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My senior year in college, I interned at a government contractor. I joined a project which was already 15 months behind schedule, and was expected to take anoth

by jmpman 4y ago

My senior year in college, I interned at a government contractor. I joined a project which was already 15 months behind schedule, and was expected to take another 12 months to complete. Everyone on the project seemed fine with these slips. I asked why the government didn’t cancel the project and award it to another company - “they could, but it would take just as long to complete as we have left, so they won’t save anything.” I was disgusted by this attitude and swore I wouldn’t work for that company upon graduation. Jump forward to the career fair at college, and I spoke with a recruiter from another large defense contractor. Told him that same story, and asked if I’d find a similar attitude at his company. He quickly pulled me aside and told me that I should never repeat that story. I took that as a “yes”, and I enjoy repeating that story as loudly and as often as possible. I decided to never work for a government contractor. Not because I disagreed with the work, but because I realized that working in a company with such an attitude was going to change me. I was worried that in 15 years, if there was a layoff, I’d have a hard time finding a new job, and if I did, I wouldn’t be a world class engineer. I see a system where excellence isn’t rewarded, and instead, gaming the system, is the most profitable. I’ve thought quite a bit about this problem, and one thing which might improve it, is a bidding system, where historical project “on time, under budget” is a weighted factor in contact awards. Maybe that’s how it works today?

justsomehnguy 4y ago
> working in a company with such an attitude was going to change me As a person who witnessed and interacted with many people from such companies - your gut was right. > I see a system where excellence isn’t rewarded, and instead, gaming the system, is the most profitable Well, it is like that in any structure with enough bureaucratic levels. > I’ve thought quite a bit about this problem, and one thing which might improve it, is a bidding system, where historical project “on time, under budget” is a weighted factor in contact awards. Maybe that’s how it works today? Nope. That's would make papers to be signed on the date, but the actual work would just continue - because the work wasn't completed on the date. Been there, saw that, didn't got even a lousy t-shirt. The main problem here is what "under budget" is a moot point in the first place - if the project demands N money, then doing it under less than N money means one of: 1. the budget was calculated incorrectly in the first place. Maybe there was some kickbacks included in it? 2. the budget was calculated correctly, but the implementor did cheap out on something to have a bigger revenue of the project. Maybe cheap ass chinesium parts instead of mandated approved parts, maybe outsourcing/outstaffing to people who takes less than a market value. So both the time and budget isn't ... valuable metrics for gauging actual performance, especially if something changes on the way - imagine bidding and winning some project what relied on a cheap Huawei gear before the current situation? You could think what relying on completing the projects objectives/targets would be a meaningful metric... see about signed papers up there. And the most wonderful thing of that is what even if you do everything on time, on budget, with A+ quality - nobody would say "Yeah, that's good, here is your money", everyone would try to find a anything, however minuscule thing it would be, what would allow them not to pay you money, all of it or at least a part of it. It's like people are paying from their own pockets for these projects.
deleted 4y ago
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wkearney99 4y ago
I got called into consult on a project like that. Among the first things I knew to ask was "how many here know the contract isn't going to get renewed and are just riding it out?" Just about all of them. Then the sub stiffed me on the consulting work after the manager bailed.

by jmpman 4y ago

justsomehnguy 4y ago

> working in a company with such an attitude was going to change me As a person who witnessed and interacted with many people from such companies - your gut was right. > I see a system where excellence isn’t rewarded, and instead, gaming the system, is the most profitable Well, it is like that in any structure with enough bureaucratic levels. > I’ve thought quite a bit about this problem, and one thing which might improve it, is a bidding system, where historical project “on time, under budget” is a weighted factor in contact awards. Maybe that’s how it works today? Nope. That's would make papers to be signed on the date, but the actual work would just continue - because the work wasn't completed on the date. Been there, saw that, didn't got even a lousy t-shirt. The main problem here is what "under budget" is a moot point in the first place - if the project demands N money, then doing it under less than N money means one of: 1. the budget was calculated incorrectly in the first place. Maybe there was some kickbacks included in it? 2. the budget was calculated correctly, but the implementor did cheap out on something to have a bigger revenue of the project. Maybe cheap ass chinesium parts instead of mandated approved parts, maybe outsourcing/outstaffing to people who takes less than a market value. So both the time and budget isn't ... valuable metrics for gauging actual performance, especially if something changes on the way - imagine bidding and winning some project what relied on a cheap Huawei gear before the current situation? You could think what relying on completing the projects objectives/targets would be a meaningful metric... see about signed papers up there. And the most wonderful thing of that is what even if you do everything on time, on budget, with A+ quality - nobody would say "Yeah, that's good, here is your money", everyone would try to find a anything, however minuscule thing it would be, what would allow them not to pay you money, all of it or at least a part of it. It's like people are paying from their own pockets for these projects.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

wkearney99 4y ago

I got called into consult on a project like that. Among the first things I knew to ask was "how many here know the contract isn't going to get renewed and are just riding it out?" Just about all of them. Then the sub stiffed me on the consulting work after the manager bailed.