What does a Contract Professional do?
This is an important question because it is the first question you should ask.
Generally speaking, contracting professionals have a single purpose – to obtain goods and services for a person or organization.
[Contract Professionals] obtain goods and services for a person or organization.
Tasks
To get the things their bosses want, contracting professionals perform tasks like:
- Getting to know vendors and contractors. (At least remember their names or use your iPhone’s Facebook app to look it up).
- Figuring out what your organization needs and wants. (Do you need 300 pencils and 40 Tomahawk missiles?).
- Comparing product prices. (This makes sure you don’t buy a $600 toilet seat like TIME reported).
- Negotiating prices and contract types. (Couldn’t think of a joke for this one).
- Following federal regulations. (Yes, there is a lot of it, but that’ll be covered in the future).
- Managing any issues that come up once the contract is awarded. (“The seat should be blue, not red?”).
These tasks should give you a general idea of what contracts professionals do. Still, there’s more.
Competencies
The feared KSAs (knowledge, skills and abilities) are another name for competencies. You use your competencies to complete the above sample tasks.
The Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI) identified 9 competencies used to complete tasks. The descriptions are a bit vague so there are translations.
Federal Description | Interpretation | |
| Develop, negotiate and manage business deals | Figure out a plan with your team. Understand the “other side”. Share information – if you legally can. Say thank you and please. Solve problems that come up. | |
| Communicate effectively | Know how to write business emails. Address military officers by their ranks. Seriously, even if they say call them Bob, don’t call them Bob. | |
| Manage and lead change | When something goes bad, talk about it without accusing. Focus on solutions, not blame. Try to get your team to adopt better practices. | |
| Solve problems in an ambiguous environment | Don’t be stupid and figure out things with little direction. | |
| Analyze and understand the marketplace | LISTEN – don’t talk – to your customers. Find out what they need and want. Then get those things to them. | |
| Build and manage relationships across functions and organizations | Always carry business cards. Follow up with people that give you their business cards. Offer to help them. Don’t unnecessarily piss off someone — despite how much fun it may be — because it probably doesn’t serve your goals. | |
| Understand and effectively operate in the customer environment | Know the customs of the workplace. Is Fran always mad on Tuesdays or Wednesdays? This lets you know when to approach Fran and get the best results. | |
| Develop and implement outcome oriented solutions | Set measurable goals with measurable objectives. Always make sure the computer system gets rid of the glitches your customer didn’t like. | |
| Execute | Follow through! Make sure the job gets done. |
One More Thing
The contracts field is also divided into two main areas: government and commercial.
- If you want to go into government contracts, you need to know the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR).
- If commercial contracts are more your cup of tea, you need to understand the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).
They’re both very long documents so don’t try to learn them right now. (Seriously, they’re long. For example, the FAR is longer than War and Peace, Anna Karenina or Truman. Fortunately many classes and self-study programs exist for both paths. But I’ll cover those in future posts.
In the Meantime…
Just relax. There is more to come.
