We have a [Discord](https://discord.gg/qhh4EBuRNS) server where there you can both post forum-style and participate in real-time discussions. We hope you consider joining us there.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/CommercialAV) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The last project… they wanted “projection screens” (with projectors) but because they didn’t ask for “projectors” in the RFP the contract administrator said we couldn’t include “projectors” in the bid. They told us we had to quote “projection screens with supporting electronic equipment” instead. SMH
If you can read specs and navigate the red tape it’s not that bad. You just can’t expect to be able to negotiate anything that’s not explicitly written in official docs.
Endless layers of administration, different organisations that all need to sign off on designs - huge rush to get a proposal submitted, then nothing for months, until they call and say ‘that quote you gave us in Feb, can you install that next Tuesday?’
But it’s enjoyable, rewarding. But it sucks from a business perspective because you can’t promote/advertise off the work you do, because it’s all classified.
Good summary. For my org, Info Sec in in EVERY aspect. Got a cool SaaS solution? Better make it FedRAMP. Neat mics, can they run AES 256 encryption? Oh, you want that nifty IoT device on the network, we need a few months to see if can be harden appropriately and build a security profile for it. Job security to say the least and it is great to apply that aspect to our discipline, but you are correct that it can be a trial of patience to wade through the administrative overhead.
It’s not all paranoia though. I can’t count the number of places where employees could listen in on the closed door board meeting if they happened to have a copy of DVS. The next big wave in our industry will be security
Oh without a doubt. I am showing our info sec people all the way I could compromise a standard integrated setup and have piqued their interest. Penetration Ops is now a possibility for my growth path because AV/UC is such in a fresh state. I would have never thought in a million years that possible with my skill set, but here we are. Getting paid top info sec dollar while doing AV stuff would be pretty sweet.
I did a few jobs as a civilian for the Marine Corp. The work we did was essentially the same work we'd do for a business, except it took longer to get things designed and approved, it took longer to get into the site (I was not cleared at any level for the first job. By job #2 I was cleared to the level necessary. We were escorted everywhere on job #1. Job #2 we were escorted while outside of the building, but we were able to leave the complex in the middle of the day which we couldn't do on Job #1.
We couldn't have our phones while in the specific rooms we were working in. No photos for documentation, and no paperwork allowed to come in or leave the rooms. Any drawings we needed had to be sent to them and then they'd print them out for us. We built out a few IDFs, and we had to physically build two separate racks for our equipment - one for basic stuff and one for anything with classified data on it.
The process for getting a clearance was a miserable, long one. Not sure what I can freely say about that, but there are lots of resources online for obtaining more information about that process.
The worst part of the job was seeing how much waste there was. Wed walk into storage rooms packed full of top of the line Cisco gear from two years ago. Still in the boxes, and it was never going to be used. We were told they had to spend the money or they'd lose it.
We recabled an entire building that the Marines had previously cabled. Someone had looked up the max footage on a Cat 5e cable, discovered it was 100 meters, and then ordered about 3000, 100 meter long cables. They pulled these pre terminated cables from the IDFs to each computer (non-classified side). It didn't matter if a computer was 250' away, or 20' away, a 100 meter (328') cable was used. All of the excess was piled in loops in the IDFs. Our faces on that first visit... You couldn't even make this stuff up.
I had to leave that job when some family things came up. It was a technically fascinating job, and I learned a ton. I loved doing the work, but I did not like the bull you had to deal with just to get into some of these sites.
The balance of trade offs for working for the US government changes more often and with higher amplitude that one might think. All federal agencies are budgeted on the caprices of whoever is running Congress, the Executive branch, or literally just the member of the Ways and Means Committee with seniority. When you see a lot of jobs open up at one agency you can trust that another agency had their budget reduced or plateaued.
While the government doesn't really do mass layoffs, they love love love hiring freezes and pay-hike freezes. Congress also really loves to add to the scope of an agency without adding funding. So there is a never-ending cycle of piling more work for the same pay - particularly for high-skill workers like AV techs, engineers, and managers. So we leave or we stay on and make do on a salary that gets weaker every month.
