I would at least do everything in my power to get a start date before Jan 1 2025.
If you will be a federal employee in any of the State or Civil service agencies, you may want to start looking elsewhere. If you are a senior federal employee regardless of agency, you will want to review the new administration’s upcoming plans and requirements.
They have stated their plans many times over since 2016 election. Back then, they called it “draining the swamp.” If you watched closely, you saw many agencies got stripped down to their bare bones. State Dept probably got hit the worst.
I am not judging or providing any opinions here. Just offering some objective thoughts on the future of the federal job market.