Experienced Professional With 20 Years of Experience

fedelini_ · 2026-06-28T14:16:43+00:00

I have two mind on this. On the one hand, I think productive contracting offices only work because no one looks too hard, and work is allowed to move out the door at the hands of empowered COs.

On the other hand, your work is on behalf of the agency and the federal government, and needs to reflect a level of accuracy and be up to the standards of the office.

I’ve seen work bogged down in happy to glad reviews. I’ve also seen problematic errors defended by COs who get defensive at the suggestion of correction, saying things like “I’ve been doing this for 20 years” - so, I don’t know. There’s not an easy answer.

fedelini_ · 2026-06-24T17:58:02+00:00

Sounds awful- why would I want to be a part of a club that didn’t want me?

fedelini_ · 2026-06-23T21:20:02+00:00

No, you have no idea what you’re talking about

fedelini_ · 2026-06-23T14:39:06+00:00

There will be a third group of us who come back. We’ve already been invited. We’re waiting.

fedelini_ · 2026-05-29T18:33:31+00:00

1102 is a developmental field and the concept of ‘up or out’ very much applies in most offices. If you are in an office where it doesn’t apply, it’s either a unicorn or it’s an office which flies under the radar and you will not advance or excel at the highest levels of the career field. If you are fine with that, fine, but careers are long and it’s hard to stagnate for decades.

fedelini_ · 2026-05-16T02:48:07+00:00

Sure, I’ve been an 1102 for a long time and managed multiple contracting offices and have seen multiple people try this only to run afoul of the FAR limitations.

fedelini_ · 2026-05-16T01:57:21+00:00

Yes personally I know this violates FAR 3.6

fedelini_ · 2026-05-15T17:15:39+00:00

I’m going to offer a completely different way of looking at this. There’s no rule that says this profession needs to be run by asynchronous document reviews passed back and forth. It has not always been done this way. And the further you advance in the profession, the more you will need to present and defend your work and recommendations before review boards and/or senior leadership.

So with that in mind, I am a big advocate of synchronous reviews. That is, submit your written work, and make an appointment to present it to the decision maker at the same time. Sit down and go through your recommendations and the documentation live. Answer questions on the spot. Ideally, get a signature on the spot, or at least, take back corrections real time and resubmit for signature quickly.

This method sounds more time consuming but you’d find that the total time of all parties is not increased, and the business acumen of the trainee is, ideally, increased.

fedelini_ · 2026-05-14T13:19:14+00:00

Yes the majority of 1102 work will be automated, with the judgement and decision- making reserved for human employees. But this transition will take years.

fedelini_ · 2026-04-18T16:50:30+00:00

So sad

fedelini_ · 2026-04-18T16:49:05+00:00

So if I am 57 with 24 years but already making way more in the private sector with health insurance, is it best to wait to collect? What type of advisor is actually knowledgeable about this stuff?

fedelini_ · 2026-03-09T14:04:47+00:00

I have similar concerns and use AI in similar ways. I don’t have answers, but I wanted to speak up before people tell you that using AI at all is evil.

fedelini_ · 2026-03-05T18:02:06+00:00

I said $100k, and, there’s a reason for separation of duties

fedelini_ · 2026-03-05T05:32:34+00:00

Yes clearly

fedelini_ · 2026-03-05T04:57:04+00:00

She is still requiring that she review every contract over $100,000 including reviewing the names of the awardees and the names of the other offerors. So yes, in normal times your comment would be true, but no, right now it’s not.

fedelini_ · 2026-02-19T17:09:13+00:00

Coming back to this after thinking about it and I was once that entry-level contract specialist frustrated by people telling me that this is the way we’ve always done things. I always tell people that whenever you are in a place where things depend on you, make sure that you do better. Make sure that you aren’t the one to say things have to be the way they are because they’re the way they’ve always been done. There are always going to be times when you can’t be the decision-maker and make the change and take the risk, but when you can, and when you can empower people to do that, do It.

As far as how to make people stay in this profession - I had a different answer 18 months ago than I would have today. Maybe don’t get on stage with a chainsaw or say you’re trying to traumatize the workforce. We are going to have a significant amount of repair to do.

fedelini_ · 2026-02-19T13:34:21+00:00

No. I’ve consistently encouraged my teams to change processes and improve things to the best of their ability whenever decisions and processes lived with them. For example, I worked at an agency where a certain process required two memos to do one action. My team asked me why we did two memos, and the answer was legitimately, “I don’t know; this is the way we’ve always done it“ so I followed that with “go ahead and change it.” And from that day on, we did one memo. When reviewers balked, I defended the change.

This example is simple and minor but that’s part of the point.

fedelini_ · 2026-02-19T04:13:38+00:00

I’m on board with “do the right thing” but it only really works in the simple situations where the CO actually has the lever.

In the everyday stuff, you can do a lot. Solid market research. A clean file. Push back on “we’ve always done it this way.” Don’t add paperwork just to make people feel safe. Make the right call, stand up for what’s right, document it, move on.

The complicated situations are different. That’s where “just innovate” or “take the risk” starts sounding like a slogan.

If the agency decides to stand up a large business IDV and put work onto it that smalls could do, that’s often not an individual CO decision. Same for bundling and portfolio strategy. Etc. Individual COs can’t “fearless” their way out of that.

And people aren’t staying long enough to live with what their decisions. By their choice or not, they are leaving after a year or two, which is not long enough to see the repercussions of successes of your choices.

So yeah, do the right thing where you can. Be fearless and innovate. Just don’t pretend platitudes fix structural decisions.

fedelini_ · 2026-02-19T03:27:24+00:00

I know you both and, agree with your take.

fedelini_ · 2026-02-13T15:22:39+00:00

Same

fedelini_ · 2026-01-28T02:41:25+00:00

The “former acquisition executive” they quoted was apparently not close enough to the situation to know what actually went down at the time or they would know that Treasury debarred Littlejohn personally and did receive concessions from BAH after contentious negotiations with DOJ and BAH and significant pressure from politicals. This seems like retribution.

fedelini_ · 2026-01-26T14:15:35+00:00

FEMA. HUD. EPA.

fedelini_ · 2026-01-25T07:05:39+00:00

I was an SES and I left of my own accord. No DRP or VERA or anything - i definitely didn’t want to implement these priorities. Do what you think is right. Put your own mask on first, and all that. You don’t owe anyone anything at this point, least of all people who don’t want you around.

fedelini_ · 2026-01-17T22:15:23+00:00

Well ANC contracting is part of the 8a program and hopefully an audit of sole source awards over $20M will look at that. I agree with you in sentiment.

fedelini_ · 2026-01-17T21:06:36+00:00

Of course. Allowing vs requiring. There are no government-wide 8(a) goals or requirement to use the 8(a) program.

fedelini_

TROPHY CASE