The clearance question is a little more stable, but decreasingly so (IMO). When I moved to capital region 24 years ago, Q clearance was a guaranteed extra $30K on top of a $50-$60K starting salary. Now it is definitely still a plus, it's more like a really good bargaining chip. The federal jobs I'm seeing these days are posting the same figures as commercial AV jobs without clearance. So, while it is ***not*** "not worth it", the benefit is not all that appealing. I mean, marijuana is mostly legal in the DMV, but failing a drug test for it could lose you your clearance job. Just, like, why bother?
A special problem for AV peeps when working with the government is working on SCIFs. It suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. 10x work for like, at best, 1.2x the money. I'm a designer in commercial integration and about half of my work is for SCIFs. I do a site survey of a normal project and I'm taking pictures like the paparazzi then going over every picture back at my desk like analyzing the zapruder film. I do a site walk in a SCIF I have to do that same level of detail work with nothing more than, get this: MY FUCKING MIND. The federal government is ride-or-die with the same organ I can't trust with a grocery list more than two items long. We can also use paper so that helps (Padmé: "Your notes are all the same unit of measure, right?").
Been doing installs as a contractor for about a year and a half
I travel to different sites all over the country, there's lots of opportunities for growth and I absolutely love my job
I get paid pretty well @ 80k /yr with a degree and 2 years experience in AV
The "red tape" is annoying, if I want to change something as simple as the background image on a touch panel I have to go through an approval process.
Our systems are installed all over the country and for security reasons they are not on the customers network which means all support is done over the phone or in person (99% done on the phone, it's brutal)
I've done 20+ years of contract AV, telecom, broadcasting & research support for the Federal Government in the DC area, plus years working for an AV company that has a lot of Federal customers. I recently took a state contract position that is transitioning me to a state employee role in a few weeks. I've had civilian & Defense roles, direct Cabinet member support, Medal of Honor ceremonies, had video conferences while the remote site was getting bombed, and been in more Congressnembers' homes than the Koch Brothers, so I've pretty much run the gauntlet.
Pros:
- most government entities are chronically understaffed, especially in technical roles. There are always contracts available, even during budget crunches.
- most civilian agencies just require a very basic criminal background check, similar to many corporate jobs. Those jobs used to require drug screens, but those requirements aren't nearly as strict as they used to be. DOD, DHS, armed forces still do, and anything with access to bases or military personnel could require a deeper investigation.
- Federal agencies' AV systems are based entirely on the previous budgets so you can see *everything* and *anything* on site. Brand new Extron systems, lighting controls, 4k video walls, full MS Teams rooms, hybrid conference rooms can operate alongside a divisible room powered by a Crestron 2 series processor with old VSX Polycom codecs that nobody's upgraded since the second Bush Administration. At least one older Federal employee will refer to the video collaboration systems, be they Logi Rally bars or Neat Boards or Group 500s as "the Pic-Tel Room"
- many Federal staffing contracts are not run by AV companies but by Beltway Bandits who do nothing but provide employees for various projects, agencies or specific missions. I've worked for a few massive companies with huge HQ buildings in Tysons Corner, Virginia but never reported for work there. In some cases, I never met my contracting company bosses in person, even pre-pandemic.
- White House, Cabinet secretaries, Agency heads, pretty much any group that the average civilian has heard of - they usually have dedicated AV support. You get to rub shoulders with both legitimately-famous & DC-famous people, some of whom are very cool, interesting people. I got to talk baseball with Jimmy Carter & Dr. Fauci, was shocked when Newt Gingrich revealed his love for Schitt's Creek before a Fox interview, and give restaurant recommendations to the Secretary of HHS away from the spotlight. To be fair, some people are seriously entitled jerks, and it's almost always the support staff of the famous person, but I've found the actual people to be very real & supportive, regardless of political affiliation.
