Anyone ever deal with overseas jobs with the company Vectrus?

They've just sent me the attached job description for a "Systems Administrator 1" position in Kuwait. I'm curious as to how much a government contract with them would pay, as I've heard good things about the monetary potential of taking such jobs.

Systems Administrator I.pdf

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josephandre

yeah ARMA is on a hiring spree, for Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq and Turkey, but they do require TS/SCI I think exclusively. Believe it's all intel related programs.

curtisc83

josephandre wrote: »

yeah ARMA is on a hiring spree, for Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq and Turkey, but they do require TS/SCI I think exclusively. Believe it's all intel related programs.

I'm sure some are intel related but the one I'm on is Special Forces coms related. And it does require a TS/SCI.

curtisc83

xxxkaliboyxxx wrote: »

He fails to mention that most if not all those jobs require a Top Secret, which is even hard for military personnel to get.

All my friends that work for other companies with a secret make over 100k. I know some companies lowball the hell of of folks. The better paying companies are harder to get into and don't have a high turnover rate. Get what you can get just keep an eye out for something better.

curtisc83

LittleBIT wrote: »

Yeah, Iraq uplift is about 70%, but you still get whacked with a 10% Iraq fee, which I found out you can reclaim SOME of it back on your taxes -- if you have a good tax person.

Also, not sure what DTS is, or where you're headed, but Kuwait doesnt get much of an uplift and not only that, the upside to Kuwait is easy living and generous time off compared to those in Afg or Iraq. Afg uplift is about 50% from what one guy told me who is there now.

The completion bonuses are about $9,500, if you get it. Also have a friend doing ADPE in Kuwait, pulling about 90K with all bonuses and base salary, not a bad gig at all.

Iraq has no mail, which blows, for Vectrus people anyways. Kuwait, you get all the luxuries and yea, I hear Qatar is pretty much a better Quality of Life.

Rates have changed, but with Vectrus you can change jobs or move up or change locations after 120 days -- not a bad gig if you can get your foot in the door. So if you're in Kuwait and you hate it and want more money, find a spot in Iraq in 120 days and move!

I don't pay the Iraq tax only some companies have the privilege of doing that. Also just in case someone is reading this part of the thread Vectrus may not get mail but the company I work for gets mail from USPS. So it varies from company to company on things like the Iraq tax and mail. I also heard some companies **** employees on hazard pay and the percent is lower. Crazy times for someone new to the game to start contracting.

yellowpad

I guess I am on their **** list after I turned down the first offer

LittleBIT

curtisc83 wrote: »

I don't pay the Iraq tax only some companies have the privilege of doing that. Also just in case someone is reading this part of the thread Vectrus may not get mail but the company I work for gets mail from USPS. So it varies from company to company on things like the Iraq tax and mail. I also heard some companies **** employees on hazard pay and the percent is lower. Crazy times for someone new to the game to start contracting.

Vectrus got the mail privilege back. It's happened before, a few years ago. Seems like it happens during draw downs...

Also -- scuttlebutt is that Vectrus will be doing away with that 10% tax soon(ish). No real clue when or timelines.

joelsfood

yellowpad, if you're good enough match for a position, they'll still call you after turning down an offer. Just like any company, fi they want you bad enough, you'll hear from them again

MRUP10

Good to hear vectrus go the mail privilege back.

robmcgrady99

Questions at the bottom!
I am pleased to extend to you an offer to become employed with Vectrus Systems Corporation, formerly Exelis Systems Corporation, for the position of ADPE TECHNICIAN I on the OMDAC-SWACA program in Afghanistan. Your hourly rate is $18.00.

The terms and conditions for this position include the following:

Work Week: Your work week is anticipated to be 56 hours; however, it could change depending on program needs and direction from the Government customer.

Hourly Rate: The hourly rate will be $18.00 pay based on a 56 hour workweek. This hourly rate does not include overtime pay. For the first 45 calendar days of your employment, you will receive a reduced hourly rate equal to 75% of the $18.00. After 45 calendar days of employment, you will receive the full $18.00.

