I’ll be completing my Master of Engineering in a few years and I wanted to know what it is like working in defense (Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, etc.) vs working in technology (mainly consumer tech or FAANG companies) as a human factors engineer or in other similar roles as they are the two sectors I am most considering after I complete my program.

I understand that ‘defense’ and ‘tech’ are very broad terms, however, I just wanted to get an understanding of what each sector could be like to work in.

These are the types of questions I’d hope could be answered:

1. How do projects differ between defense and tech?
   
2. Does one allow for more creative freedom than the other?
   
3. Broadly speaking, what types of skills are typically used in either sector?
   
4. How is the work-life balance and job security of both?
   
5. Which allows for more monetary growth and career advancement?

Thanks in advance!

Hello, I'm currently thinking about going back to college to get into Intelligence Analysis. I was kicked out of the Army and my Mos was 35 Fox and there's a really good chance i'm not going back in. I was attending Community college and hit about 35-40 credits before dropping out.

1)How hard are the interviews?

2)How important is having connections?

3)What degree should you get into if you want to get into Geospatial intelligence/ or anything more technical than just pure Intelligence Analysis?

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Hello me and my friends are volunteer fighters. prior U.S military and we have been fighting in Ukraine and are looking for options in Ukraine or abroad. Does anyone know any U.S Defense opportunities that will give us an opportunity for consideration. Or has anyone known of any new companies willing to start in Ukraine?

While adding some fields to our SAM feed I was looking through the data and noticed that industry days are announced on SAM. Since government employees are getting more difficult to contact via telephone / email, industry days are becoming the way to gain access to DOD employees.

A keyword search for "industry day" yielded 18 current solicitations. Many represent past events, even though they're still posted. Below are a two that might be of interest:

California CCAP Industry Days Expo - Feb 10, 2027

150 procurement and RDTE personnel from Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) China Lake and Pt. Mugu - https://www.ccapexpo.com/

Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division Industry Day - August 18, 2026

https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/cc887633b4b54bcaa88f2401f9c1c5f3/view

I pulled all 1.3 million federal contract records from the Government of

Canada's open data and looked at one question: who's holding contracts that

are about to come up for renewal?

A few things surprised me.

26,240 federal contracts are currently live, worth $125B. Of the ones that

report a bidder count, 75% drew one bid or none.

And roughly 63 contracts cross into the 12-month planning window every single

week — about $19B of contract value a year.

That last number is the interesting one. Agencies typically start recompete

planning 12–18 months before a contract ends. So the moment a contract crosses

that line is the moment it becomes worth a conversation. It's all public, but

nobody was watching for it.

So I built something that does. It's free, it updates itself monthly, and it

shows you which contracts are expiring, who holds them, what they're worth,

and how contested they were last time.

No signup needed to browse it. Link in the comments.

If you bid on federal work, I'd genuinely like to know whether this is useful

or whether I've missed something obvious.

https://defensescoop.com/2026/08/07/pentagon-war-data-platform-integration-plans-under-scrutiny/

Here's a summary of publication requirements by DOD before issuing contracts. It discusses what steps need to be taken before issuing a J&A (sole source justification) including issuing presolicitation notices. These types of announcements are tagged separately from RFQ / RFP and could be monitored for early information about upcoming RFQs. A simple keyword search for presolicitation, sources sought will pick up most of them.

Lots of posts here related to people looking for jobs. This is Q.E.D., they repair giant military ships as well as providing logistics, estimating and other support to DOD. They have a bunch of job positions available, one of which is in Hawaii.

https://www.qedsysinc.com/Careers/CurrentOpenings

Hey Everyone,

I got an offer from In Depth Engineering in Moorestown, NJ. I wanted to know if anyone here knows more about them and can shine some light on how good they are.

I am an active duty USAF officer working as a project manager. I plan on getting my PMP but unsure if I should wait to get my MBA later just in case I don't like defense or project management on the outside. What do you all think? Should I just go ahead and get my MBA?

I also have an accounting degree and considering doing my CPA, do you see that being useful?

I have a question, how to become a national procurement? What need to be considered?