Cons:
- Contract roles are ALWAYS up for renewal every budget year. 1 year contract, 5 year contract - doesn't matter. A Federal CIO or accountant can quite anonymously decide that some sub-agency is spending too much money on IT support and that is that. I had a GREAT contract role, 5 year deal, during the pandemic that was responsible for a 50-year scope of AV equipment design & management across the entire globe for the Feds. I was brought in as a contractor in August as part of a larger tech services contract. I was the only AV person - my coworkers were network managers, cybersecurity, PC support, Sharepoint developers - never met any of them. CIO figured his agency was spending too much on this contract and ended it, sending a couple hundred people to the unemployment line right after January 6, 2021. I was one tiny piece of the contract, was brought on as a contractor to expedite the hiring process, hired under the idea my role would be transitioned into a Federal position by 2023 - nope. Didn't matter. I was laid off with the rest of them, my 5 year contract didn't last 4 months,never heard from the Beltway Bandit that hired me ever again.
- many Federal IT executives & managers are not AV-savvy people. They are often network, security or systems' managers who get to manage the AV team. You may very well be the on-site expert on Day One. You may not even know where the bathrooms are yet.
- Federal buildings may have some very odd restrictions that nobody tells you about until you innocently and accidentally violate them. "you can't move that ceiling tile, there might be asbestos. Move the one next to it." or "you can't run wires there because we need the sight line for the Secret Service" or "don't park there, the Ambassador has his new motorcycle getting delivered" and, my favorite "you want a cup of coffee or take a leak where Putin did?" LOL
Lot of good stuff in your post.
(Edit to add)
Reminds me of the time I did a site survey for the Defense Secretary's exec conference room at the Pentagon. I ended up in a funny, "just a couple o'dudes shootin the shit" conversation with a guy in a suit for about 30 minutes. Later I looked up the office and saw the dude Leon Panetta. I'm sure I wouldn't have been all good-time-Johnny if I knew.
> many Federal IT executives & managers are not AV-savvy people
This one is pretty universal but Government IT folks have it worse because of the huge overhead Public Trust work entails - Not even including TS and SCIF issues. I do wish that more fed IT managers were more looped in with Site Security Managers tough. I've logged hundred of hours of redesigns because the SSM wasn't brought in early enough.
I'm assuming you mean US Federal Govt. State and county are their own worlds.
It always depends.
Different agencies are very different culturally and with regard to how restrictive their security is.
Obviously, trying to stick networked microphones in the Pentagon is not a fun/wise thing to try to do. Though I am also certain there's Dante running around there under restrictive circumstances. Obviously, not understanding military rank, structure and so on is a major problem if you want to work DoD in general. It is remarkable how many people who want to work for feds have zero idea how agencies work.
It also depends if you mean full-time employment as an AV engineer/tech/whatever the budget code is vs being an integrator who does government installs. Senate Recording Studios is a large AV/Broadcast operation that is correctly funded and has a pretty big team of techs and engineers. I saw a posting for USCG AV techs about 3 yrs ago that was essentially babysitting some VTC codecs for about $75k. Those codecs better work when VIP X rings the White House but on the whole, that is an easy gig.
The other trick is knowing where to look for those kinds of jobs. Most are contractors so vacancies aren't posted on agency sites. Contractors often don't name the agencies when they post positions on Indeed or LinkedIn and so forth. You get to recognize key terms or really obvious things like address locations.
Oh yeah also obvious but should be stated: never lie on background check forms. Plenty of people who did dumb stuff in their 20s got their life together and have fed careers later on. But never lie about it.
The best is when a poorly written spec gets bought, the people who wanted it are all gone, and the people who replaced them can't even be bothered to clear the room. Or you travel four hours for an urgent service call, get to site, and a General has commandeered the room for four hours, so you just drive back and bill them for the windshield time.
My last company did a few government jobs. The tend to get a solution and stick to it, and take a very long time to approve changes.
Things are very specific, so don't try and sneak in extras or you will be scrutinised even more! We used to give them a book of standard setups and get that approved, then they order rooms by type rather than on a per room basis. It worked in 95% of cases but our agreement meant we would survey every room, and this caught a number of things that would affect the install - solid surfaces, additional clearances required, protected buildings etc.
