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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MRUP10

Congrats to you guys who received clearance!

That is reassuring to see recent applicants getting cleared! @LittleBIT how many days did it take for you to get yours? Thanks!

handymancann

I got a quick question , do they check your bmi at CRC ? I barely passed it for my medical and while waiting for my CRC date I gained some more weight .

LittleBIT

MRUP10 wrote: »

Congrats to you guys who received clearance! That is reassuring to see recent applicants getting cleared! @LittleBIT how many days did it take for you to get yours? Thanks!

I started... Mid July-ish for my clearance. But I think I still had an active clearance from when I was in the military.

curtisc83

LittleBIT wrote: »

I was told, and confirmed, that you don't get mail in Iraq, FYI. It's true. So plan accordingly!

Depends on who you support. I get mail in Iraq.

LittleBIT

curtisc83 wrote: »

Depends on who you support. I get mail in Iraq.

[FONT=&quot]Damn, Oh well. Pack smarter :P[/FONT]

fmitawaps

Why Vectrus Inc Shares Crashed Today -- The Motley Fool

This could be bad for IT contractors in Kuwait? Any ideas on what other government contractors will take over supplying people for these jobs?

TranceSoulBrother

I was in Qatar when negotiations for the recompete of QBOSS is ongoing. I'm not surprised that they lost KBOSS and might lose QBOSS as the quality of people they brought and even the level of service performed (especially help desk) is not on par with expected levels for normal corporations. No wonder Raytheon has a lock on higher tech functions.

LittleBIT

Damn. there goes my second choice after Iraq

MRUP10

Any of you recently deploy? I'm still waiting for clearance, getting closer ~80 days.

devilbones

TranceSoulBrother wrote: »

I was in Qatar when negotiations for the recompete of QBOSS is ongoing. I'm not surprised that they lost KBOSS and might lose QBOSS as the quality of people they brought and even the level of service performed (especially help desk) is not on par with expected levels for normal corporations. No wonder Raytheon has a lock on higher tech functions.

The guys here in AF are probably the worst I have ever met in my 20 years of military/IT. One of the 'Network Admins' didnt know what DHCP was. I mean he didnt know what the technology was and never heard the acronym.

HolyPuck

devilbones wrote: »

The guys here in AF are probably the worst I have ever met in my 20 years of military/IT. One of the 'Network Admins' didnt know what DHCP was. I mean he didnt know what the technology was and never heard the acronym.

Not all the AF guys are that bad, but as with any branch you have your winners.

xxxkaliboyxxx

HolyPuck wrote: »

Not all the AF guys are that bad, but as with any branch you have your winners.

On the way back from Afghanistan we stop in Qatar, an Air Force Base. Now this place was a paradise to us, sure it was a little cold, but my God it was nice. Heard a bunch of Airmane complaining about the wifi being down. this was a few hours in country, I thought I was about to kill them right there.

stryder144

Retired AF here. Hated going through Qatar in/out of Iraq. I, too, wanted to kill the complainers and the senior leadership who constantly ragged on people about meeting certain seemingly arbitrary rules.

xxxkaliboyxxx

xxxkaliboyxxx wrote: »

On the way back from Afghanistan we stop in Qatar, an Air Force Base. Now this place was a paradise to us, sure it was a little cold, but my God it was nice. Heard a bunch of Airmane complaining about the wifi being down. this was a few hours in country, I thought I was about to kill them right there.

Disclosure, I did Command and Control (1C3) in the Air Force before I switch to IT in the Army. I just giving them a hard time, my best buds are still AF or retired AF.

Side Note: I don't have an edit button =(

LadyB1983

hello there. I applied for a position with the company as a DTS administrator. Do you know any information about this position?

LadyB1983

joelsfood wrote: »

This was network admin, not sysadmin, and was several years ago, but here's an idea of what you might be looking at:

Hourly Rate:
$27.64

Danger Pay
15% of Base Hourly Rate

Hardship Pay
10% of Base Hourly Rate

Work Week:
60 hours

Vacation:
192 hours per year (accrued at 16 hours per month)

Vacation Hours:
Paid at Base Hourly Rate

Sick Time:
48 hours per contract year

Housing:
Company-provided, furnished, shared

Ground Transportation:
Company-provided, shared

Sign-On-Bonus:
$5,255.00 paid in two installments: $2,627.50 paid on first full payroll. $2,627.50 paid at the completion of 6 months of employment. Successful completion of the one-year contract is required to prevent forfeiture of the Sign-On bonus

Travel Allowance:
$3,000.00 annually paid in two installments; $1,500.00 paid at six months of employment; $1,500.00 paid at 12 months of employment

Holidays
10 US Holidays

Term of Employment:
1 Year

Completion Bonus
$9168.00 Paid at end of contract.

