Goverment contractor position

So I feel I'm in a weird position, I interviewed for a contractor position for a US federal agency and signed a contingent offer back in Dec 2015. It's been 2 months going through the process and have meet all the contingencies on my end. Last week I found out I can't start until they have funding and I am on an indefinite hold.

Is that normal business process? I thought federal agencies get their funding approved on Dec!? Why would a contracting company interview for positions they do not have funding for yet? Has this happened to anyone else?

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Comments

bpenn

Welcome to gov contracting. I have applied to several jobs in the past that specifically stated that they hadnt even won the contract yet and it was all contingent on that. They like to put listings out to gauge interest and when (if) they win the contract they will hire you.

Do you know if this company holds the current contract, is bidding for it, or maybe there is a recompete going on? Sometimes the incumbent company will lose the bid and attempt a recompete. This extends the process for MONTHS. Sorry you are going through this, I am waiting on a similar type job situation.

Z0sickx

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The contract was already awarded. It's 7 years

No_Nerd

Nothing to worry about . Just look for other positions until you are picked up . I have had this happen a few times. You signed a contingent so it does not actually mean you have a job. Just keep looking and the first one to actually hire you gets you. my .02

stryder144

I was a QA for a contract for the USAF. Typically, before the contract is awarded the company has to prove that it has the necessary personnel to start on time. This is what I think they did in this instance.

Z0sickx

No_Nerd wrote: »

Nothing to worry about . Just look for other positions until you are picked up . I have had this happen a few times. You signed a contingent so it does not actually mean you have a job. Just keep looking and the first one to actually hire you gets you. my .02

This is what I was leaning towards doing. And using the contigo to offer as leverage

Z0sickx

stryder144 wrote: »

I was a QA for a contract for the USAF. Typically, before the contract is awarded the company has to prove that it has the necessary personnel to start on time. This is what I think they did in this instance.

Even if the contract has been already awarded?

Gess

Z0sickx wrote: »

Why would a contracting company interview for positions they do not have funding for yet? Has this happened to anyone else?

I was a contractor before switching to a GS position. It seemed like funding was always up in the air. Recently a company that won a contract but hadn't been funded yet tried to recruit me. They were nice enough to post in the information that the position was contingent upon their full award of the contract. No thanks, too unstable for me.

I'd shop around for another position while you wait. The worst that can happen is you find a better position or the money comes through.

Z0sickx

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It's the common theme I see, I just put a lot of of time into getting things going with this contractor. I had to do a drug test and they were able to uses a previous investigation that was recently completed instead of having to go through the eqip process.

dhay13

i was 'hired' for a federal contract position at the end of january and went and did my fingerprinting and preliminary BI. received my adjudication and was told i would start mid-february. after a few weeks of phone tag with the recruiter i had nothing solid and began to think it was a scam of some sort. i went on another interview at another company and received a call on the way home with an offer. i turned it down thinking i already had the gov't job in my back pocket (plus the fact it was a 24x7x365 position). i began to regret this but finally received a call early march to start the following monday. then had to sit around for 2 months in the office until i got approved for and received my credentials. so in short, it is a timely process. and i see why now. there are so many checks and balances in place, rightly so, that when combined with vacations, sick days, unexpected emergencies, etc., everything takes longer than expected. but it is worth the wait. i was talking to a friend the other day and told him this is the first time in my life i can truly say i like and enjoy my job, just too bad it isn't permanent

BlackBeret

Contingency offers are the worst. Bottom line is to never rely on a contingency offer, those are the only interviews I wont even go for unless I just really want the position and I still wont expect to ever hear back.

Let's say contract company X is bidding on this network security contract at Ft. Z. In order for the government to consider company X they have to prove that they can fill the positions. So they go out and make contingency offers to all of the people that they can find. The offers usually say something along the lines of "if the contract is awarded" AND include something else that can easily get them off of the hook even if it is awarded. (contingent upon open vacancies, etc.,etc.)

