A New Career and a Hiccup

Continuing on from part one of this story from yesterday, I made the eight or so hour drive back to Ohio from our nation's capital wondering what if anything would come from the prior two days of interviews.

When I got into the office on Wednesday morning, there were was a message for me from Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). I called them back and they said they wanted to hire me into their internship/training program. Shortly after, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) called me with the same offer.

It was at this point I learned of the importance of being creative and finding solutions in spite of seemingly impossible odds, a skill which served me well in my procurement, and information technology consulting, career.

You see, NAVSEA had a problem. They wanted to hire me, but could not find a way to do it within the existing regulations. Immediately I thought this would be a problem with NAVAIR as well, so I called and asked them. “Yes,” they said, “there may be a problem. But we have a solution.”



Their solution was to hire me as a GS-1101 General Business and Industrial Specialist. Although the series was different, the position description was the same. In doing this, they could bring me on board and concert me to the 1102 series after a year. I called NAVSEA to see if they could do the same thing, and they could not.

On 5 October 1987, I joined the TOMAHAWK Cruise Missiles Project at NAVAIR as an entry level contract specialist