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MFK: law meme accounts. Go.
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I have two offers:
-$165k with a City of New York agency
-$130k plus $5k signing bonus with EY Gps
I feel ho-hum about the government job because I’ve been doing it for so long, and also the option for hybrid work is uncertain. But the salary and benefits are obviously appealing.
Any thoughts, especially from those in private consulting?
I was in Fed consulting and got to a place where I had to both deliver and sell. So I jumped to selling gov con services. It’s a grind. I thought non billable would be easier but honestly, I’d be happier billing, leading a large project, keeping a few clients happy etc, rather then trying to sell.
What didn’t you like? Do you work at a large firm? Are you hands on for the proposal process?
I successfully made it out of Federal Consulting and into sales. I now sell IT systems to the federal government for the most technologically advanced company in the world. Beat decision I ever made. Doubled my pay overnight. After a couple years I tripled. Last year I 6x’d what I made at PwC (Pre-Guidepoint) it was an anomaly though, but that’s sales.
Working in a SCIF all day everyday along with the DC commute just wasn’t good for my family. I had just had a kid and needed a change. Now I work from home everyday. My closest office is in California (I lied it is probably Austin). I set meetings with customers or potential customers all around DC Tue-Wed. I travel wherever I want, whenever I want - I actually like my family so I try not to travel more than 1 week a month. I hit some of the major DoD tech focused conferences each year. Yeah. It’s chill. I love it.
When I was transitioning a lot of detractors would tell me that I wouldn’t like it because I would be too disconnected from the mission, but I’ve found the opposite. I have far more impact on mission outcomes by getting my tech into these programs. I would argue many FSIs are ripping off the government by trying to build something that has already been built by Silicon Valley. I digress though.
So, OP, here is what I recommend for people like you… do your BD work. Get on every proposal you can. Take every sales training opportunity you can. I still have all of my notes form my PwC sales training and have notes in the notebooks. When I get lost I still reference those books today. Read other books - challenger sale and insight selling are two of my favorites. Consider getting a post grad certificate from Northwestern or somewhere in selling. And network. Whatever tech you work with day to day, Splunk, Cisco, Dell, HPE, PAN, VMware, AWS… whatever…. All of those companies have sales reps for your current customer. Find them. Go to happy hour with them. Your best way in is through an internal referral - all of my post consulting jobs I was referred.
If/when you get an interview, lean in hard on your proposal work and sales training, and although you may not have owned a business yet, someone will take a bet on you.
And then perform… when you come over to this side, it’s much smaller than the professional services side. Your reputation will make or break you.
Anyway, I have to go to the gym. DM me or ask me questions here. Whatever works. I volunteer extensively helping transitioning veterans, and I have helped dozens of people change careers who are non-veterans. It’s my way of giving back.
Interesting perspective. Have you ever read the GAO reports when a company files to review an award decision that was made? Often quite a lot of very schadenfreude reading… (we don’t always come out v pretty either!)