Feral Jundi

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Call to Action: We Need Salary and Benefits Information On the Companies!!!!! Go To Glassdoor.com

   Ok ladies and gentleman, this is a call to action of the most urgent kind.  There is practically no data at all about any of the PMC or PSC salaries and benefit packages out there.  We need to collect this information on one convenient and easy to access site, so everyone knows what everyone else is getting paid right now.  The reason being, is that the companies and government will keep lowering salaries and expecting the little guys like us, to just accept it for the way it is. Pee shaw I say!

   If everyone is armed with the knowledge of what everyone else is getting paid, then you have ammunition to negotiate salaries and benefit packages.  As it stands now, there is no ‘push back’ to regulate these dropping salaries.

    The question to ask is how much is your life worth in a war zone? How much is the life or property you are protecting worth in a war zone? If you are ok with mall cop salaries in war zones, then don’t do anything about it and just take it like a chump. Hell, work for free, because that will really make the companies happy!

   But if you want to do something about it, then post your pay and benefits anonymously on Glassdoor.com, and get this knowledge passed around so everyone knows what is what.

   There is a review section, and probably you should stay away from that.  But if you feel it is appropriate, then review away. Just keep in mind, your non-disclosure agreements and OPSEC/PERSEC.

   With company salaries and benefits, they post it on websites and job ads all the time.  But what is not put up on these ads, is  what you are really making and getting out there.  So let’s give the companies and other contractors some ground truth and shared reality on this sucker.

   The other reason I like Glassdoor, is that it is free to use, and way more organized than putting this information up on some forum.  Over the years, there has been tons of information shared in casual conversation on the forums, but most of it is kind of lost or extremely difficult to find in the search features. And don’t even try going to wikipedia to learn anything about the companies, because that is vacant too.  That’s too bad, because that kind of information could have helped a lot of folks who are just getting into this industry, or transferring from one company to another.

    So pass this around, and get that information out there.  It is anonymous, and posting salary info or benefit package info is not a violation of OPSEC or PERSEC.  You are simply posting what the companies are currently offering as far as pay and benefits, and at that particular time.  It is quick and easy to post that info, and let’s get it out there and keep it up to date!

     Also, I am not affiliated at all with Glassdoor.com, and they are not paying me anything for this review and post.  Glassdoor.com is a technology/website that makes sense, and if everyone gets on board with this, it will totally become a source of excellent information for the industry. That is my view on the whole deal.

    By the way, I did notice a few DynCorp jobs and salaries posted.  Let’s fill out the rest of the info on companies and make Glassdoor.com the place to rally at. –Matt

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Glassdoor 

Post a Salary or Review

What is Glassdoor.com?

Glassdoor.com is a career and workplace community where anyone can find and anonymously share salary details about specific jobs for specific employers or company and interview reviews describing life on the inside of an employer — all for free. What sets us apart is that all our information comes from the people who know these companies best — either the employees who work there or the candidates who have interviewed there. In the spirit of community, we ask our users to share with each other. That is, before you can access all of the information shared by others in the Glassdoor community, we first ask that you post an anonymous salary, company review or interview review of your own. By working together to offer an inside look at companies, we can open up access and bring greater transparency to information in one of the most important parts of our lives — our work.

How did we get here?

It was the summer of 2007, and Glassdoor.com co-founder Robert Hohman was busy taking time off after having left his position as president of Hotwire.com. His long-time friend Rich Barton called up with an interesting question:

“What would happen if someone left the unedited employee survey for the whole company on the printer and it got posted to the Web?”

The two had previously worked together at Microsoft and then Expedia, which Rich founded in 1994. Expedia ultimately transformed travel by opening up information once available only to travel agents and insiders. Rich then went on to transform real estate with the launch of Zillow.com, allowing anyone to find and research home values from their personal computer.

Robert and Rich contemplated why it’s so difficult to find helpful information about jobs and workplaces. Robert called on good friend Tim Besse and they expanded the survey concept to include salary details down to the job level and CEO approval ratings, just like politician approval ratings. And thus, Glassdoor was born to deliver new transparency to an incredibly important part of our lives — our work.

What Makes Us Different?

