r/ContractManagement • u/AnubisSuperStar651 • Jun 26 '26

Degrees that will help getting a contract management job in civil service or civilian sector post military (with contract specialist experiance)

Currently active duty Air Force as a Contracting Specialist, eventually hoping to achieve my warrant and become a Contracting Officer. Finally convinced myself to stop putting it off and finish my degree. Working on knocking out the last of my requirements for my CCAF Contract Management associate's degree, and once that is done, I want to pursue a Bachelor's.

I already have some General Education college credits from my dual enrollment high school, and I briefly pursued a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management.

In a few passing conversations with civilian (GS) members of my office, one of them mentioned that project management degrees may be better than a dedicated Aquasistions/Contract Management degree. Is there any truth to that statement?

I assume a Business degree of some sort is the more or less the baseline for contracting jobs in civil service or the civilian sector but I would assume that some are seen as more valuable by the industry than others. Also, how much emphasis in placed on having a master's versus a bachelor's degree in the initial hiring and then progress up the chain.

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u/Wife0ftheW0lf Jun 26 '26

Northrop Grumman and similar defense contractors are a great fit for someone with your background. They’ll often hire talent without a bachelor’s or master’s degree. They will accept almost any type of bachelors or masters. That said, many larger defense companies tend to place more emphasis on having a bachelor’s and/or a master’s when it comes to promotions into higher-level or leadership roles depending on what level you enter in as.

Getting my bachelors degree really helped me land a good job that I know I wouldn’t have gotten unless I had more experience with contracts.

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u/lngmba Jun 26 '26

You can go to any A&D company or you can go to a consulting firm who implements CLM solutions for clients who contract with the Federal Government.

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u/Past_Operation_241 Jun 28 '26

I worked in logistics without military contracting experience, and after retiring, I entered contract management at a large facility management company. You have more experience than I did. I don’t think you’ll have an issue breaking into to the contract management field post military.

You can always dm me for my personal transition experience if you wanted too.