Overtime: You understand that your 56 hour work week will include overtime hours (hours worked in excess of the standard 40 hour work week). You consent to work these overtime hours.
Additional overtime in excess of your 56 work week may be required based on the needs of the program and upon the approval of the Government customer.
You consent to work this additional overtimeup to a maximum 84 hour work week (with a maximum of 40 hours of overtime per week). Additional overtime in excess of your 56 work week will be paid in accordance with Company policy.

Danger Pay*: 25% uplift to a maximum of 40 hours per week.

Hardship Pay*: 25% uplift up to a maximum of 40 hours per week.

Vacation: Up to 192 hours per year, accrued monthly.

Vacation in Lieu of Holidays: You consent to receive additional vacation time in lieu of additional compensation for working a holiday. You will receive an additional 96 hours of vacation per year, accrued at 9.6 hours for the first 10 months of each anniversary year from the date of hire.

Sick Leave: Paid in accordance with Company policy.

Housing and Meals: Currently, will be provided by the military without charge to employee while forward deployed and on location.

Airfare: Economy airfare from U.S. Home of Record orU.S. Point of Recruitment to CRC. Deployment to work location will be via Military Aircraft. Return air transportation will be provided in the same manner in accordance with Company policy.

Vacation Allowance**: $3,000.00 paid in two installments: $1,500.00 paid at 6 months of employment and $1,500.00 paid at 12 months of employment.

Completion Bonus**: $9,500.00 paid at the end of theTerm of Employment.

Term of Employment: One Year from date of hire or the end of government contract, whichever comes first.

*NOTE: Danger and Hardship Pay is applied to the first 40 hours worked per week and does not apply to additional hours worked, overtime hours, vacation, sick, personal or holiday hours. Danger and Hardship Pay is subject to change or discontinuance without notice.

**Bonuses and Allowances as described above are based on a one year term of employment. If the Term of Employment is less than one year, bonuses are pro-rated based on the number of days on contract. If the employee fails to complete the Term of Employment, the employee forfeits any bonuses.

United States wage and hour law does not apply to this offer. All claims alleging a violation of United States law must be brought in the United States District Court in Denver, Colorado, and all other claims arising out of the employee's employment in the foreign location must be brought in the foreign location, consistent with the foreign court's jurisdiction.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

With that said if I did the math right it's around 70k+ for the position?
$18*56=$1008*52=$52416 Base pay
Assuming it's time and a half that's another $9 So 9*16=$144*52=$7488

These aren't exact obviously since there is a lower pay for the first month and a half. And I am not factoring in the danger and hazard pay.
$52416 base pay + $7488 OT pay = $59904 + $9500 Completion bonus = 69404 + 3000 travel = 72404 + whatever the hazard and danger pay.

To my knowledge this is all tax free as long as I am out of the US for 330 days consecutively, for the first

So my questions are as follows.
1. Is this a good/decent offer?
2. Am I calculating the pay right?
3. How is hazard and danger pay work out. If I am correct it's like getting OT on non OT hours? if so that bumps things up nicely.
4. When do taxes start? I think it is after $97600
5. How to negotiate the hourly or anything else with vectrus? (I already declined the offer)
6. Do I get hazard and danger pay all the time while being in the Stan? or is it just certain situations?

curtisc83

robmcgrady99 wrote: »

Questions at the bottom!
I am pleased to extend to you an offer to become employed with Vectrus Systems Corporation, formerly Exelis Systems Corporation, for the position of ADPE TECHNICIAN I on the OMDAC-SWACA program in Afghanistan. Your hourly rate is $18.00.

The terms and conditions for this position include the following:

Work Week: Your work week is anticipated to be 56 hours; however, it could change depending on program needs and direction from the Government customer.

