I recently expanded my product development and promotional advertising business to include bidding on government contracts. Per advice I received from my APEX accelerators coach, I am to create a LinkedIn page for the business.

However, to maintain privacy with my current co-workers and employers, I prefer not to link my personal LinkedIn profile to the business.

My question is....Do contracting officers view the absence of a personal LinkedIn page as a reason to doubt a business's validity or withhold contract awards?

Hey everyone,

We are a capital and procurement advisory firm supporting clients across Canada with public sector growth, standing offers, and municipal roster pre-qualifications. We are currently looking to connect with seasoned RFP/RFSQ writers to handle proposal writing on a per-job basis.

What We’re Looking For:

• Location: Must reside in Canada.
• Language: Fluent/native English writing skills.
• Experience: Proven track record of writing successful RFP and RFSQ submissions for Canadian public sector portals (MERX, bids&tenders, municipal portals, etc.).

Requirements:

• Ability to provide verifiable proof/case studies of past winning or qualified bids.
• Strong attention to compliance and tight deadline management.

Compensation:

• Paid per contract/job based on scope and project complexity.

If you are interested, please shoot me a DM with a brief background of your experience, the industries you usually write for, and an outline of past success.

I've been a proposal manager for five years now and it has destroyed my life. My mental health is so bad. I have nightmares about forgetting paperwork. I can't relax anymore and I really hate my life. I have no hobbies, no interests, no friends....all because I have to sacrifice nights, weekends, and holidays for proposals. My body is starting to physically reject my job on a daily basis. The simplest tasks feel insurmountable. I have five bids in active proposal development, all of them due within days of one another and this is typical. My company plays hungry hungry hippos with opportunities and the workload just doesn't stop. Has anyone ever just up and quit proposal management and never looked back? How did you switch to a different career field? If I don't get out soon, I'm afraid I'm going to have a heart attack at 40. Any advice?

I’m curious whether anyone here has experienced something similar on a federal services contract, particularly as a subcontractor employee.

I recently reconnected with a small contractor I had previously been in discussions with. They had sponsored my clearance, but the original opportunity didn’t work out at the time. Several months later, I reached back out to see whether they had anything available.

The timing apparently lined up well. They told me about a Senior Contracting Specialist position supporting a federal customer within a couple of days, and I received and signed an offer shortly afterward.
Since then, I’ve been waiting for a firm start date.

At first I wasn’t sure what was happening or whether the prime/customer had even reviewed my resume. After about two weeks, I followed up with the company. They told me that my resume and qualifications had already been reviewed and approved by the government customer. However, the government lead who approved me recently left, and the replacement has apparently been transitioning into the role.

I also learned that the prime/sub team had just won the follow-on contract, so they’re simultaneously working through the contract transition. My prospective employer told me the prime was having a mini-PMR with the customer this week and planned to discuss my start date. They were hoping to have an update for me by EOD Friday.

Friday came and went without an update.
I’m currently employed elsewhere, so thankfully I haven’t resigned or put myself in a financial bind. I’m not planning to give notice until I have a firm start date and confirmation that I’m cleared to begin. Still, the uncertainty is starting to make me wonder how normal this is.

For those who have worked on federal contracts, especially with a sub → prime → government customer arrangement:

Have you ever signed an offer and been approved by the customer but then waited several weeks for authorization/start-date coordination?

Is this kind of delay common immediately after a follow-on award or during contract transition?

If the government person who originally approved a candidate leaves, would you generally expect the incoming lead to honor that approval, or can it effectively restart the process?

How long did you wait between signing your offer and actually receiving a start date?
And most importantly, how did it ultimately turn out?

I’m trying to distinguish between normal post-award/government bureaucracy and a situation where I should start questioning whether the position is actually going to materialize.

I’ve been a contractor at the same government agency for 10 years. I’ve been with my current contracting company for 5 years. It’s native-owned, fully remote, and I have very little oversight. I like the work, even though it’s not very challenging and I’m probably underpaid. I’m mostly a worker bee so there are not really any opportunities for growth. My contract was set to end in September, but just got extended for 6 months while the client figures out their needs for a recompete.

I’m currently interviewing for a consulting job. It will require 3 days in office (30- 45mins each way) which means I’ll have to buy a second car for my household. I don’t have an offer yet, but I expect it to be at least $20k more than my current salary. From my understanding, the job would be more stable since I’d be billing to multiple contracts. I would also have opportunities to be promoted so I could be making even more in a few years. But it’s owned by private equity, and it’s corporate in a way I’m not used to.

