contract specialist

project manager

accountant

product specialist

budget analyst

US General Services Administration

If you are in the "clique" and play the politics and put your ethics aside, you'll rise far and fast.  There is no transparency in hiring because decisions (pre-selection) are made internally, behind the scenes with your direct peers on hiring panels, so if you have yourself positioned correctly you won't have to worry about merit or skillsets. Management will nullify competition on the basis of who they want and where they want them. If you are really lucky and they have identified you as "that candidate",  HR will follow management's lead and open the position when you are eligible to apply. Plenty of 12's go to 13's that way. If your really a standout candidate, you will be merit promoted without announcement!


Procurement guidelines are made on a regional basis depending on the current philosophy and trends out of the central office. Little input is taken from the boots on the ground staff or on historical data like performance, so previous problems on contracts get passed along only to continue and waste the taxpayers' dime. More effort is put into form and not substance and poor business decisions get made repeatedly.  Plenty of training and advancement programs (but done on the cheap with poor quality hired outside training), but favoritism is rampant and selection for attendance or participation is made politics and ego than actual substance or ability for growth. Depending on grade and area, the region protects certain staff and those staff act outside their authority continuously and out in the open, but are not held to any standard. 

Metrics are at the forefront GSA and the agency loves lists and if you show up on one, you've impeded your portability for advancement.  Regions and directors compete on this without any forethought of the consequences. Again  there many cliques and egos so you need to learn the culture quickly to survive the politics. Double standards left and right. In all, Acquisition Management is separated from Facilities, but it's the technical people who call the shots and they frequently use their power to influence decisions to boost their own standing within the region and office.

On a typical day at GSA, I’d meet with colleagues to develop marketing strategies, work with designers to create marketing materials, edit and write copy, and review and correct designed proofs for client review.

During my 20-plus years at GSA, I acquired a plethora of new knowledge and skills. When I began the job, my professional expertise was mostly about 1) editing catalogs and brochures and 2) journalism. I now have over a decade of experience editing a variety of marketing collateral, including emails, guides, websites, and more.

The management team was remarkable. I worked closely with three production managers, each in charge of a different leg of creating marketing materials. We met weekly to review achievements, goals, and statuses; however, the managers were usually available anytime I needed clarifications and answers. 

The workplace culture was respectful, efficient, and productive. My colleagues and I maintained positive working relationships, performing at a high level daily. We also enjoyed each other as people, which made the work more fun and positive.

The most difficult part of my job was demanding clients. Our office provided production schedules to clients, but the schedules sometimes had to be accelerated because of poor planning on the client’s part. Nonetheless, we never missed a deadline and invariably created excellent collateral.

The parts of the job I enjoyed most were 1) having the opportunity to stay busy doing great work while gaining new knowledge and skills and 2) working with a distinguished, successful, and friendly group of professionals.


A typical day at work is taking over the front end and making myself familiar with what is happening for the day. I then make myself familiar with whom is working to know and what I can expect for my team members. I look to see what I can do to start on projects that need to be completed or need to be started. Look at what we need to do to have a good close or a good transition for the next GSA. I make sure I am available for questions and available to help out each and every team member that needs assistance or questions answered. I train when needed and help where help is needed. I provide breaks and lunches when needed. I have learned many different skills such as working at Starbucks and Pizza Hut in our store along with supervisor duties explained above. 
  Very friendly guests, always fast paced. Management is very friendly, very tolerable and understanding. They take time to understand what your problems or issues are.
 My co-workers are very friendly and work well with others. They are on the ball all the time and want to help guests, and help each other. 
  There is no hardest part of the job because there always learning and training and experiencing new ways of doing things. I love to learn and continue to experience new aspects of my job, so it isn't hard, it is challenging, what I need to excel.
 My most enjoyable part of my job is learning and working with others. I am a people person and it makes my job exciting to work with others, and guests.

This agency is a great agency, however the dept. had some hiccups. Much of the position was focused on update meetings and  completing spreadsheet milestones versus client satisfaction. There also wasn't a clear guide to precedural protocol for new hires. Every agency should have these, esp. for the government public building sector. The result was miscommunication and wasted effort to develop a work flow. This became increasingly an unfair predicament due to incongruences and emphasis on spreadsheet tracking versus managing the process and client interaction. With this being said, for this problem it's hard to judge expectations when there's no clear training. To top it off the going policy is new hires can be terminated for anything. Overall, This doesn't equate to a productive matrix. Some supervisors over team leads need to be held more accountable, potentially terminated for increased efficiency. Team leads seemed to have issues being promoted to supervisory positions which would solve the majority of the issues. Typically they're younger and have a better knowledge of the teams strengths and weaknesses. Inserting supervisors from outside the department should be a "no no".

