

>he's being transported to federal prison as we speak

@beegC0de maybe ur right