Life as a Consultant

(Begin Rant)

I worked for the defense department for 12 years. It was my first job out of college and I had only planned on staying for about 2 years to gain some experience. One thing led to another, including that I liked working on jets, and had pretty much decided to stay and retire with a federal civil service pension. Then came the 1995 BRAC and my base was selected for closure.

I could have moved to the desert or out of state, but didn't really want to do that. I ended up going to work for a large corporation that does a lot of defense contracting. My first job with them was to replace myself at the military base. I sat at the same desk and did the same job, but made 20% more. That was great. Unfortunately, as the base's closure date got nearer, my company's contracts with the base dried up. I ended up transferring to another division in the company that consults to the State government.

There is quite a difference between the defense department and state government. One of the worst things is that the State doesn't have any jets and we don't get to blow things up. I've been to many meetings where I would LIKE to blow something up. A few years ago, there was a big brouhaha about preferential contracts in the State, so everything got clamped down and most of the State agencies had their information technology budgets reduced. The regulations for awarding contracts also got much tougher. All of a sudden, the State agency my division had been working with for years, couldn't give us another contract. They wanted to keep us around, and there was plenty of work. They just couldn't do it with the budget and regulations.

Since then, it has been a string of 2 year contracts to do work I never would have chosen. I don't care for it at all. I watch people that aren't as smart as me do work I would characterize as inferior, and try to tell them what they are doing wrong so they can fix it. They don't want to hear about. It's very frustrating. Unfortunately, it's the only job in town right now. Our current contract ends in 3 months. We've submitted a proposal for another 2 years here, but we have to compete with anyone else that wants our job. So, I've got a job for the next 3 months. After that, who knows? Maybe I'll be unemployed 6 weeks before Christmas. That's a happy thought.

My dad worked for the same company for 30 plus years and retired in his early 50s. That looks mighty nice right now. Too bad I'll never have that kind of opportunity.

(End Rant)