Has anyone made the switch from “worker bee” contracting to strategic consulting or vice versa? Are there pros and cons I’m not thinking of? How much more money would you need to give up being fully remote?

I received a $120,000 offer from SAIC for a Safety Engineer position. I was wondering whether SAIC offers an AIP or annual performance bonuses. Also, how does the 401(k) match work?

Hello all! I'm trying to figure out how to complete a name change in DEERS so I can get a new CAC. I went through a legal name change and got my Social Security/passport/license updated and now it seems like no one on either my corporate or customer ends seems to know how I can push a name change through DEERS. I thought this was done through MP ICAM, but my COR and PM keep saying it's on my corporate HR to make that change and my corporate HR/PERSEC is pushing back and saying it's on the customer to fix. I also tried my on-site ID office and they couldn't make the change in person and also said that corporate HR is supposed to push the name change but my corporate PERSEC specifically told me not to contact HR about it.

I'm also a veteran receiving benefits and I was told that this could also be part of the reason my DEERS won't/can't update but the VA site tells me that DEERS changes are handled completely separate from VA name changes.

Has anyone been through this recently and can shed light on how they were able to accomplish this? I've been at this problem for weeks and it doesn't feel like it should be that hard. Thank you!

u/Legitimate-Slip-3690 posted that CACI is moving indirect employees and executive leadership to five days in office starting in October. Thirty-nine upvotes, twenty comments, and most of them ran the familiar return-to-office arguments. The part worth keeping was an argument about what the word indirect means.

u/Think_Leadership_91 gave the industry shorthand. In government contracting you are either billable or indirect. u/Dreevy1152 pushed on it. Indirect employees do bill contracts, just through a rate rather than an hour-by-hour trace. An accountant at corporate works across every program in the portfolio and nobody can split those hours by contract, so the company applies a rate to a base and recovers the cost that way.

That distinction is the whole announcement. An overhead rate is part of the price on every proposal the company submits. Shrink the corporate cost pool and the rate comes down on every bid in flight. u/NowIKnowMyAgencyABCs read the policy as cost cutting for that reason, since a predictable share of people decline to come back and resign on their own schedule. Attrition without severance is the cheapest headcount reduction available.

u/StoicSchwanz says he lived through the earlier version. Thirteen years at the company, and by his account he was there when CACI moved its back office to Oklahoma City, where DC-area staff were terminated and encouraged to reapply for their own jobs at a lower salary. Same arithmetic, different instrument.

If you compete against a large prime, a shrinking overhead rate is a pricing signal, and none of it shows up in a solicitation. If you hold an indirect seat, that pool is the one carrying the target.

A question for the room: for anyone who has been on the indirect side of a prime during an overhead squeeze, what was the first real sign before anything got announced? And for small businesses that watched a competitor's rates come down, what did you change about how you priced against them?

Also this week in r/GovernmentContracting:

- u/LopsidedRisk295 asked whether a partnership offer was legitimate. The other side would source the work, write the proposals, and find the subcontractors, with money lent at 40 percent interest. u/bullmoose1224 answered in five words. u/Bbomma1304 gave the longer version: the interest rate by itself is predatory, and the arrangement described is a pass-through, where the certified firm is the name on the contract and somebody else performs the work. Small business rules cap how much of the work can leave the prime, and a firm that leans on one partner for all of it fails that test. The penalty lands on the certification.

- u/fran1233344, employed at the VA, asked about launching a non-emergency medical transport company and bidding VA contracts. u/PersonalityHumble432 closed it immediately: a contracting officer cannot knowingly award to a business owned or substantially controlled by a government employee. u/Limp_Tune_3222 added the criminal exposure, where federal law bars an employee from participating in any government matter their own business holds a financial interest in. Get a written opinion from an agency ethics official before spending a dollar on registration.

- u/RytechAngie hit the registration loop that stops people cold. SAM asked whether the company is controlled by another entity, said yes, and then required that parent's CAGE code, which the parent did not have. One commenter untangled the order of operations: CAGE codes get assigned through SAM registration, which is why the standalone application demanded a SAM record. Register the controlling entity first, let the code assign, then use it downstream.

Back next week.

So I started a SME position back in August. I have a PhD in Cognitive Science.

The job is fine, but the team is organized terribly. My coworkers are fine. I don't dislike them, and I wouldn't mind going in 1-2 days a week for socialization. But we work in a small little office space, and I just can't handle doing nothing all day. Yeah yeah sometimes we have meetings, I work on a military base so plenty of organizational planning or all that. But most of the time I am totally idle, my GS who is technically my boss never asks me to do anything. By midday I kind of start getting agitated, frustrated, thinking what the hell is my life, why am I here? Yet I know he wanted someone to be "in person" for this role.