Glassdoor.com is the only site that provides a complete, real-time, inside look at what it’s really like to work and interview at a company — salaries, reviews, and ratings — for free. We’re still in the early stages, but Glassdoor is already providing what we think is very compelling information, including:

Real-time salary/compensation details by title and company. We don’t roll-up our salary information by job category or by industry like many sites and sources. You can see details on salary, bonuses, commissions and more for titles within companies that you’ll immediately recognize. See exactly what a Software Engineer at Google or a QA Engineer at eBay makes. With information posted every day, users can be sure they’re seeing the latest.

Detailed company reviews. See what employees on the inside really think with reviews and ratings that hit on the good, the bad, and a lot more in between. We encourage constructive feedback in our company reviews and ask respondents to provide “pros” and “cons”, along with “advice to senior management.” In addition, we also collect & calculate a real-time CEO approval percentage to provide a pulse of how employees think the CEO is doing at any given time.

Insightful interview reviews. Allows anyone to get the inside scoop on a company’s interview and hiring process, including actual questions for any job or company. In addition, interview reviews provides a unique perspective into the overall experience and difficulty of an interview.

It’s all FREE. The only cost to see all this information on Glassdoor is to post an anonymous salary, company review, or interview review of your own. We’re using this “give to get” model to get started, and since it will only take a few minutes to complete and get access to what’s behind Glassdoor, we hope you’ll give it a try.

Why Glassdoor?

We were hoping the name was obvious, but just in case it needs some explanation — Glassdoor was selected because we’re helping people look inside a company, through the closed doors and office walls to get better insight into jobs and workplaces and the interview process to get there.

Learn More about Glassdoor

Whether you’re looking for a new job or you’re completely satisfied where you are – your work matters – and we want you to have all the information you need to make the most of your career. Anonymous salaries, company reviews, and interview questions and reviews for over 30,000 companies – all for free!

Post a Salary or Review

How do I see all salaries or reviews?

Glassdoor is completely free – there are no subscriptions or data fees. Instead we ask you to post a salary or review of your own to get access to all the salaries or reviews posted by the community.

So if you’re interested in seeing salaries, simply post an anonymous salary for your current or former job and you’ll get access to salaries for all companies. The same goes for reviews and interviews – simply post an anonymous review of your current or former employer or post an anonymous review of a recent interview experience, and you’ll get access to all reviews and interviews for any company.

How can this really be anonymous?

If you work at a small company or are the only one with your job title, you can post without giving us the information that may allow others to identify you. For example, when posting a salary you don’t even need to tell us your company (which means it will not appear on the site). And when you’re posting a review, we don’t require you to tell us your job title or location (i.e., your review can be from “anonymous”). That should allow you to post while still maintaining your anonymity.

How do you know the posts are really from employees?

Because all of our salaries and reviews are anonymous, we require all our users to verify their account via email before any of their posts are shared with the community. This verification allows us to put measures in place to identify any suspicious users or posts (even if those cases are the exception rather than the rule). These measures, combined with an active employee community and our commitment to review every post before it appears on the site, allow us to have the confidence that our information is really from employees. See for yourself, read a few reviews and you’ll see that those insights can only come from those on the inside.

Go here for to check it out.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Somalia: CSS Global Inc. Wins Contract to Protect Somali Government From Terrorism, Pirates

   I do not have anything to say about CSS Global Inc., and maybe a reader or two can chime in about this company?  I think it is great they got the contract, and hopefully guys will get a few jobs out of this.  I will not endorse them though, because I have never heard anything good or bad.

   One other thing. I have no idea if they are hiring either, so please do not send me resumes for this.  Go through their website that I posted below, to find out more.

   On an initial search in the career section, I did not see anything posted, and the hiring could be all going on through back channels.  My guess is they have everyone they need, but you never know and it wouldn’t hurt to send them a resume for this anyway. –Matt

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Ada company wins contract to protect Somali government from terrorism, pirates

By Ted Roelofs

The Grand Rapids Press

October 15, 2009

A Grand Rapids-based security firm is taking on a job few would envy: Protect the transitional government of Somalia, a failed state and breeding ground for terrorism and international piracy.

According to the Somali government, CSS Global Inc. has been contracted to provide security consulting services and training for government forces.

In a statement released Wednesday, Somali special envoy H.E. Ali Hassan Gulaid said he is “confident the expertise of the CSS Global senior staff will prove to be a valuable asset to us in our efforts to establish a safe and secure Somalia for our citizens.”

