Contracting is a great career field. I would implore anyone to get in if they can. Conversely, it has been very difficult to stay motivated. Roughly 70% of the career field has an undergrad or higher, and with that people get out after their first enlistment. Therefore, our NCO core consists of cross-trainees who plan to finish school, get experience, and bounce. We do have a few pipeline NCOs, but they are miserable from being overburdened with requirements. On paper our manning looks great, but realistically the experience comes from junior enlisted and SNCOs. Our civilians are hard-headed and stubborn, and have to do things the old fashioned way, which combats our constant strive for innovating the contracting process.

Deployments are here and there. Most first term Airmen won’t see one unless they are 6 year contracts or they reenlist. It takes a few years to get somewhat proficient in the day-to-day tasks of a contract specialist, so you aren’t very beneficial down range for a while.

End of year is not so bad. Finished most of our buys by August and sat on our thumbs through EoFY. This is obviously unit specific, so this may not apply everywhere.

“6 years, six figures” is a phrase I heard prior to joining, and historically our 4-6 year enlistment folks are securing those jobs without any issues. If cross-training is something you are interested in, then I’m sure you won’t regret it. Depending on what career field you come from, you may find the office environment is very obscure and civilian-like. The lack of separation amongst ranks does tend to cause shit bags to float around forever without reprimand.

Hit me up if you have any questions, I promise it won’t be this long-winded.