Welcome to the Contracting AFSC discussion blog. The purpose of this blog is to foster discussion between future Air Force officers interested in the Contracting career field and current officers in Contracting. The views expressed in this blog are solely the opinions of the individual authors and not of the United States Air Force nor the Department of Defense.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Best/Worst
What do you like best about being a Contracting officer?
Best-- Power to negotiate your price and winning the best deal.
Worst- "end of Year" time period-- end of the fiscal year requires long hours and extra time due to funds needing to be expended by midnight 30 Sept. Deployment hours- like end of year all the time!
Best: Two things... (1) it is a pretty intellectual field. You are always learning something no matter how long you do it and tomorrow will always pose new challenges that you didn't see coming. Never gets boring. (2) stability in the lifestyle. You will likley work a fairly predictable schedule (M-F, 7-5) with evenings and weekends available for leisure, taking graduate classes or just enjoying life.
Worst - unlike a lot of your peers, you will not be in charge of much of anything for the first couple of years except a pencil. It will take you about five years to really learn what you are doing. There are lots of rules, regs, policies, cases and laws that you have to really know -- and it takes a LOT of time and experience to finally get comfortable with everything.
As far as the worst day overall- it was proabbly when I received a call at 2 am regarding a building on base that caught fire-- wondering if the contraactor on the contract I was manageing was using any hazardous chemicals that could have caused the fire. Thankfully, the contractor had not-- but the research and getting answers quickly on something you are responsible for was a chellenge.
The best day- hard to say- the days when you save the gov't thousands of dollars in negotiations or you identify a better best valued product, when you finally complete and close out a contract -- there are many rewards.
I want to do contracting when I graduate but I only want to do it until i'm about a skill level 2 contracting/acquisitions/finance and then get out and make more money on the outside. How long could I expect it would take to get all three of those skill levels?
5 comments:
Best-- Power to negotiate your price and winning the best deal.
Worst- "end of Year" time period-- end of the fiscal year requires long hours and extra time due to funds needing to be expended by midnight 30 Sept. Deployment hours- like end of year all the time!
Best: Two things...
(1) it is a pretty intellectual field. You are always learning something no matter how long you do it and tomorrow will always pose new challenges that you didn't see coming. Never gets boring.
(2) stability in the lifestyle. You will likley work a fairly predictable schedule (M-F, 7-5) with evenings and weekends available for leisure, taking graduate classes or just enjoying life.
Worst - unlike a lot of your peers, you will not be in charge of much of anything for the first couple of years except a pencil. It will take you about five years to really learn what you are doing. There are lots of rules, regs, policies, cases and laws that you have to really know -- and it takes a LOT of time and experience to finally get comfortable with everything.
What did your absolute worst day look like (so far)?
What about your absolute best day (so far)?
As far as the worst day overall- it was proabbly when I received a call at 2 am regarding a building on base that caught fire-- wondering if the contraactor on the contract I was manageing was using any hazardous chemicals that could have caused the fire. Thankfully, the contractor had not-- but the research and getting answers quickly on something you are responsible for was a chellenge.
The best day- hard to say- the days when you save the gov't thousands of dollars in negotiations or you identify a better best valued product, when you finally complete and close out a contract -- there are many rewards.
I want to do contracting when I graduate but I only want to do it until i'm about a skill level 2 contracting/acquisitions/finance and then get out and make more money on the outside. How long could I expect it would take to get all three of those skill levels?
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