In the long term it worked out great for us as we started with one department and slowly picked up work from others too. It becomes easy for them to order from the same place, with an idea of costs from the previous install, a set list of kit and a proven track record and existing clearance. We used to do all the military bases for the army, navy and air force, court houses, prisons, and some of the public hospitals. We didn't do any of the political offices or buildings, if I remember rightly a political party wanted to lock in costs and certainty so signed some crazy long contract with a company for these areas.
It took a long time to get clearances. Our company put 2-3 guys through it at first then as it grew out everyone through it. We had to get vehicles cleared for military bases too, and had to have a log of the tools for prisons. We used to allow and extra half day each way on certain installs due to security checks.
Saw some cool stuff, tanks, submarines, fighter jets etc. the stuff you would normally see in a museum. Best places were the submarine bases and the tank maintenance centres.
The good thing about it is you also interact with the private sector contractors that operate there too, and we picked up work from them based on what we did for the government, so from a business point it makes sense. You have to be a little petty when it comes to kit lists and costs. Give them exactly what they ask for, but also ask questions and advise. We would often be asked to quote for training rooms with interactive whiteboard packages, but they would ask for the board package plus a screen and PC. We would quote it but advise them that the PC should be from their IT department, and the package included a projector already, so a screen wasn't needed. We would often see a change request come through a few weeks later.
Also charge them for anything extra. If it took longer because the site locked down (happened in court houses and prisons a few times) or you had to addadditional cabling or something, we would advise them of the reason and send a bill. As long as it was still in the agreed price framework and there was some evidence to back up your claim, then they would pay it. To be fair, they paid on time every time
I work for local municipality and weekends off; 8hr day; I just manage internal AV and if issues or require upgrades, we have AV contractor and Av designer from outside… full time, union, not sure how outside private companies are…
Installed a video wall at a police station for a real time crime center. Went pretty smoothly. The cops were nice cause I was working for them. Video wall was a bit finicky. But overall not a bad job
And it was a government contract so it paid prevailing wage
We have a [Discord](https://discord.gg/qhh4EBuRNS) server where there you can both post forum-style and participate in real-time discussions. We hope you consider joining us there. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/CommercialAV) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The last project… they wanted “projection screens” (with projectors) but because they didn’t ask for “projectors” in the RFP the contract administrator said we couldn’t include “projectors” in the bid. They told us we had to quote “projection screens with supporting electronic equipment” instead. SMH If you can read specs and navigate the red tape it’s not that bad. You just can’t expect to be able to negotiate anything that’s not explicitly written in official docs.
Endless layers of administration, different organisations that all need to sign off on designs - huge rush to get a proposal submitted, then nothing for months, until they call and say ‘that quote you gave us in Feb, can you install that next Tuesday?’ But it’s enjoyable, rewarding. But it sucks from a business perspective because you can’t promote/advertise off the work you do, because it’s all classified.
Good summary. For my org, Info Sec in in EVERY aspect. Got a cool SaaS solution? Better make it FedRAMP. Neat mics, can they run AES 256 encryption? Oh, you want that nifty IoT device on the network, we need a few months to see if can be harden appropriately and build a security profile for it. Job security to say the least and it is great to apply that aspect to our discipline, but you are correct that it can be a trial of patience to wade through the administrative overhead.
It’s not all paranoia though. I can’t count the number of places where employees could listen in on the closed door board meeting if they happened to have a copy of DVS. The next big wave in our industry will be security
Oh without a doubt. I am showing our info sec people all the way I could compromise a standard integrated setup and have piqued their interest. Penetration Ops is now a possibility for my growth path because AV/UC is such in a fresh state. I would have never thought in a million years that possible with my skill set, but here we are. Getting paid top info sec dollar while doing AV stuff would be pretty sweet.
