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My Sept. 24 column reviewed potential federal contracting opportunities to consider if you start your own business after leaving your federal job. Here are tips I collected from federal contract managers on how to win contracting bids: Follow solicitation instructions to the letter, and submit all required documents. Discuss solicitations that interest you with your target agency’s contracting officer (CO) before you submit proposals. Also, consult him if you anticipate missing deadlines or if you hit other obstacles while preparing proposals or fulfilling contracts. It is the CO’s job to communicate with vendors; don’t be shy out of the mistaken…

Do you have an itch to switch to the private sector — either because government does not suit you or because you want to keep working during your federal retirement? If so, check out the federal contracting world. If you would like to work for a federal contractor, click here. This new website, the brainchild of a former Pentagon personnel official, is designed to help connect job hunters who have federal experience with contractors who want to hire it. Although businesses must pay to post openings on the site, job hunters use the site for free. Perhaps you would like…

Hiring managers generally are more likely to hire you if they see tangible evidence of your skills rather than if they just read about them in your résumé or hear them described. Consider accommodating this “seeing is believing” principle into your networking strategy. A case in point: I know a computer mapping specialist who cold-called an Environmental Protection Agency manager to discuss a computer mapping issue that was relevant to both of them. Then, after the specialist kicked off a job search several months later, he again called the EPA manager to tell him how his innovative computer mapping strategy…

Hopefully, you will never experience health problems serious enough to compel you to use leave available under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). But because health and family crises may arise suddenly, you should always carry with you your boss’s contact information so you can inform him of your need for FMLA leave as soon as possible. Also, always carry with you any passwords, security tokens and Web addresses you need to remotely access your work email and the desktop of your work computer. If you must take FMLA leave for a crisis or for the birth of a child,…

If you must take leave from work because you are sick or need to care for a sick family member, you have a range of leave options that probably include: • Accrued or advanced annual leave. You may be advanced as much annual leave as you would be expected to accrue throughout the rest of that leave year. • Accrued or advanced sick leave. You may use up to 13 days of sick leave per leave year for bereavement or for caring for a sick family member who is not necessarily seriously ill; and up to 12 weeks of sick…

My June 25 column described a sample of fellowship programs for feds. By participating in such programs, you may enhance your success at your home agency. For example, participating in a fellowship program that would place you on a congressional staff would likely teach you about how Congress generates laws and agency budgets; political considerations affecting agency programs; opinions and misconceptions about your agency held by lawmakers and their staffs; and the prominent personalities on Capitol Hill. A congressional fellowship would also likely provide you with contacts among congressional staff — many of whom wield potentially pivotal power and may influence…

Want to gain experience, learn about timely policy issues, hone your leadership credentials, network, earn qualifications to enter the Senior Executive Service — or just climb out of a professional rut? If so, consider applying to one of the fellowship, training or education programs for feds. Costs are usually covered by participants’ agencies. Some programs: American Council of Technology and Industry Advisory Council leadership development programs. The Partners Program is for GS-15s or advanced GS-14s who are involved with business transformation, information technology management, program implementation, development or acquisition, and are considered promotable to the SES within the next three to five years.…

Each agency’s success hinges, to a significant degree, on how much its headquarters and field offices cooperate. As one GS-15 headquarters manager who has previously worked in the field said, “The field offices are where the rubber hits the road. So if you don’t understand how these offices work, it’s tough to get anything substantive done. I wouldn’t have traded my field experience for anything.” Still, relationships between headquarters and field offices can be strained. That is because of geographic distances, cultural differences, differences in the pressures faced by field and headquarters offices, and because of the limited opportunities for…

This column summarizes the relative advantages and disadvantages of working in agency field offices. The mission of field offices usually is to implement and enforce programs, policies and regulations issued by headquarters; provide feedback and progress reports to headquarters on these activities; and work with local media. These roles may require, among other things, trying legal cases, conducting inspection and monitoring activities, running research programs, issuing permits and conducting outreach activities. Field employees often have authority to make decisions faster than headquarters employees because the activities they manage often demand quick responses. As one headquarters media officer who has extensive field…

As the saying goes: “location, location, location.” So what are the relative advantages and disadvantages of working in an agency headquarters office in Washington vs. a field office elsewhere in the U.S.? In this column, I’ll describe the relative advantages and disadvantages of working in a Washington-area headquarters office. Some caveats: Conditions vary from office to office. And impressions and perspectives about any particular office would likely differ among staff members, depending on their personal preferences and individual circumstances. The mission of headquarters offices is to design and develop programs, policies and legally binding regulations; monitor implementation and enforcement by…

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