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[quote=Anonymous]This is the life of the government contractor.  I have been with my agency for 26 years with 7 different contractor companies and 7 different jobs, not overlapping.  I've had two occasions where I stayed with a company and switched jobs and two occasions where I stayed with the job when the contractor turned over and moved to the new company.

Most recently, I left jobs at ages 48 and 51.  Both times, I interviewed at only companies that contracted with my current agency.  Both times, I was rehired within 2 weeks of my termination (both times, I had started interviewing before I left my former position).  Due to my seniority and my experience in areas that are very valuable and in high demand at my agency, in both cases, I had two competing offers from two different companies/contracts that I could choose from.  However, none of the four opportunities that I found were through my personal networking.  In all cases, I had to surf the Internet looking for jobs at my agency that were in my field and I applied on-line.  In all four cases, my resume was picked from the on-line applications and I was contacted directly by the HR companies for a further interview.  The key is writing a good cover letter and resume.  In all cases, my resume was flagged because it fit all of the buzz-words, my cover letter specifically addressed the various skills they were looking for and I had significant relevant experience in my agency to what they were looking for.  And I did tweak my resume and cover letter each time I submitted, to make sure that it was specific to the job I was applying for.

In government contracting, especially in the Washington DC area, relevant experience in a specific agency with skills that are hard to duplicate even with similar professionals from other agencies or private sector, is worth so much extra, that companies that are trying to hire a person to fill a position on an active contract will ignore age if you have the right skills so that they can put you onto a contract that has a limited schedule.  It's far easier to get someone with agency experience to be productive with a much shorter ramp-up time than to get someone who is cheaper with no agency experience who has to spend an extra few weeks learning how your agency does business.  I have actually started a job and been more productive in a shorter amount of time than people coming from outside the agency who have been there months longer than me.  I know how to get things done at my agency.  Both of the recent jobs I was productive and useful the first week I was on the job because of my experience.  In both cases, the contracts needed someone who could jump in running and I provided that.

If you have the right skills to sell, age is not a problem or factor.[/quote]

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