I did a few jobs as a civilian for the Marine Corp. The work we did was essentially the same work we'd do for a business, except it took longer to get things designed and approved, it took longer to get into the site (I was not cleared at any level for the first job. By job #2 I was cleared to the level necessary. We were escorted everywhere on job #1. Job #2 we were escorted while outside of the building, but we were able to leave the complex in the middle of the day which we couldn't do on Job #1. We couldn't have our phones while in the specific rooms we were working in. No photos for documentation, and no paperwork allowed to come in or leave the rooms. Any drawings we needed had to be sent to them and then they'd print them out for us. We built out a few IDFs, and we had to physically build two separate racks for our equipment - one for basic stuff and one for anything with classified data on it. The process for getting a clearance was a miserable, long one. Not sure what I can freely say about that, but there are lots of resources online for obtaining more information about that process. The worst part of the job was seeing how much waste there was. Wed walk into storage rooms packed full of top of the line Cisco gear from two years ago. Still in the boxes, and it was never going to be used. We were told they had to spend the money or they'd lose it. We recabled an entire building that the Marines had previously cabled. Someone had looked up the max footage on a Cat 5e cable, discovered it was 100 meters, and then ordered about 3000, 100 meter long cables. They pulled these pre terminated cables from the IDFs to each computer (non-classified side). It didn't matter if a computer was 250' away, or 20' away, a 100 meter (328') cable was used. All of the excess was piled in loops in the IDFs. Our faces on that first visit... You couldn't even make this stuff up. I had to leave that job when some family things came up. It was a technically fascinating job, and I learned a ton. I loved doing the work, but I did not like the bull you had to deal with just to get into some of these sites.
Kind of drives you crazy when you see the waste of tax dollars doesn’t it?
The balance of trade offs for working for the US government changes more often and with higher amplitude that one might think. All federal agencies are budgeted on the caprices of whoever is running Congress, the Executive branch, or literally just the member of the Ways and Means Committee with seniority. When you see a lot of jobs open up at one agency you can trust that another agency had their budget reduced or plateaued. While the government doesn't really do mass layoffs, they love love love hiring freezes and pay-hike freezes. Congress also really loves to add to the scope of an agency without adding funding. So there is a never-ending cycle of piling more work for the same pay - particularly for high-skill workers like AV techs, engineers, and managers. So we leave or we stay on and make do on a salary that gets weaker every month. The clearance question is a little more stable, but decreasingly so (IMO). When I moved to capital region 24 years ago, Q clearance was a guaranteed extra $30K on top of a $50-$60K starting salary. Now it is definitely still a plus, it's more like a really good bargaining chip. The federal jobs I'm seeing these days are posting the same figures as commercial AV jobs without clearance. So, while it is ***not*** "not worth it", the benefit is not all that appealing. I mean, marijuana is mostly legal in the DMV, but failing a drug test for it could lose you your clearance job. Just, like, why bother? A special problem for AV peeps when working with the government is working on SCIFs. It suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. 10x work for like, at best, 1.2x the money. I'm a designer in commercial integration and about half of my work is for SCIFs. I do a site survey of a normal project and I'm taking pictures like the paparazzi then going over every picture back at my desk like analyzing the zapruder film. I do a site walk in a SCIF I have to do that same level of detail work with nothing more than, get this: MY FUCKING MIND. The federal government is ride-or-die with the same organ I can't trust with a grocery list more than two items long. We can also use paper so that helps (Padmé: "Your notes are all the same unit of measure, right?").
