A Day in the Life of a Co-Founder and CEO at Ascender Systems
A program manager's week at Ascender Systems is highly structured: Mondays are focused on meticulously reviewing "financial expenditures" and hourly rates for government contract compliance, ensuring accurate charging and adherence to federal acquisition requirements. With Thursday dedicated to customer engagement and the rest of the week spent "meeting after meeting," Friday becomes the crucial day to "bring my nose to the grindstone and get some work done."
Program Management, Government Contracting, Financial Management, Customer Engagement, Time Management
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Jorge Muniz
Co-Founder & CEO
Ascender Systems
United States Naval Academy United States Naval Academy
University of San Diego - Knauss School of Business University of San Diego - Knauss School of Business Master of Business Administration - MBAMaster of Business Administration - MBA
Engineering, IT, Math & Data
Technology
Strategic Management and Executive
Veteran
Video Highlights
1. Financial oversight and correct charging are critical, especially as a government contractor, requiring meticulous attention to hourly rates, line items, and federal acquisition requirements.
2. The role involves continuous adjustments and reviews of charging to ensure accuracy, addressing mistaken or incorrect entries, and adapting to different job numbers or cost structures.
3. A program manager's week is structured with specific focuses: Mondays on financial expenditures, Tuesdays on charging adjustments, Wednesdays on earned value reviews, Thursdays dedicated to customer engagement, and Fridays for focused individual work.
Transcript
What does a day in the life of a program manager look like?
It would actually depend on which day of the week it is. On Monday, we'll be looking at our financial expenditures and the hourly rates we were charged for the previous week.
It's important for us to ensure our charging is done correctly. Unlike other professions, when you're a government contractor, it's not enough for the work to just get done. You have to ensure the work is completed with proper charging because we have responsibilities to our customers and for our federal acquisition requirements. We must report correctly each and every time.
There's also an understanding we need to have on the "color of money." If you're charging to a certain contract, there will be a line-item number that I have to approve and vet before moving on to the next day's effort. So that's our Monday effort.
On Tuesday, we'll need to start making some adjustments. There might be mistaken or incorrect charging, or perhaps we're on a different job number or have cycled into a different cost structure. I then have to make adjustments.
By Wednesday, I'll be reviewing what's called "earned value." I'll be looking at the amount of work, the scope of work, and the charging we did against it. This is so I know how to plan for the following week.
Thursday is customer day, when I engage directly with the customer. I talk with all of my customers, and I've scheduled it so they're all on that one day.
Friday is really our free-for-all. That's the day I get my work done because it's meeting after meeting, after meeting Monday through Thursday. Friday is when I'm able to actually get some work done.