Hourly Rate: The hourly rate will be $18.00 pay based on a 56 hour workweek. This hourly rate does not include overtime pay. For the first 45 calendar days of your employment, you will receive a reduced hourly rate equal to 75% of the $18.00. After 45 calendar days of employment, you will receive the full $18.00.

Overtime: You understand that your 56 hour work week will include overtime hours (hours worked in excess of the standard 40 hour work week). You consent to work these overtime hours.
Additional overtime in excess of your 56 work week may be required based on the needs of the program and upon the approval of the Government customer.
You consent to work this additional overtimeup to a maximum 84 hour work week (with a maximum of 40 hours of overtime per week). Additional overtime in excess of your 56 work week will be paid in accordance with Company policy.

Danger Pay*: 25% uplift to a maximum of 40 hours per week.

Hardship Pay*: 25% uplift up to a maximum of 40 hours per week.

Vacation: Up to 192 hours per year, accrued monthly.

Vacation in Lieu of Holidays: You consent to receive additional vacation time in lieu of additional compensation for working a holiday. You will receive an additional 96 hours of vacation per year, accrued at 9.6 hours for the first 10 months of each anniversary year from the date of hire.

Sick Leave: Paid in accordance with Company policy.

Housing and Meals: Currently, will be provided by the military without charge to employee while forward deployed and on location.

Airfare: Economy airfare from U.S. Home of Record orU.S. Point of Recruitment to CRC. Deployment to work location will be via Military Aircraft. Return air transportation will be provided in the same manner in accordance with Company policy.

Vacation Allowance**: $3,000.00 paid in two installments: $1,500.00 paid at 6 months of employment and $1,500.00 paid at 12 months of employment.

Completion Bonus**: $9,500.00 paid at the end of theTerm of Employment.

Term of Employment: One Year from date of hire or the end of government contract, whichever comes first.

*NOTE: Danger and Hardship Pay is applied to the first 40 hours worked per week and does not apply to additional hours worked, overtime hours, vacation, sick, personal or holiday hours. Danger and Hardship Pay is subject to change or discontinuance without notice.

**Bonuses and Allowances as described above are based on a one year term of employment. If the Term of Employment is less than one year, bonuses are pro-rated based on the number of days on contract. If the employee fails to complete the Term of Employment, the employee forfeits any bonuses.

United States wage and hour law does not apply to this offer. All claims alleging a violation of United States law must be brought in the United States District Court in Denver, Colorado, and all other claims arising out of the employee's employment in the foreign location must be brought in the foreign location, consistent with the foreign court's jurisdiction.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

With that said if I did the math right it's around 70k+ for the position?
$18*56=$1008*52=$52416 Base pay
Assuming it's time and a half that's another $9 So 9*16=$144*52=$7488

These aren't exact obviously since there is a lower pay for the first month and a half. And I am not factoring in the danger and hazard pay.
$52416 base pay + $7488 OT pay = $59904 + $9500 Completion bonus = 69404 + 3000 travel = 72404 + whatever the hazard and danger pay.

To my knowledge this is all tax free as long as I am out of the US for 330 days consecutively, for the first

So my questions are as follows.
1. Is this a good/decent offer?
2. Am I calculating the pay right?
3. How is hazard and danger pay work out. If I am correct it's like getting OT on non OT hours? if so that bumps things up nicely.
4. When do taxes start? I think it is after $97600
5. How to negotiate the hourly or anything else with vectrus? (I already declined the offer)
6. Do I get hazard and danger pay all the time while being in the Stan? or is it just certain situations?

