The lack of anything remotely resembling transparency is what is really getting me. Have to get another job, so my time for this (as someone else put it) hobby is decreasing rapidly. And yes, I’ve been around since the USIS fiasco.
4 Likes
My CL blamed the lack of work on DCSA management issues. But you’re right we have not received an update from our “leaders” in 2 months. Not one word, not one email. It would be interesting to know how many investigators have left the industry as we’ve been dealing with this for 6 months now.
3 Likes
Yeah would definitely like to see those numbers.
As the third quarter starts, I’m just guessing it’s negligence, incompetence, or both at this point.
2 Likes
I can’t imagine working without written notes. That would be very difficult for me personally.
There was a recent post on LinkedIn from someone at CACI looking for new full-time DCSA contractor investigators in a lot of different very specific locations (maybe 50). The post was in late February and it indicated that NIT training would be held in March. They can’t employee people if there isn’t any work, so that means something must be coming to CACI at least. I tried posting the link to the post here, but the moderator deleted it.
I spoke with a DCSA federal employee investigator a few weeks ago and she said that she feels like a contractor right now and implied it was because she has a really high case load. My feeling is that the government is stress-testing the federal employee investigator workforce right now to determine how much to increase their workload in order to reduce cost on the contractor side. Most case management type jobs have industrial analysts that determine optimal average case loads. Federal employees are a fixed cost and contract work is variable. Once they determine the optimal (and probably much higher) case load for federal employee investigators, then they’ll direct remaining work to contractor vendors. The IC subcontractors (1099) will probably be the last to see work after that.
I have received some recent Peraton 1099 work, but it was entirely local work. With CACIs focus on very specific locations, I imagine the contractor workforce will become the “last mile” service for local work only, meaning that there will no longer be much remote video work.
It’s been my experience as a former team lead and section lead that no matter what leadership says, investigators won’t believe it anyway.
3 Likes
Oh. Like “things will get back to normal after the shutdown?”
Or more like “work should pick up soon?”
3 Likes
DCSA, DHS, and all the Intel contracts are the ones communicating what vendors communicate to the field. You’re told what the primes are told, and what the primes tell the subs. If the government isn’t communicating what should the primes do or say?
1 Like
That the customer isn’t communicating, maybe? Don’t do the false hype horse hockey.
2 Likes
What exactly do you want to hear? No matter what it is, you won’t like it or believe it. If the flood gates of work were opened up tomorrow there will be complaints that it is too much. If the work comes out in dribs and drabs, it’s not enough. And, this job is not my hobby before you say anything.
“There is no work in the foreseeable future?” I dunno. Maybe I’ll see the light and start believing that work is just around the corner.
I’d like to keep my clearance, but there is nothing in the area that it transfers well to, and I don’t have money to elsewhere.
Need to diversify yourself as an IC and become less reliant upon DCSA. There’s more to your career as an IC than dealing with CACI and Peraton and the subcontractors to those primes.
DHS is a contract where there will be plenty of work for the next one to two years with the expansion and larger footprint of ICE/DHS.
1 Like
My skill was being phased out so I researched what skills were in high demand for government contracting and I studied and got certified and applied for a job and got hired after a short phone screening. That was 10 years ago. Now I’m probably going to have to do that again very soon. You have to keep up with the times or get left behind.
3 Likes
Thanks. Have DHS and intel creds and zero work.
2 Likes
Then you are working for the wrong vendors.
1 Like
So what vendors on DHS has all the work? We would all love to know.
1 Like
Omni seems to be picking up with DHS. You could always go f/t which is crap but at least you have work.
1 Like
Omni and 1Force. I’ll give you 1F, but yeah. Omni has nothing.
1 Like
They must be giving work to ntermediates 1st because I know an intermediate who’s getting slammed.
What’s an intermediate?
1 Like
They’re considered employees but no benefits, etc and they are only allowed to work 29 hours a week. They can refuse work if they don’t want 29 hours. They pay mileage which is different than 1099.