Avantages
Management seems to genuinely care for and appreciate employees at every level. Direct managers are flexible and allow for telework opportunities when the position and needs allow. C-level executives somehow remember my name at company-wide meetings that are occasionally held, which is surprising and makes me feel appreciated. I find pay to be decently competitive to industry. Cimarron strives to create a family like atmosphere, mostly because as a small contractor it can be rare to see your company coworkers in a large organization like NASA, aside from your direct manager. Cimarron has an excellent continuing education program - 100% of tuition paid for good grades at a local university's tuition rate... you can't beat a free Master's degree. Cimarron has landed some really cool contracts, with a wide technical scope of work and some of the most prestigious positions among feds.
Inconvénients
Your civil servant counterparts will likely eventually earn more. Layers upon layers of contractor and civil servant management can make crises (shutdowns, inclement weather, global pandemic) or simply HR/work questioning a little confusing to navigate, although management proactively reaches out and works with employees as much as possible - but this might be systemic to all gov contracting and not just Cimarron. We hear we perform well on contracts, but only verbal feedback from programs is typically shared at company wide meetings. The timekeeping system is pretty annoying to use, as it is with many other contractors' - finding out how much comp time I have can take 30 minutes of calculating.