You can take off the OT. It's not common to get paid any overtime it's usually just flat rate. Just looking at the numbers I'm thinking you'd get about 80-85'ish thousand a year.

mudflaps

Just off the cuff here but that sounds like a garbage offer, if you have any sort of experience.

robmcgrady99

I have about 8 years experience in desktop, a+, windows fundamentals cert, and working on net+ in anticipation of this job.
As it is now I work for a hospital making $27 a hour plus OT and I'm not in a war zone.
I liked the idea of this since it was tax free and pretty decent money, but that seems low to me, even with tax free and all the benefits.
How does the uplift calculate? $18+50%?
I am hoping to get the hourly up a bit if I can but if not I think I will take the position for the experience, and clearance, plus tax free cash.

mudflaps

Yeah I would keep making more money and not get shot at.

curtisc83

robmcgrady99 wrote: »

I have about 8 years experience in desktop, a+, windows fundamentals cert, and working on net+ in anticipation of this job.
As it is now I work for a hospital making $27 a hour plus OT and I'm not in a war zone.
I liked the idea of this since it was tax free and pretty decent money, but that seems low to me, even with tax free and all the benefits.
How does the uplift calculate? $18+50%?
I am hoping to get the hourly up a bit if I can but if not I think I will take the position for the experience, and clearance, plus tax free cash.

For the first 40 hours each week you get 27 then it would drop down to 18 an hour for the next 16 hours each week over the 40 hours. Chances are you would get paid 26 times a year. So just use these numbers plus your extra's like bonuses to get your yearly salary. Remember you will only make your base pay on vacation so whatever number you come up with the real amount will be less.

joelsfood

71,136 plus 3k travel and 9500 completion bonus.

LittleBIT

OT is anything over 40 hours at 1.50% (1.25% for Afg), I was blown away by this fact during my orientation. Yes, you do get paid overtime

LittleBIT

Just a quick edit...

You don't pay for food or cost of living in Afgh/Iraq, but do in Kuwait...

Food and rent is nonexistent unless you feel the need to buy a Soda at the burger joint when both are free at the DFAC...

You have to pay for internet, or use the free stuff at the MWR/USO or whatever you buy from the PX/Exchange (toiletries)

I took a hit to my overall salary, but honestly, I'm making out like a bandit. Just the savings in taxes and cost of living put me wayyy ahead.

LittleBIT

1. It is for what you are doing (Helpdesk work). Others may have a difference of opinion, you're helpdesk doing low level requests. You can however, move up the chain to Sys Admins, Net Admins, Info Assurance people, etc after 120 days. Everything is very silo'd in this environment, a Sys Admin won't be hopping onto routers and vice versa.
2. OT is applied to anything after 40 hours at 1.50% (1.25% for Afg), they never mention this in any offer letter, idky...
3. Uplift is calculated for your 40 hours of pay. Do you're base rate x 40 x 52, then multiply by 1.50%.
4. Taxes start after 101K, so it's tax free up till then, but you still pay Fed Taxes
5. You can't negotiate.
6. Uplift pay is as long as you are in country.

... Also its about as dangerous as NYC or Chicago on a Friday Night at 1AM... You have a great chance of being killed by a drunk driver than getting hit by IDF or even shot by a bad guy.

Hope this clears stuff up for future people.

Trenton.Flood

I just submitted my resume and hopefully on my way to ya'll soon. Former Marine here and currently working as a contractor for the Marine Corps as an Enterprise Service Desk Senior. This is always something I've been wanting to do and I've finally convinced myself to do it. How long does the resume review process take?

LittleBIT

Trenton.Flood wrote: »

I just submitted my resume and hopefully on my way to ya'll soon. Former Marine here and currently working as a contractor for the Marine Corps as an Enterprise Service Desk Senior. This is always something I've been wanting to do and I've finally convinced myself to do it. How long does the resume review process take?

What did you apply for?

If you have an active secret, should be fairly quick process. Maybe a month or less but don't hold me to that :P

Trenton.Flood

I do have an active clearance so that's good to hear that the process should be faster and I promise I wont hold you to that information. LOL. Also I sent my updated resume to a recruiter just to see what exactly I qualify for so I didn't exactly apply for a particular job. I have been with the Marine Corps (both as active duty and a contractor) since 2010 on the data side however I only have Security Plus. Is that going to be an issue?

