I have tried many times to break into government contracting and always failed. It's always one of two problems: The award is too small to cover the cost of the

I have tried many times to break into government contracting and always failed. It's always one of two problems: The award is too small to cover the cost of the proposal and reporting paperwork (e.g. SBIR) or the award is huge and you need a full-time team whose sole job is to navigate all the red tape. And like you said, the people evaluating proposals often have no background in the field, so proxies for competence are used like slickness of marketing materials, whom you know in the organization, or how good-looking you are (not kidding). After I graduated I thought I wanted to work for NASA. Then I found out most NASA employees spend most of their day not inventing or building things, but managing contractors who did the actual work. I guess I'm saying I like your suggestion better than mine.