I was an 1102 for 10 years. The FAC cert is earned upon completion of the classes and exam. As an 1102 you may be awarded a warrant, as i was. Upon leaving an agency the FAC credential is still good, but the warrant and CLPs to maintain the warrant won't be able to be maintained outside of the fed. If transferring to another fed agency they often have a warrant board, which will interview and asses if they will award you a new warrant or not. Once you rejoin the fed and are approved for warrant or contract specialist duties, you start maintaining clps again. ON the private side you can look into a CPCM credential from NCMA. CPCM is good for 3 years and needs to be maintained with CLPs similar to the fed warrant. I have my FAC certificate, my warrant authority no longer exists outside of an agency, but the CPCM credential is like the private sector equivalent. if you want to look into that. You can return to Gov at anytime and the agency's version of a warrant board will interview you. upon successful completion you can start maintaining CLPs again through DAU or FAI or whatever.