MRUP10

If you already have clearance then turn-around should be fairly quick. Security+ qualifies but you will also need a Microsoft cert (mcp,mcsa, etc). You can check the do requirements and openings on the careers site for vectrus. They contacted me back in June and the onboarding process started within a few days. I didn't have clearance do that was the only thing holding me back and I'm still waiting for clearance do consider your self way ahead of you have it already!

Trenton.Flood

What is the complete process step by step after the phone interview?

xxxkaliboyxxx

Security clearance verification and if you don't hold one, then they see if your skills are needs and if they are desperate enough to put in for a investigation. after that, it's medical exams, then deployment.

All this is in thread......you will fit right in.

LittleBIT

Trenton.Flood wrote: »

I do have an active clearance so that's good to hear that the process should be faster and I promise I wont hold you to that information. LOL. Also I sent my updated resume to a recruiter just to see what exactly I qualify for so I didn't exactly apply for a particular job. I have been with the Marine Corps (both as active duty and a contractor) since 2010 on the data side however I only have Security Plus. Is that going to be an issue?

Whatever you land, good luck. But Server+ is about the same as MCSA 2012... in Vectrus's eyes anyways for Sys Admins
CCNA will land you Net admin jobs.
Make sure your Sec+ is current.
CEH / CASP / CISSP for IA jobs.

You need to have a CE cert and specialty cert.

After phone call, it'll be offer letter, if yes, more forms, medical stuff, then a long wait for CRC.

More info can be found in this thread from previous people.

Playapatrol

Girlygirl why were you so defensive toward people asking questions? Are you a recruiter or vectrus manager? Living in the Middle East /sw Asia , with the possible exception of Israel , is not like being in Arizona or anywhere in America. The language, laws, society and culture are drastically different. You could be jailed for breaking a law you don't know about. American guys there won't be dating women. You're thousands of miles away from family and friends. You're working and commuting long hours. Or you're a semi prisoner on a base. So you damn sure should be making six figures for even a help desk job! Guys remember everything is always negotiable. Don't be afraid to say no and walk away if you aren't desperate for memory.

joelsfood

Girlygirl, like most of us, are just sick of answering the same questions that have been answered many times through the thread. 99% of questions asked in this thread are repeats that have already been answered at least once in the past, but people are too lazy to read back. We're not here to cater to other people's laziness. If you're really looking to learn and improve yourself, it shouldn't be that tough to read through a thread before posting a question that has already been answered.

wtrwlkr

Guys,

Not sure if you've been paying attention to the news recently, but Bagram just experienced a suicide bombing on base. Two military members and two contractors sadly died as a result. don't want to risk OPSEC, but from what a guy I know there told me, it occurred VERY near where alot of the vectrus guys regularly pass by.

There's no word yet as to which company the two contractors worked for, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if they were vectrus employees. I've been away from the company for nearly a year, and personally I'd think long and hard before I work for them again. The biggest factor in my decision is the fact that they only offer 50% uplift compared to the 70% offered by nearly every other company there. That extra 20% goes straight into the company coffers. Obviously there isn't a dollar value you can place on your safety, but I personally would want to work for a company that understands and appreciates the risk their employees take to make them money, and rewards that risk appropriately.

I just wanted to reiterate that the danger overseas is still VERY real, as evidenced by recent events. Take this into mind when entertaining any offers that have you going to a warzone.

robmcgrady99

So per a few of the posts, vectrus doesn't seem to be well liked. I'm mainly trying to get my foot in the door for contracting out there which is why I am doing vectrus. Is there a better company I should be looking at?

MRUP10

So, I just got word that the government stopped processing my clearance. My FSO said there was some sort of glitch with processing my finger prints. Now I have to re-submit the SF-86 and probably finger prints as well. Then the clearance process starts again from day 0. I was previously at 105 days waiting for clearance