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A few years ago, a single phone call changed the trajectory of my career forever.

And it had nothing to do with me.

At the time, I was the Assistant Controller at a government contractor. Good seat, clear lane — I supported the Controller and stayed in my swim lane.

Then the Controller got sick.

At first I figured he'd be back in a few days. Days turned into a couple of weeks. The couple of weeks turned into a formal leave of absence.

And in the long run, he never came back.

Now to be honest, I had no idea what was coming next.

The company looked into hiring a replacement — and then decided to give me a shot at the job instead.

I was nervous as hell.

Overnight, the entire accounting department was mine. Month-end close, the reporting, the analysis — all of it. Plus I had to stand in front of the CEO every single month and present the numbers like I'd been doing it for years.

So I did the only thing I could: I learned GovCon finance properly, the hard way, under real pressure.

I dug into FAR Part 31, taught myself how indirect rates actually behave, and went deep on the system most small GovCons live or die by: Deltek Costpoint. None of it was in any course I'd taken — commercial accounting advice didn't just fail to help, following it would have actively hurt us.

And I didn't stop at "competent." I earned my Deltek Costpoint Master Certification and sysadmin-level access — so I understood not just the accounting, but the machine that runs it.

That's how I became the person people come to when the rates won't tie out or an audit's on the calendar.

And in the three and a half years since I took that seat, I've:

But here's the thing:

In the process, I learned the lessons no commercial accounting program teaches:

And maybe the most useful part is this:

I didn't plan any of it. I got thrown into the deep end, then I reverse-engineered my way out.

Which means you can skip the panic entirely — and follow the roadmap instead of stumbling into it the way I did.

Now, I'm sharing this because:

So I hope this helps!

And if it did, please hit reply and introduce yourself — tell me where you are in your GovCon finance journey. I'd genuinely love to know.

Chat soon,
Michael Harris
Founder/CEO, 4G Consulting, LLC