Best case scenario happens and company X wins the contract. They then extend offers to all of the personnel that were working for the old company, because they're already in place, already working with the customer, already fully certified, and already know the job. Most people don't want to move or be without a job, so they accept the new company's offer. Suddenly company X has won the contract and fully staffed it without having to hire any new people. If you're lucky a few of the people decide they don't want to work for company X and then the company has to call a few of the people they made contingency offers to.

Also, I skipped the part where Company X was making the contingency offers 6 months prior to the contract start date because of how long the bidding process takes. Oh, and don't forget that even after company X wins the contract every other company will contest the decision and it will take 6-12 more months for a final decision to be made.

So to recap, Company X makes you a contingency offer for a contract they hope to win with a start date in 6 months. Even if they do win it, they spend 6-12 more months having their contract contested, then when it's officially awarded they hire all of the contractors that are already in place instead of calling the people they made contingency offers to.

Mike-Mike

Z0sickx wrote: »

have meet all the contingencies on my end.

did you get a Security Clearance? if so, I'd just take that and shop around

TechGromit

Z0sickx wrote: »

Is that normal business process? I thought federal agencies get their funding approved on Dec!? Why would a contracting company interview for positions they do not have funding for yet? Has this happened to anyone else?

Yes it's "normal" process, sometimes a contracting firm will interview people before they even win a contract. They will use your resume to claim they have X number of people available to fill a contract to try and win the contract. Federal contracts take months to bid, evaluate and award a contract, and that assuming the funding isn't cancelled sometime during the whole process.

TechGromit

BlackBeret wrote: »

Best case scenario happens and company X wins the contract. They then extend offers to all of the personnel that were working for the old company, because they're already in place, already working with the customer, already fully certified, and already know the job. Most people don't want to move or be without a job, so they accept the new company's offer. Suddenly company X has won the contract and fully staffed it without having to hire any new people. If you're lucky a few of the people decide they don't want to work for company X and then the company has to call a few of the people they made contingency offers to.

Interesting enough I been though this exact process once before. Usually part of winning the contract is underbidding the incumbent company. (Unless they had some major screw-ups and can't rebid the contract), which in turn causes downward pressure for salaries. Unless the employees have special knowledge or skills that can't be easily replaced, the net effect is a cut in wages for the employees already performing the work.

Z0sickx

Thank you all for you valuable input. To reiterate my earlier point this already an AWARDED CONTRACT for 7 years. I already have a high level clearance but this particular position only requires public trust.

I thought i read it would be 12 weeks but they said this could take up to 2months...it will be 3 months next week..either way i'm back on the market

stryder144

Flip side to all of this discussion: I was deployed to Iraq in November of 2009. We were going to take over part of a base ran by the USMC. They told us that the contract had been awarded and we were there to mop a few things up and then we were to hand things over to the contractor. We were told we would be home by Christmas or New Years at the latest. Long story short, I went home in April of 2010. These things take time. The government has a lot of checks and balances, the company has to jump through not only regulatory-style hoops, but they also have to frequently fill gaps due to people getting jobs between contract award and implementation, etc. Sad, but necessarily long, lead times.

AverageJoe

Yep, not so unusual, even when the contract has been in place for years. As a matter of fact, if they've had the contract for 7 years then they've probably faced a couple of re-competes already at regular intervals (like maybe every 2, 3, or 5 years).

So let's just say the company was up for it's every so many years re-compete, had all its ducks in line, won the re-compete, and was ready to bring on new bodies. Then company B lodged a protest (someone always seems to lodge a protest) and brought the future into question. If company B wins the protest, another re-compete occurs, which company A could well lose. Happens all the time.

Just saw the flipside happen: company A had been in place for years but lost a re-compete. Company B won and was looking at hiring many of the existing contractors in-place starting back in... September, I think. But company A filed a protest, everything went into limbo for several months (current contractors didn't know if they should stay or run), and gov't wound up having to do another re-compete. That's still going on.

Contract work can be great, but it can also be a little scary.

Z0sickx

Little scary...got an update today....for a different job position user access certication consultant..they will provide training but this is a 180 from what I currently do. Main tool seems to be with sail point identityIQ. Thoughts?