Hah! I was commuting an hour one way for a 40k + job when I got an e-mail on my MBA college e-mail about a GS 9/11/12 program for 1102's. I looked at the salary, begged for the interview -- rest is history.

Work life balance varies not only from agency, but departments within agencies. Even then, it's further dependent on your supervisor and typically the program office you support. If you have an agency that supports telework, but a supervisor that abhors it it's going to be tough to push for more telework.

Contract Specialist is a great job for someone like me who looked at his hands at a young age, and knew that he was never going to do manual labor. It's glorified data entry some days. Some days it's critical analysis and application of clauses/law, and others it's fighting with much better resourced counterpart teams from large private businesses who will wear you down and use your superiors as leverage to award bad contracts.

For 1102's, early in the career your work life balance will be what you make of it. Like most careers, putting more effort in earlier likely means less work later on. Frankly, I'm not sure what branch chiefs really do in my agency. They seem to have meetings about manpower, and don't really do anything 1102 related. There seems to be a sweet spot where as a Contracting Officer you are more technically sound than you will ever be, and as a branch chief with 3 supervisor reports you probably will never be less responsible and more paid.

There is typically a personal decision on when you move up on whether to go into supervision to get that next grade around GS 13/14, but frankly -- I'm sitting on tech 14 interviews and they're not hard to find if you look. I want to say technically strong and work a part time 1102 Consulting-esque business on the side, so I'm staying tech side as long as possible.

I'm almost ten years in and started as a GS-9, sitting for GS-14 interviews now. If you told me (even with inflation,) that your boy would be making a buck and a quarter thou ten years into my career where I work from home and genuinely am not busy 3 out of 5 days a week I would've never believed it. Given you only need a few business class credits and a generalist degree like an MBA, an 1102 is an easy career to slide into. You are given a pretty short leash the first 3-4 years, and if your program makes you rotate every 18 months or 3 years it feels like starting over again each time which can be stressful (1102's are infamous for internal politics). Idiots will tell you to just clock out and never do an ounce of more work, but if you want to truly be good as an 1102 you're going to spend time on your own researching/thinking of ways to improve your current standard operations -- which imo is a good thing. The sooner you master your craft, the sooner you realize whatever your workload is probably isn't that much and learn to coast. I worked harder at minimum wage jobs than I do now.

There are jobs EVERYWHERE, CONUS/OCONUS, so there is great job security/flexibility in that if you don't like where you're at-- you can move.

You have the ability to climb pretty easily by genuinely just doing your job and being above average in competence. Being in the right place, right program, right time helps (like all other careers,) but genuinely it is a career where you can safely decide if you want to push for those higher positions or are comfortable sitting on an 11/12 for your career.

I was an 1102 for a decade before moving to a program area about 6 years ago. I ran into the same frustrations and thought making the jump would re-energize me. It did for awhile but here is what i found out the frustrations are still there they are just different. Being a federal employee, one that actually works, isn’t easy. Frustrations and roadblocks and incompetence everywhere. I try to make a difference where i can and then cash that paycheck every other week as i count down to retirement (or the lottery).

Personally, 1102 series is just like any other that most of the job satisfaction comes from your supervisor. I've always maintained people more often leave crappy bosses, not crappy jobs.

FAI did a study on this exact topic a couple years ago. https://www.fai.gov/sites/default/files/GS-1102-Workforce-Mobility-Study-17-03-23.pdf

FAI sought to provide insight into the trends and drivers of GS-1102 transfers.

Additionally, this study explored the potential benefits and challenges to having a transferable, and highly mobile government-wide GS-1102 workforce.

It's only 14 pages and I highly recommend you go through it.

TL;DR conclusion is below:

The members of the GS-1102 workforce are uniquely positioned to transfer across civilian agencies, and are

doing so at a rate higher than the government-wide population. The GS-1102 Workforce Mobility Study helps government-wide and agency leaders better understand the movement of GS-1102s across the civilian CFO Act agencies. The study looked at five potential areas related to GS-1102 movement, including (1) the transferability of the Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting (FAC-C), (2) the scope of GS1102 transfers, (3) the relationship between GS-1102s and employee engagement, employee satisfaction, and workload, (4) the characteristics of the GS-1102s that have recently transferred, and (5) the factors causing workforce members to leave one agency for another. Looking across all five potential areas for GS-1102 movement mentioned above, there was only a small positive correlation between an agency’s employee engagement scores and their net gains through GS-1102 transfers.

The analyses in this study can help government-wide and agency leaders determine if GS-1102 mobility across agencies is a challenge or an opportunity. One result of this mobility is a relatively low level of attrition out of government service. That, in conjunction with the higher than average transfer rates demonstrated by GS-1102s, may suggest that the workforce values the ability to move between agencies.

Good Luck with whatever direction you decide to go!

Some of your skills would transfer. Getting familiar with FAR, DFARS, NMCARS, and CFR is a must.

Typical day is juggling multiple projects, which may be pre-award or post-award, or a mixture of both depending on the agency and the office you work at.

It depends. At the end of fiscal year you expect to work a lot of overtime. Throughout the year it really depends on you and your ability to keep projects moving. What I can do in 4 hours takes the average CS needs 8 hours to complete. The job is not one I would choose to do voluntarily if I knew I didn’t move every three years with my active duty spouse.

Telework friendly depends again on type of contracts, but I was doing 100% telework during COVID and not missing a beat.

There are many non-sup GS13 positions; however, if you want to stay with NAVFAC there are very few and it’s highly competitive to receive a 13. People stay 12s for 10+ years there. NAVSEA on the other hand almost every CS is a 13 equivalent. PE isn’t a requirement to be a CS anywhere, it could come in handy if you continue to do construction contracting.

Bottom line, it will be hard to switch from CM to CS outside of NAVFAC unless you apply and receive and internship, but then you might have to go down to a GS-7. 1102 is highly competitive and nobody will hire a non 1102 at a GS-12 level that isn’t already DAWAII certified.

If you can get a lateral with NAVFAC to an 1102 it will open up opportunities at other SYSCOMS.