All the people I worked with were so fun and friendly, always there for each other and willing to help each other out! Depending on if we opened or closed, we set up for the day. Open registers, write out daily break and lunch schedule. Make sure all the lanes were ready for the cashiers, stocked and cleaned. If anyone had any questions, comments or concerns I was there immediately to help the guest and or cashier. Making sure all the areas; food avenue, service desk, cash registers were covered for breaks. If the lanes got backed up we call the salesfloor for someone to come up and backup cashier. When the closer came in we make sure to explain everything that is going on, what got done through the day and what still needs to be done. Our managers would always back us up if needed, and I always felt comfortable to approach them with questions or concerns whether it was personal or work related. The hardest part of my job was being able o be in more than one place at a time. Being a GSA, more than one person could be in need at the same time, and it was hard to be everywhere at once. I love making people happy, and making sure that they had a pleasant experience while shopping at our store. It was a joy to be able to see someone leave with a smile on their faces.

I prefer to be more active at work. I am limited in involvement in County Projects handled by our Departments. 

I arrive prior to being expected and begin my daily chores. These contain daily monitoring of Procurement Card purchases for eight employees, monitoring the Administrator's calendar and preparing  appropriate documentation needed, answer multi phone lines, monitor obligations vs. budget for four (4) departments with multiple budgets within three (3) of our departments, file daily, and prepare Commission packets for Staff, Agenda and Commission meetings.

The most enjoyable part of my job is interacting with the employees of Hamilton County Government. I have the opportunity to deal with the public, as many will call General Services thinking we encompass many things within County Government. It is my pleasure directing them too the appropriate office they need, or collecting the information they need and phoning them with procedure they may need to follow.

In general GSA is a amazing place to work and gain valuable skills and connections, but the new EO is killing the overall internal personnels moral. Teams have been cut in half causing burn out on workloads. Work-life balance has taking a major hit and personnel is constantly complaining  of the new big brother approach of monitor individuals causing a reduction in production. Bare minimum is the new standard and a lot of the amazing minds that used to be at GSA have left for Private industry, retirement or self employment. 

Management is amazing and understands the new environment while listening to staffing complaints. But unfortunately they have no control over the administrative policies and effectively just follow orders. 

Hardest part of the jobs is coming in the doors and lack luster office environment full of roach motels and mice traps and maintaining a standard process to avoid stressful situations.

This used to be a amazing culture with impactful work requirement but now it's just a JOB and pay check.  

I enjoyed my work with General Services, although job descriptions mitigated greatly the opportunities to work to level of competence and would have to work outside job description to make greatest contribution to the  . 

I do enjoy having fun as long as the work place is productive with all parties contributing.  This, more than any other thing presented a problem. I felt many employees would take advantage of the job security built in to government employment and this lead to more friction than I was comfortable with. i possess a tremendous work ethic and an outstanding sense of humor both. I am fully capable of doing my work, and then some, while adding to the overall esprit de corp of the work place.

All I really asked or wanted was for others to do the same. Not all agreed and despite what would probably be a glowing recommendation, I do think I was judged harshly for my desire to keep the office more professional. Now you would find that extremely hilarious if you were able to become familiar with me personally.

My typical day at work consists of creating break schedules to fit the business, assuring that cashiers have supplies to complete their job (i.e. money in register, bags and other tool), check functionality of registers, and make sure entrance and exit of store is presentable to guests. 

I have learned how to manage a team effectively and how to use each team members strengths to help the business. The responsibility of managing a team also comes with corrective action when needed and helping the team develop professionally to the best of my ability.  My co-workers add to my experience because they have helped me develop professionally and are there to support me when needed. I truly believe in the concept of a TEAM atmosphere. 

Most difficult part of my job is handling guest complaints and trying to make it right for the guest.  This has been especially difficult since the data breach at Target.  It has challenged me professionally and has taught me to handle different situations to the best of my ability. The most enjoyable part of my job is seeing a satisfied guest and also the development of a team member that I have helped.

work is pretty much the same from day to day. Worked as a contract worker for GSA 8 years befor landing a 4 yr. term Government job. Picking and packing out freight for the Government. Serving our country by getting the men and women of the Armed forces suppies needed to Afganistan, Iraq, and bases all over stateside to. I beleive the hardest part of the job was when we had to pick and packout, then load vans for bulk 10 man packages. Alot of overtime and great money to be made, but by the time you got home, you were beat. A total of thirteen years with the Government. I learn how to run the desk when we were without a Supervisor for 4+ months which lead to more trust and having my own Gov passcode for access to information that as a regular worker would not have. I received awards of perfect attendance, Employee of the month, Applause Awards and Shinig Star awards. With those awards came paid time off and employee parking space for a month in front of Building. Great co-workers. Most believe in team work. A few that were slackers, but didn't stop the flow of what had to be done.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Contract specialist 21 salaries reported	$93,703 per year
Project manager 12 salaries reported	$108,534 per year
Accountant 2 salaries reported	$87,722 per year
Product specialist 3 salaries reported	$130,740 per year
Budget analyst 2 salaries reported	$89,454 per year

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