I had an interview with DCMA-Milwaukee (Defense Contract Management Administration) this morning. It went quite well. They asked 8 questions and said I had 45 minutes (probably in the idea of fairness to all candidates - it is the fed. gov't) to answer all of 'em. I wrapped it up in about 35 and had a good discussion of other topics in the remaining 10 (like my 3.9 gpa in the Master's program). When done wth that, they said they would finish up interviews tomorrow (Friday, 9/4) and meet to discuss immediately following. if they have consensus, I could hear something as soon as tomorrow afternoon, with the caveat that, again, it is the Federal Government and sometimes getting the appropriate signatures and approvals takes forever. Either way, I'm very hopeful and confident that this one will work out.
For those of you interested in a job description, here are a couple of VERY general descriptions:
Serves as General Engineer with responsibility for providing professional advisory, consulting, and reviewing capability to procuring agencies, operational areas, and support personnel. Performs operations analysis of contractor methods and systems and furnishes technical advice and recommendations to support contract administration functions. Duties and responsibilities are outlined in the One Book. Performs Technical Support of Negotiations (TSN) on complex proposals: Reviews contractor proposals to assure that they are reasonable and fair to both the Government and the contractor. Evaluates the specific elements included in the proposal to ascertain necessity for their inclusion, the quantities proposed, and the reasonableness of their costs. Performs operation analysis on contractor facilities, systems and methods. Investigates and analyzes operations to determine causes of performance deficiencies related to schedule, quality, and cost.
...and...
Serves as an Engineering Representative on the Technical Operation. Performs a variety of engineering functions e.g. research, design, development, test and production surveillance, monitoring of contractor engineering management systems. Analyzes design drawings, specifications and test results. Provides inputs on engineering percent complete recommendation to contract administrator for progress payments. Participates in and provides technical expertise on engineering aspects during contract negotiations. Verifies effectiveness of the contractor in configuration control; engineering change system, test management, corrosion support, data management and value engineering, and development planning, scheduling and allocation of engineering resources. Coordinates engineering deficiencies with appropriate contract Administration Office and Procuring activity.
My impression is that the job is a cradle-to-grave engineering resource for contractors throughout Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan as well as for Federal contract administrators, with the goal of ensuring our troops get the best quality goods for the appropriate price. It sounds like there's a lot of variety both in assignments and in the people I'll meet - both key things in keeping my interest in any job. When I do the same thing over and over again, I get bored in a hurry!
Enough of the job stuff, on with the Fantasy Draft Weekend...
As I mentioned, I got off the plane and went immediately to the golf course. Started off with a par and eagled the 2nd with a hole-out from about 105 yards. It wasn't meant to be, though. My score eventually matched the weather - 95 deg and what seemed like 95% humidity - yeah, you guessed it, I shot a 95. I played pretty well for the most part, but had a pair of 10's and a two or four 8's and 9's which kept my score in the stratosphere. The third hole, for example... right off the high of holing out for eagle, was a dogleg left (a shot I CANNOT hit, at least on purpose). I hit a tree on each of my first 4 shots. Bad stuff. Basically, if I got off the tee, I parred the hole. If I was in among the trees, it went down on the scorecard as an "other."
By the time we got back, other people started to filter in from as far away as California and Alabama. Seeing that we're all a bunch of immature 30 year olds, we immediately started playing drinking games. Asshole was the drinking game of choice for the weekend. I think we were playing until 2am. Details are understandably fuzzy at that point in the night.
It was a brilliant decision to get blitzed until 2am, let me tell you. Why, you ask? We had a 10am tee time the following morning. Ugh. 10 doesn't sound so bad, but if you're not a golfer, you wouldn't know that most people (ok, at least I do) like to get there an hour early to warm up and hit the driving range ahead of time. Add to that a 20-30 minute drive and trying to organize 16 equally hungover people to get there... Not pretty. Some of us who weren't tagged with driving, however, started the day early. [Name redacted], on a $20 bet, put down 5 beers and a Red-Bull & Vodka all before we arrived at the course at 9:15am. Quite the feat, though he may have still been drunk when we woke up.
I did warn you that this was a binge-drinking weekend, right?
The golf was fairly uneventful but quite fun! My squad was -3 thru 9 holes. So was everyone else, but I definitely didn't expect our team to be in that position. Anyway, it rained for about half of the front 9. That's as far as we got, though. As we hit our tee shots on 9, a huge storm showed up. We finished out with a par on 9 and took shelter at the snack shack. After at least 20 minutes of driving, horizontal rain and and equal helping of lightning, we decided to call the round (thank goodness for the Weather Channel app on our iPhones!) and race back to the clubhouse. By the time we got back, it looked like I jumped into a lake. Nobody had a dry piece of clothing on their body. With the round cut short, we headed back to base camp and guess what... we played more asshole! We fired up the iPod during this round of cards and it really is quite a sight to see six 30 year old white dudes all sing along to every word of Snoop Dogg's DoggyStyle album. One last thing about that storm: we played at Andrews Air Force Base, a few miles SE of DC proper, and the storm seemed to be a very thin line heading from SW to NE. It missed both Waldorf and Springfield - not only was the sun shining just a few miles from the course, but the roads were completely dry! Unreal.
6pm finally rolled around and we (all being mentally lubricated if you take my meaning) got to the reason for the weekend. The 6th annual IHDIV draft. This was by far the quickest draft ever. 180 picks in only 2.5 hours. I suppose, though, that part of the reason is that we didn't have the distraction of my pool and other yard games when we lived in Waldorf. Either way, it was nice! Of course, my team is awesome (just ask me): QB - Drew Brees, Eli Manning, Sage Rosenfels (Iowa State homer pick); RB - DeAngelo Williams, Marion Barber, Ray Rice & Shonn Green; WR - Antonio Bryant, Dwayne Bowe, Donald Driver, Chris Chambers & Domanick Hixon; Def - Baltimore & Green Bay; K - Mason Crosby. Our league doesn't require Tight Ends, so I avoided them like the plauge.
Guess what followed the draft. Yup. More asshole... 'til 3am this time. Brilliant choice for [name redacted], as he had a football tournament that started in less than 5 hours. Oh, well. Even when he's drunk or hungover, he's faster than 90% of the people on the field.
Saturday's hangover was treated in a more typical fashion. Video games and Taco Bell. Let me tell you, Mario Kart on a 60" tv is pretty awesome! After the video games, I caught a few of Josh's football games in DC before heading back to get ready for a party hosted by the DC Michigan Alumni Flag Football team. Josh had a huge hand in organizing both the tournament and the party, both of which went off without a hitch. Nice work, little brother.
I think I've officially run out of gas for this post. I'm pretty sure I covered all the details (and probably a few extra) that should be shared. I will say that I'm glad the draft only comes around once a year. I think I was still in recovery mode up until yesterday sometime.
I'll agree that Matt wasn't quite "Matt" until yesterday. But he was a trooper, even enduring an entire day at home alone with Steve while I went to the first day of school.
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