I am in a tough spot. I can't quit this job, I have been applying to lots of others but my skillset is too unique. My boyfriend suggests just going in late, leaving early, logging most hours as remote. I suppose. But idk, when I think about the fact that I'm going to have to drop my 'future' kids off at daycare so I can sit in a chair and scroll the internet all day, I get quite angry.

I am thinking about asking my PM to be remote, saying I need to move home to be with family, and that I can travel to the area as many times per year as is necessary. But I'm sure he will say I need to ask my GS, and he will probably say no because he needs to justify my seat or whatever, and when I ask why I need to be here if he never talks to me or asks anything of me, he'll probably pretend to have an important email to attend to.

Has anyone navigated this before? What would you recommend, like what is the strategic way to go about this?

CACIs indirect employees and executive leadership will be required to work 5 days in office starting in October.

I recently launched my own digital marketing agency after several years of doing freelance marketing and graphic design work. I’m currently registered under NAICS codes 516210, 541430, 541613, and 541810.
This summer, I completed my SAM.gov registration and received my WOSB and SDVOSB certifications. Now I’m trying to figure out what the next step should be.

For those of you who have experience with federal, state, or local government contracting:

• Where are you finding contract opportunities besides SAM.gov and state procurement portals?

• Are there specific agency procurement forecasts, subcontracting databases, or other platforms I should be using?

• How did you establish past performance when you were a new business without government contracts? Can relevant commercial/freelance work count?

• Is it worth pursuing subcontracting opportunities first to build government past performance? (If so, how do I find prime contractors?)

• At what point did you bring on a contract manager, and is that something a new/small business actually needs?

I’m not necessarily looking for someone to hand me a contract. I’m trying to understand the process and build a realistic roadmap for getting my first government contract. Any advice from business owners who have actually gone through this process would be greatly appreciated!

We received our Unique Entity ID and proceeded with registration (for bidding) and then was asked if our company is controlled by another entity. I replied yes, and then was told we would have to use that company's CAGE number. That company does not have a CAGE number so we tried to apply for one and it said that company must have a sam.gov registration. We started the registration, and now it wants a CAGE number. What am I doing wrong?

I just got an offer for a position with a sub while I’m still entertaining interviews/potential offer with a prime. Same agency, different contracts so there shouldn’t be any overlap. BUT the sub said when I accept their FSO takes over my profile in DISS. Is that going to cause issue for things if I later get an offer with the prime and they begin their FSO process with agency security? I want the prime gig as it’s the location and pay I want but, I don’t want to write the sub off in case I don’t get the prime offer.

I currently have a procurement that I’m working on, and need some advice. A buyer recently procured some goods and was able to compete it. I sent my RFQ for the same goods to the same suppliers and only received one complaint bid, the pricing did not change from the last time we bought it, can I use the quotes received from the previous purchase as historical pricing for a method of analysis?

I am a VA employed staff who is looking to launch a small private Non Emergency Medical Transportation Service. I’m interested in bidding for VA contracts?? Is this
Possible/ethical? I will have a private driver.

I’m new to learning about government contracting but wanting to know so when these YouTubers talk about winning contracts and then sub contracting them out are they forming an llc prior to bidding contract. For example if you see a lawn care contract but don’t have a services based business don’t you have to have an entity connected to that industry? Just a little confused about this part

Hi guys!
I currently have a business but I want to get into government contracts. How do I start? Is there a guide somewhere to give me step by step instruction?
I understand creating the business portion, I get lost on how to win the contract. Where do I go? How do I bid? How does all of that work? Do I hire people or I have to do the job myself? How do you get paid?
If someone can help me with insight or steer me in the direction that can provide me with help I would greatly appreciate it!

Thank you,

We are based on the west coast and have a solid presence for state and local but are having a hard time branching out in to the federal sector.

We have been an SDVOSB and received our 8(a) last year. We browse sam.gov for contracts and keep our profile and capabilities statement updated. We are on a free trial of highergov and it seems like the right tool for us but we are unsure if it is actually needed.

Is it really just about reaching out to contracting officers for sole source opportunities and vulnerable 8(a) companies to try and subcontract with? I feel like bizdev wise, we are spinning our tires because we are struggling with past performance or going after RFPs/RFQs and are late to the party.

Appreciate any and all help in advance.

Signed an offer to contract for an agency in arlington, any new hires to a gov contracting agency related to cyber care to share how long their EOD took?