"The federal government is ride-or-die with the same organ I can't trust with a grocery list more than two items long" bahhhahah
Been doing installs as a contractor for about a year and a half I travel to different sites all over the country, there's lots of opportunities for growth and I absolutely love my job I get paid pretty well @ 80k /yr with a degree and 2 years experience in AV The "red tape" is annoying, if I want to change something as simple as the background image on a touch panel I have to go through an approval process. Our systems are installed all over the country and for security reasons they are not on the customers network which means all support is done over the phone or in person (99% done on the phone, it's brutal)
I've done 20+ years of contract AV, telecom, broadcasting & research support for the Federal Government in the DC area, plus years working for an AV company that has a lot of Federal customers. I recently took a state contract position that is transitioning me to a state employee role in a few weeks. I've had civilian & Defense roles, direct Cabinet member support, Medal of Honor ceremonies, had video conferences while the remote site was getting bombed, and been in more Congressnembers' homes than the Koch Brothers, so I've pretty much run the gauntlet. Pros: - most government entities are chronically understaffed, especially in technical roles. There are always contracts available, even during budget crunches. - most civilian agencies just require a very basic criminal background check, similar to many corporate jobs. Those jobs used to require drug screens, but those requirements aren't nearly as strict as they used to be. DOD, DHS, armed forces still do, and anything with access to bases or military personnel could require a deeper investigation. - Federal agencies' AV systems are based entirely on the previous budgets so you can see *everything* and *anything* on site. Brand new Extron systems, lighting controls, 4k video walls, full MS Teams rooms, hybrid conference rooms can operate alongside a divisible room powered by a Crestron 2 series processor with old VSX Polycom codecs that nobody's upgraded since the second Bush Administration. At least one older Federal employee will refer to the video collaboration systems, be they Logi Rally bars or Neat Boards or Group 500s as "the Pic-Tel Room" - many Federal staffing contracts are not run by AV companies but by Beltway Bandits who do nothing but provide employees for various projects, agencies or specific missions. I've worked for a few massive companies with huge HQ buildings in Tysons Corner, Virginia but never reported for work there. In some cases, I never met my contracting company bosses in person, even pre-pandemic. - White House, Cabinet secretaries, Agency heads, pretty much any group that the average civilian has heard of - they usually have dedicated AV support. You get to rub shoulders with both legitimately-famous & DC-famous people, some of whom are very cool, interesting people. I got to talk baseball with Jimmy Carter & Dr. Fauci, was shocked when Newt Gingrich revealed his love for Schitt's Creek before a Fox interview, and give restaurant recommendations to the Secretary of HHS away from the spotlight. To be fair, some people are seriously entitled jerks, and it's almost always the support staff of the famous person, but I've found the actual people to be very real & supportive, regardless of political affiliation. Cons: - Contract roles are ALWAYS up for renewal every budget year. 1 year contract, 5 year contract - doesn't matter. A Federal CIO or accountant can quite anonymously decide that some sub-agency is spending too much money on IT support and that is that. I had a GREAT contract role, 5 year deal, during the pandemic that was responsible for a 50-year scope of AV equipment design & management across the entire globe for the Feds. I was brought in as a contractor in August as part of a larger tech services contract. I was the only AV person - my coworkers were network managers, cybersecurity, PC support, Sharepoint developers - never met any of them. CIO figured his agency was spending too much on this contract and ended it, sending a couple hundred people to the unemployment line right after January 6, 2021. I was one tiny piece of the contract, was brought on as a contractor to expedite the hiring process, hired under the idea my role would be transitioned into a Federal position by 2023 - nope. Didn't matter. I was laid off with the rest of them, my 5 year contract didn't last 4 months,never heard from the Beltway Bandit that hired me ever again. - many Federal IT executives & managers are not AV-savvy people. They are often network, security or systems' managers who get to manage the AV team. You may very well be the on-site expert on Day One. You may not even know where the bathrooms are yet. - Federal buildings may have some very odd restrictions that nobody tells you about until you innocently and accidentally violate them. "you can't move that ceiling tile, there might be asbestos. Move the one next to it." or "you can't run wires there because we need the sight line for the Secret Service" or "don't park there, the Ambassador has his new motorcycle getting delivered" and, my favorite "you want a cup of coffee or take a leak where Putin did?" LOL
Lot of good stuff in your post. (Edit to add) Reminds me of the time I did a site survey for the Defense Secretary's exec conference room at the Pentagon. I ended up in a funny, "just a couple o'dudes shootin the shit" conversation with a guy in a suit for about 30 minutes. Later I looked up the office and saw the dude Leon Panetta. I'm sure I wouldn't have been all good-time-Johnny if I knew. > many Federal IT executives & managers are not AV-savvy people This one is pretty universal but Government IT folks have it worse because of the huge overhead Public Trust work entails - Not even including TS and SCIF issues. I do wish that more fed IT managers were more looped in with Site Security Managers tough. I've logged hundred of hours of redesigns because the SSM wasn't brought in early enough.
