1 Force is an amazing 1099 because they’ve been operating 1099 for a long time and they know what they’re doing. You can work 1099 for both 1 Force and Paragon then drop the one you don’t like.
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My advice…find another career choice. This industry will suck the life out of you unless your a federal employee. Contract investigators are treated like 2nd classes citizens.
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Well, if anyone care anymore the big day finally came yesterday when I was forced to resign. Paragon used the excuse that my production numbers were not high enough to keep to the end. I decided not to work for Paragon as an IC. I never had a problem with my numbers until CACI took over.
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Sorry to hear that. Same thing happened to another FI I know there despite being at 143% with two more production weeks in the month. Thankfully they took the L and became an IC with 1Force, happy to make a referral if you would like to send me a message here.
Omniplex and ADC offer training, not sure about location need in your current area unfortunately.
If you are looking for a place to land, Peraton are looking to engage with ICs and hiring FIs. I imagine that DHS work will fall there.
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I pushed back toward management 4 years ago and refused to work more than 2 contracts and they agreed. Many people can’t work some of the contracts because of the foreign background and ancestry so they totally can’t force you do to something you have qualms with when others aren’t allowed to do so for no fault of their own. If you push back against working multiple contracts and work with HR to do so they will succumb. It’s really ridiculous that they want reviewers to specialize in one contract but expect us to specialize in 5-6. It just leads to overwork and confusion for most investigators.
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I’m pushing back now but my manager is saying it’s a must since I have 15 years experience. I have no interest in the IC contracts. I did they before and they take forever and to cumbersome to be productive with the numbers they expect from us .
You may need to get HR on your side, especially if you are at a level 5 or 6. Managers get pressure from above to force people onto contracts as well. I also had some ethical reasons as to the way some of the IC coverage was conducted. Some of the procedures seemed to skirt the edges of integrity. Some people are okay with that. Some not so much.
Depending on where you are located you could switch to a company that only works DCSA. Just a thought.
I don’t mind DHS but I don’t want to do the other intel contracts and juggle 5-6 creds and different contract requirements.
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A friend of mine went to Xcelerate and is very happy. She highly recommends. She said the work/life balance there is great. Just my two cents.
Same. Honestly, I wish I could just stop working DCSA and just focus on DHS and IC.
Original poster here! I had a recruiter reach out to me from CACI. I don’t see any openings in my area for an entry level investigator but I guess I’ll find out. More curious about the starting salary because $23.03 (plus $4.23/hour) is significantly lower than what Paragon offered after completing the necessary onboarding and training ($28.50 plus $4.23/hour). I asked if it would increase after training and I was already told no. If you have any specific questions I should ask him during our phone screen, please let me know and I’ll add them to my list. Thanks!
That’s the standard Level 1 pay rate. You get a significant boost once you reach Level 2 and beyond.
Are the promotions based on time served or merit? He only said promotion and growth opportunities were available so I can always ask for more tomorrow during the call
CACI does do annual raises but the largest pay increase will be promoting to a higher level investigator which happens according to your metrics which are tracked monthly. The amount of work completed and the quality of that work will determine the promotion.
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As said above, it’s based on your metric performance. Every item you complete has a numerical value attached to it (called a weighted testimony). A record is worth 0.5 WT, a source is 0.65-1, a full subject interview is 3.5-4.5, etc. There is a range of required WT per day for each level 1-4 along with maintaining a certain quality percentage. You only need to meet stats of the next level for two months in a row before being eligible for promotion.
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Regardless which company you end up signing with, just focus on learning the job. There is a steep learning curve. Once things fully click, leveling up is much easier to do and maintain
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I’ve been seen postings/openings from ADC, it looks like they are stepping up recruiting across the country.
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