Military Contractors

sieff

I submitted my resume to a defense contractor and I've had some really great interviews. When speaking to HR we briefly discussed salary. I gave a requirement of 130-140K and they said this shouldn't be a problem. Package would include relocation assistance and DoD clearance. The only problem is the job doesn't seem as attractive to me as some job offers I recently received from regular enterprise corporations. The other jobs are a bit below the 130K mark, but are well known companies that are known to have good corporate cultures.

Anyone have experience with defense contractors and what to expect? The overall package is really competitive and the clearance is definitely something I could benefit from. I'm prior military and though serving was a great experience, I'm not certain if I could adjust to that atmosphere after so many years have past since I served. What was explained to me was that my role would involve travel to different military installations, field engineering and conducting training.

shodown

I worked for several and i have found more money in the private sector since around 2010. With that being said working as a defence contractor varies depending on the contract. I've worked pretty solid contracts where there was no question if we were going to have jobs next year and the pay and training were great, and the end customer really cared about our well being. I've worked others where they terrorized the contractors and made them feel like they weren't important and you could be let go at any time and the company you worked for had no pull.

spiderjericho

Can't really provide experience, since I'm on the other side (military). But it appears to depend on the military organization and contracting organization. The military organization provides the working environment while the contracting organization provides the pay, benefits, training, etc. When I was in the D.C./VA area, the contractors I worked with seemed to be very happy with the pay, benefits, etc (some with very little certs and maybe 3-5 years of experience). It was crazy. I felt like the contractor's existence served as an anti-reenlistment tool to the troops present, since they saw either the civilians or former service members prospering without all of the military hang ups. And the environment we worked in was very friendly, family-oriented, high-tempo but definitely a challenging and learning environment. I'd say the opposite of my time in Tampa. The organization I'm at seems to be the low baller when it comes to pay on the installation, and the contractors seem to use it as simply a stepping stone. The work is overwhelming (less with more), pay low but the environment seems to be friendly but less family-orientated and close knit. I know a few folks on here are ex military and have gone the contractor route so I'm sure they'll submit more substantial info.

Valsacar

It does really depend on the company, and where you're working. Where I'm at it was a great working relationship, until the new senior enlisted took over and burned every bridge he could. It became and us and them office, 2 years later things still haven't fully recovered.

From what you've said, it sounds like you won't spend too long in any one place. That could be good, the guy that comes in to help solve a problem is normally treated like the savior :P Don't forget that wonderful TDY money, contractors get that too.

sieff

In my current role, I worked on a few government account. My experience was tough. Here's one example ... I would go out do work at this client site in some crazy remote place in the middle of nowhere. There'd be like 3 guys behind my shoulder as I'm working. They even got disappointed that I had to open a Cisco TAC case on an issue. The lead IT Manager was a former Marine who still thought he was in the Marines. I gave them advice on server upgrades. They choose another partner to go with for the upgrades and the recommendation given to them was to buy new hardware. I explained to these guys months prior their existing equipment was totally supported. They spent like an extra $150K on gear they didn't even need ??? Oddly enough they called me back out there to fix what the previous partner installed. I just recall constant FACEPALMS working with these guys. The mentality there was just odd. Kinda reminded me of when I was in the military and we would spend hours putting Armor All on humvee tires, which made no sense at all, days later we'd go back out repeat the same routine all over again.