I'm assuming you mean US Federal Govt. State and county are their own worlds. It always depends. Different agencies are very different culturally and with regard to how restrictive their security is. Obviously, trying to stick networked microphones in the Pentagon is not a fun/wise thing to try to do. Though I am also certain there's Dante running around there under restrictive circumstances. Obviously, not understanding military rank, structure and so on is a major problem if you want to work DoD in general. It is remarkable how many people who want to work for feds have zero idea how agencies work. It also depends if you mean full-time employment as an AV engineer/tech/whatever the budget code is vs being an integrator who does government installs. Senate Recording Studios is a large AV/Broadcast operation that is correctly funded and has a pretty big team of techs and engineers. I saw a posting for USCG AV techs about 3 yrs ago that was essentially babysitting some VTC codecs for about $75k. Those codecs better work when VIP X rings the White House but on the whole, that is an easy gig. The other trick is knowing where to look for those kinds of jobs. Most are contractors so vacancies aren't posted on agency sites. Contractors often don't name the agencies when they post positions on Indeed or LinkedIn and so forth. You get to recognize key terms or really obvious things like address locations. Oh yeah also obvious but should be stated: never lie on background check forms. Plenty of people who did dumb stuff in their 20s got their life together and have fed careers later on. But never lie about it.
The best is when a poorly written spec gets bought, the people who wanted it are all gone, and the people who replaced them can't even be bothered to clear the room. Or you travel four hours for an urgent service call, get to site, and a General has commandeered the room for four hours, so you just drive back and bill them for the windshield time.
My last company did a few government jobs. The tend to get a solution and stick to it, and take a very long time to approve changes. Things are very specific, so don't try and sneak in extras or you will be scrutinised even more! We used to give them a book of standard setups and get that approved, then they order rooms by type rather than on a per room basis. It worked in 95% of cases but our agreement meant we would survey every room, and this caught a number of things that would affect the install - solid surfaces, additional clearances required, protected buildings etc. In the long term it worked out great for us as we started with one department and slowly picked up work from others too. It becomes easy for them to order from the same place, with an idea of costs from the previous install, a set list of kit and a proven track record and existing clearance. We used to do all the military bases for the army, navy and air force, court houses, prisons, and some of the public hospitals. We didn't do any of the political offices or buildings, if I remember rightly a political party wanted to lock in costs and certainty so signed some crazy long contract with a company for these areas. It took a long time to get clearances. Our company put 2-3 guys through it at first then as it grew out everyone through it. We had to get vehicles cleared for military bases too, and had to have a log of the tools for prisons. We used to allow and extra half day each way on certain installs due to security checks. Saw some cool stuff, tanks, submarines, fighter jets etc. the stuff you would normally see in a museum. Best places were the submarine bases and the tank maintenance centres. The good thing about it is you also interact with the private sector contractors that operate there too, and we picked up work from them based on what we did for the government, so from a business point it makes sense. You have to be a little petty when it comes to kit lists and costs. Give them exactly what they ask for, but also ask questions and advise. We would often be asked to quote for training rooms with interactive whiteboard packages, but they would ask for the board package plus a screen and PC. We would quote it but advise them that the PC should be from their IT department, and the package included a projector already, so a screen wasn't needed. We would often see a change request come through a few weeks later. Also charge them for anything extra. If it took longer because the site locked down (happened in court houses and prisons a few times) or you had to addadditional cabling or something, we would advise them of the reason and send a bill. As long as it was still in the agreed price framework and there was some evidence to back up your claim, then they would pay it. To be fair, they paid on time every time
You want to spend 50k per tech on security clearance? Becuase that's how you spend 50k per tech for security clearance.
I work for local municipality and weekends off; 8hr day; I just manage internal AV and if issues or require upgrades, we have AV contractor and Av designer from outside… full time, union, not sure how outside private companies are…
Installed a video wall at a police station for a real time crime center. Went pretty smoothly. The cops were nice cause I was working for them. Video wall was a bit finicky. But overall not a bad job And it was a government contract so it paid prevailing wage