CSS Global, an affiliate of Ada-based CSS Alliance, has furnished counterterrorism services in other African nations and provided security and logistics in Iraq. Its operations team comprises former military and law enforcement personnel, including Special Forces.“It is going to be a huge challenge,” said Chris Frain, chief executive officer and co-owner of CSS Alliance. “This is a brand-new government being stood up with the help of the international community.”

Frain said he is optimistic CSS can get the job done.

“Our protective operations team has the experience and focus to provide strategic security services and support operations in any situation,” he said.

(more…)

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Company Spotlight: Oryol

Filed under: Company Spotlight,Iraq,PMC's,Russia — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 5:52 PM

   This is a continuation of the video I posted earlier about this company.  This kind of reminds of another article I wrote in regards to PMC versus PMC. Not in the way of Blackwater fighting Oryol on the battlefield, but in the way of competing with them on the battlefield of market share. That the German Landsknecht defeated the Swiss Guard back during the Italian wars, by copying the Swiss (all the way down to the uniforms), being cheaper than the Swiss (thus gaining more experience with more jobs), and finding an innovation that gave them an edge over the Swiss (firearms).

    In this case, this company wants to take market share in Iraq by doing a better job of the task than the top British and American companies. Competition is what drives innovation, and these guys sound hungry. Although I will have to say that they will have to work very hard to find the one or two innovations that will make them competitive in this market.  They are dealing with some very advanced and successful companies in this industry, and Oryol will definitely have to find a niche to get a seat at the table. –Matt

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Former Russian soldiers ready to take on Blackwater in Iraq

06 October, 2009, 19:50

A group of former Russian soldiers is involved in an intense military training program in preparation for Iraq. They believe they can compete with their British and American counterparts by adopting a unique approach.

The training of the Oryol anti-terror centre may seem like an intense action scene from a Hollywood blockbuster movie, but in fact it is to prepare Russian men to work in Iraq…

“Before we send people there, we put them through some serious training. This includes psychological training and an educational program,” says Sergey Epishkin, head of Oryol anti-terror training centre. “In our classes, we even speak the way they speak in this particular region. If you can’t master local slang, you can run into a serious trouble sometimes.”

And to avoid such trouble is the chief responsibility of this group. These men are from the anti-terror group Oryol and, much like their infamous, American counterpart “Blackwater”, they provide private security for Russian engineers and businessmen operating inside Iraq.

(more…)

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Company Spotlight: CSA Kuwait

   CSA Kuwait has always been one of those companies that provided the stepping stone to bigger and better contracts for guys.  In essence, it has been one of those gigs to cut your teeth on, in order to prepare for the war zone stuff.  I consider the Kosovo contract with ITT(or whoever owns that contract now) and the Qatar contract with DynCorp to be the same thing.  These are all static security posts, tasked with securing a large US base in these countries, and they can be used as experience for overseas security contracting in the war zones on a resume.

   Now on to this latest report on CSA and what the company’s response is. It isn’t that pretty, if you know what I mean.  I do not see customer satisfaction there.  I also hear on the circuit that contractors are not to happy with the way the company has treated them.

     If you read below, the company mission statement has Toyota and lean systems written all over it.  It has all the stuff you want in a company. The thing I want to emphasize though is that anyone can write a mission statement that looks impressive, but to me, actions speak louder than words.  Is the customer truly satisfied or happy and are your contractors and leaders truly satisfied or happy? How about the local populations or the public as a whole?  What is their impression of your company? That is all that matters, and results are what the company should be striving for.

   I would like to reiterate though that I really dig the mission statements and the language.  It is great, but does the CEO of the company really believe this stuff with his heart and soul?  Does the leadership in this company have this stuff ingrained into their soul? And does all of this impress and motivate their contractors/employees, and the customer?

   And for all I know, all of these mission statements and ISO 9001:2000 and Six Sigma stuff happened as a result of all of these issues listed below?  If so, that is great, and I really hope the company can achieve greatness in their little corner of the security contracting world. The proof is in the pudding, and until I start hearing glowing reviews of the company’s performance, then I will continue to remain skeptical.