Airfare
Economy airfare from Home of Record to work site and return upon contract completion. Mobilization costs will be deducted upon failure to complete contract.

Shipping Allowance:
Up to 500 pounds via APO Parcel Post. Baggage Allowance from CRC is one 50 lb bag plus military-issued equipment received at CRC.

Clearance:
Secret

Drug Screening
Requirement

There was health insurance too, but there is some question as to what healthcare you'd actually have access to over there. I never had to make use of it, but it was an Aetna global plan at the time.

im not sure if im doin this right, but i need some help with the offer i was given. its significantly, no where close to what you discribed here. please help

joelsfood

The offer I posted there was from 2007. Rates are way down now. It was also for a different job than the one you applied for.

xxxkaliboyxxx

Also if your going anywhere outside of Iraq or Afghanistan, you're not getting danger pay.

joelsfood

The quoted numbers were from a basic network admin job in Kuwait in 2007. I received an offer earlier this year for a data center engineer, and the whole package was only about 30k more than the network admin, with noticably lower bonuses, etc. the money is way down people. Still a good way to earn experience and some minimally taxed pay checks though (refer to a tax advisor for actual details)

LadyB1983

so 50K in Qatar sounds like a good offer?

xxxkaliboyxxx

Heck no!, unless your desperate for a security clearance. Also Qatar is a vacation resort compare to other places in the middle east.

curtisc83

LadyB1983 wrote: »

so 50K in Qatar sounds like a good offer?

That's not even a good offer stateside....LOL. My base pay before any uplift is 98k. That's if I'm in Qatar, Kuwait or Iraq on the project I'm on. I picked Iraq for the mega uplift over Qatar and Kuwait but that pay with the 10% uplift isn't bad.

It's crazy how companies are lowballing folks now. One dude on the military satcom FB page was offered a total salary of 90k that's including uplift in the Stan. I think his hours were pretty brute too.

LittleBIT

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!

xxxkaliboyxxx

I'm assuming DTS admin is the Defense Travel System administrator? also is it 50k base salary plus upswing and completion bonus?

BTW security clearance investigationso are a hefty price if you don't have one already.

TranceSoulBrother

DTS admin means you will be tracking and supporting servicemembers's travel reimbursement and procedures on the Defense Travel System, work with the travel agency on post for itineraries and manage the government travel cards along with the fibance folks and anything travel related. There's an Army base and an Air Force base in Qatar. If you're going to the Army base, the work is not that bad I actually know the current DTS lady there and the job is not back breaking, straight up office work. She had plenty of time to take smoke breaks. She's been there for like three years.
Living in Doha is not bad and the lifestyle can be a bit expensive. You might get a roommate here but the apartments tend to be kinda nice and you're with other expatriates of various nationalities. There's a lot of construction going on to prepare for 2022 and the World Cup. Really nice restaurants and night venues. Unbearable heat if you're not used to 100+F weather almost year round.
50k is not great and these companies are cheating their contractors with this kind of low ball but you have to blame current contracting rules for that. I think that 50k is for you after they pay for a small car ( usually a leased NissanSunny or similar) and your apartment.

LadyB1983

yeah that pretty much it. with a 2000 vacation allowance.

curtisc83

Most of y'all sound like you are getting screwed. I'm in Iraq make almost 200k and get mail. It's not like my position is something high level it's just a IAT 2 Network Admin which is pretty basic. I think companies are getting over on people and making it seem normal. If pay was 50k I would walk it's just not worth it.

LadyB1983

yeah its really unfortunate. I was really looking forward to it, but...... if you don't mind, what company do you work for?

curtisc83

LadyB1983 wrote: »

yeah its really unfortunate. I was really looking forward to it, but...... if you don't mind, what company do you work for?

I work for ARMA which is a GDIT company.

xxxkaliboyxxx

curtisc83 wrote: »

Most of y'all sound like you are getting screwed. I'm in Iraq make almost 200k and get mail. It's not like my position is something high level it's just a IAT 2 Network Admin which is pretty basic. I think companies are getting over on people and making it seem normal. If pay was 50k I would walk it's just not worth it.

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