In the first in this series, we identified the types of professionals that contractors should hire to be successful in the government market. In this post, we are going to look at two of them, contract managers and proposal managers, and discuss what to look for when screening resumes and interviewing candidates.

It is important at the outset to situate both professions in the acquisition time zones. (If you don’t know what they are, refer to Contracting Officer Podcast Episode 3.) If you think of the entire cycle, from market research to contract closeout, as five years long, contract managers are active throughout the entire cycle. They update your registration in SAM, help you qualify opportunities, transmit responses to requests for information, submit invoices, request contract modifications, and on and on. The list is very long! Proposal managers on the other hand, are truly active during only three to five weeks of that cycle. That is less than 2% of the total elapsed time.  (On average. Some proposal managers get engaged much earlier in the process, but we’ll cover that in a different post.) However, during that three to five-week window, they are deeply involved, often in only one proposal at a time, and often more than ten hours a day. And that window is absolutely critical; if you don’t manage it successfully, everything else you do in the rest of the cycle doesn’t matter.

What should you look for on a candidate’s resume when hiring a contracts manager? Some contract managers have formal training; some learn on the job. There are now AA, undergraduate, and graduate programs in government contract management, and many ways to get a contracts education online. Formal training is a plus, not only because the body of knowledge is so vast, but also because it demonstrates a commitment to the profession. Some contracts specialists have government experience, but many good ones do not. Should you only hire a contracts manager who worked in your customer’s agency? Not necessarily. First, a former CO’s knowledge of the particulars of one acquisition office will get stale quickly. People retire, and things change. Offices and departments get reorganized. Second, each office has a different way of doing things, even within centers and agencies. Suppose you want to expand? It is not practical to try to find a former CO for every potential customer you might want to target. Someone who has a range of experience in different government contract environments is more likely to know how to arrive at the best decision, without necessarily knowing all the answers (because no one does).

Above and beyond education and experience, some attributes to look for include writing ability, negotiation skills, an ability to interpret government acquisition language, attention to detail and follow through, and mastery of whatever software applications are critical to management of contracts in your organization.

For proposal managers, the same attributes are relevant. There are many fewer classes, and no university degrees in proposal management. The Association of Proposal Management Professionals has a three-tiered certification process, and there is training associated with those levels. Again, this demonstrates a commitment to the profession. It’s perfectly possible, however, that a candidate has completed multiple proposal training courses and is still incapable of knowing what to do when there is a curve ball three days before a proposal deadline. I have been on job interviews where I have been given a “test” of sorts-the hiring company gave me an RFP and asked me to create a proposal outline and proposal schedule, and then present it. Because I have been doing this for a long, long time, and I genuinely enjoy the work, it was fun. If a candidate freezes up at the idea of a live exercise like that, it probably means either that the person doesn’t have the experience, or that they lack the confidence that is absolutely essential for the job. Proposal managers are, above all, leaders. In any event, human resource departments in large companies have started to frown on these simulations because, although technically not illegal, they resemble standardized tests that could be biased against certain groups. Regardless, it is critical to find out during the interview process how the person responds to the unexpected. Having the right answer (again, there probably isn’t one) is less important than seeing how the person responds and the thought process behind a resolution.

Next in the series: we will look at capture and business development managers. What do those titles mean, and how can you screen these people?