   My suggestion to the company is to seek out feedback from the customer(s) and to seek out feedback from your workforce.  Actually listen to what they have to say, and get some shared reality.  You should also be doing performance evaluations, and constantly evaluating the health and vitality of your company.  How else are you to know how you are doing out there on these contracts? Be proactive about your performance, not reactive.

   Furthermore, performance evaluations, if done correctly, can certainly add to your company’s Kaizen. The sleeping guard  mentioned below could have shown a history of sleeping on post or poor performance elsewhere, and it should have been noted in performance evaluations and corrected early on.  If the guy sucks, then there should be documentation that he sucks, and the leadership should have a means to express to that contractor that it is unacceptable.

   The guard should know exactly what the company policies are, they should know what the chain of command is, and they should know the disciplinary process.  My suggestion for disciplinary stuff, is to have a three tiered system.  The first tier is the warning.  If the guard does the same thing a second time, then make a note on their performance evaluation and take one day’s pay.  If the guard does it a third time, then fire him.  Either way you do it, disciplinary programs should be clear, graduated, and the punishments should be fair.  Most of all, disciplinary actions should be consistent and there should be no favoritism.  If there is, it will kill your program.  Too many companies implement a disciplinary system that is either you do well, or we fire you for whatever reason.

   The question to ask with that, is how much money is a company losing by not doing all they can to hang on to guys?  To actually treat them well and listen to what they have to say, as opposed to not caring about them, and reacting with a knee jerk action like firing the guard. An evaluations system, coupled with a fair and effective disciplinary program, is the better way to go.  Taking a guys pay for the day, is money in the company’s pocket and a day of free work.  But when you fire a guy, you have to spend the money to recruit, train, equip, and deploy someone new.  Do the math on that, and turnover is not cost effective.  The three tier disciplinary system I am talking about makes sense and if coupled with a sound company mission statement and evaluations program, you can certainly do great thing to shape and manage your workforce.

   Likewise, a contractor or leader should be able to communicate up the chain of command what is going right and what is going wrong with the company, and that upper management should be responsive to that.  This contractor cares enough about your company, to let you know some deficiencies, the least you could do is listen to what they have to say and thank him or her for coming forward.  If you have a culture that does not allow for this, then how is your company to grow/evolve and continuously improve?  A performance evaluation system, that is properly conducted and gives both sides (contractor and manager) a voice, is vital. Most of all, a company that acts upon this information and really implements changes based on this information is even more important.  Other than that, it is all hot air and ISO-Bologny. –Matt

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INSIDE WASHINGTON: Oversight lacking on war costs

By RICHARD LARDNER

10/07/2009

WASHINGTON — During a routine check of a watch tower at a U.S. military base in Kuwait, an Army sergeant found the guard leaning back in a chair, his sunglasses on, apparently sound asleep. When the soldier woke the guard, an employee of a defense contractor named Combat Support Associates, he denied he’d dozed off while on duty.

“It’s so weird that I can close my eyes for one second and then you appear out of nowhere,” the guard said, according to the sergeant’s March 2008 inspection report.

The episode illustrates the problems between the U.S. armed forces and the industrial army supporting military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Demand for contractor services is heavy, while oversight of their work isn’t. That means problems often aren’t discovered until long after the payments have been made.

(more…)

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Company Spotlight: Illusicam

     Hey gang, I am always on the look out for the latest thing, and I came across this cool little company the other day.  They make some really interesting camouflage patterns.  It’s the kind of stuff you won’t see anywhere else. The advantage I see with these patterns, is that there are more varieties for whatever region you are at.  For example, the desert pattern has five separate patterns to choose from.  That makes sense, because not all deserts are the same. The same goes for jungles, woodlands and winter lands, and the unique patterns of this camouflage will give you more choices for these particular areas.  That is good news for hunters, military, contractors and police.

   As for using these prints, right now they can be turned into transfers that can be attached to weapons or gear lockers or whatever you want camouflaged. Check it out. –Matt

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About Illusicam

Illusicam was founded by the owner Jeff Wilcox in 2008 with the vision of becoming a leader in “technological camouflage” to be used for seasonal hunters, military, law enforcement and government agencies. Illusicam offers a wide variety of cost-effective patterns to meet the individual needs of its customers. The patterns can be used on virtually any application such as; fabrics, complete rifles, rifle stocks, rifle cases, equipment cases, ATV’s, vehicles and much more.

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