The Buzz with ACT-IAC
The Buzz with ACT-IAC
Building Networks and Skills: A Talk with an Associates Graduate from ABS Consulting
In this episode of The Buzz from ACT-IAC, host Yohanna Baez interviews Abby Cassell, a business development manager at ABS Consulting and an alumna of the ACT-IAC Professional Development Associates Program. Abby discusses her career journey from graduating college in 2020, navigating business development during the COVID-19 pandemic, to joining ABS Consulting in 2022. She highlights her experiences in the Professional Development Associates Program, the challenges she faced, and the valuable lessons and skills acquired, particularly in networking and negotiation. Abby emphasizes the importance of mentorship and leadership skills gained during the program, which have significantly influenced her career.
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Intro/Outro Music: See a Brighter Day/Gloria Tells
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound
(Episodes 1-159: Intro/Outro Music: Focal Point/Young Community
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound)
Yohanna: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome back to The Buzz from ACT IAC. I am your host, Yohanna Baez. And today, we are diving into the experiences of early career professionals who have taken part in the ACT IAC Professional Development Associates Program. We will explore their journeys. Before, during, and after the program, what they learned, how they grew, and where they are headed next.
Yohanna: Okay, let's jump right in. So I am here with Abbey Castle. Welcome to The Buzz. How are you feeling? Feeling great. How about you? Pretty good today, even though it's a little cloudy outside, but all's well. You can go ahead and introduce yourself, let our listeners know who you are and where you come from.
Yohanna: I'm Abbey Castle.
ABBY: Awesome. Yeah, my name is Abby Castle. I'm a business development manager at ABS Consulting. Um, I've been with them since March of 22, and I focus on, um, capture at, uh, our federal maritime clients, um, and some of our [00:01:00] emerging accounts as well.
Yohanna: Oh, wow. Okay. That's nice. Um, could you share like a brief overview of your background and how your career journey kind of began and how you like ended up at ABS?
ABBY: Sure. Yeah. So, um, I graduated from college in 2020 and I joined a small business headquartered in Stafford, Virginia, um, and started doing this thing called business development. had no clue what it was or what I was meant to be doing, um, which was interesting. So a lot of what I learned like during the COVID and pandemic and not being able to go talk to other professionals and contracting officers was through a lot of Googling and a lot of trying to figure it out myself and trial by fire, which was a fun challenge.
ABBY: Um, even though sometimes it's It was a little aggravating trying to get a straight answer from people and Google as well. Um, but yeah, so I focused on, um, Marine Corps capture at that, um, job. And [00:02:00] then, um, I also supported some contract work, um, some Marine Corps, Army, and even a DISA contract, um, which was a lot of fun, learned a lot.
ABBY: Um, and then decided to jump over to ABS Consulting in March of 22. Um, and then was kind of doing background research for them for opportunities, and then switched over to doing capture management for them. And, um, since I had a Marine Corps and military capture background, I could speak a little bit of the lingo.
ABBY: So switched over to doing, um, postcard capture since they are military esque. Um, so, yeah.
Yohanna: Oh, that's fun. Yeah, the before times. As soon as you said 2020, I was like, oh, the before times. I remember those.
ABBY: Yes, exactly. Yeah, it actually is funny. So I was actually full time in person during 2020 in COVID years, just because we were in a small office space, didn't have a whole lot of people there.
ABBY: And I actually switched to being remote in 2022. So I kind of had like [00:03:00] a reversal of the COVID and pandemic shutdown. So yeah, it was pretty interesting. That's fun. I guess. Maybe. Yeah. I mean, I like working from home. I get to have my dog on my lap all day long. So, it's pretty good for me. That's sweet.
ABBY: What kind of dog do you have? He's a pug. His name's Franklin.
Yohanna: Franklin the pug. Yes. Aw, that's great.
ABBY: Yeah. So if you hear snoring in the background, that's him, um, taking his nap. I usually have to warn people about it.
Yohanna: Well, that's always fun. Pugs are good for that. Pugs are really good for a solid snore. Um, so, so it sounds as if there was something that you really needed to figure out with like your personal, like career life, like their every career move.
Yohanna: move has like a spark behind it, something that like pushes us to kind of take the next step. What was it about the professional development program that caught your attention? And you were like, you know what, I should apply to this.
ABBY: Yeah. So I actually, um, didn't know a lot about the professional development program or really ACT I ACT, um, when I first joined ABS [00:04:00] consulting.
ABBY: Um, and actually my mentor, Kristi, um, did the associates program, um, a couple of years ago and was actually in the Voyagers program. And she really pushed me to look at it, take it seriously and apply for it, um, because she knew the value of what it brought to everybody. And then, you know, as I started talking with, um, other professionals in the space and other colleagues of mine, um, they were really like, you know, you need to do it.
ABBY: It's gonna open so many doors for you. You're gonna meet so many cool people. So it really was just kind of the right time and the right push from her and others to, to get me into the program.
Yohanna: That's great. I love that. I've been hearing a lot about that where folks are just like, I did it. You should do it.
Yohanna: Um, was there anything that was, was there like a particular area where you were looking to grow or was it just kind of like, Oh, you know what? Just let me try. All these people are recommending it.
ABBY: Yeah, it was kind of a twofold. So certainly was a lot of people recommending it. And you know, you get so many people talking about how amazing it [00:05:00] was.
ABBY: You're kind of like, well, I want to try it for myself now, see if it actually is as amazing as you're telling me. Um, but then I was looking at like the type of training that they were going to have and it was like, Oh, like, yeah, I really should, you know, get some formalized training on those sorts of things.
ABBY: So really, it was like the networking skills aspect of it, um, as well as like some of the negotiation parts were really interesting to me. Um, and you know, like half of my job is to go out and network and so it's like, Oh, like I should be less intimidated by it. So this is at least like a low stakes environment.
ABBY: We can kind of mess up and laugh and, you know, have like friends and people also going through the same experiences as you to kind of help, you know, you gain your own confidence and stuff like that.
Yohanna: Oh, that's good. So you had a solid, I guess, what was the first impression? It sounds as if you had a pretty solid first impression, like if you're, you feel comfortable, you can negotiate, you can go through all of the training and stuff [00:06:00] together and laugh together.
ABBY: Yeah, definitely. It
Yohanna: wasn't intimidating, I guess, for you.
ABBY: It wasn't, it wasn't really intimidating. I mean, I'm an extrovert, so I'm kind of like, I love going and talking to new people. So it was always like, Oh my gosh, I'm gonna get new friends. Great. Love that. Um, but yeah, it was really fun. Like the first day just kind of being like, you know, cause our associates class this year was the biggest they've ever had.
ABBY: So like realizing that. Oh my gosh, there's 40 of us all with like the same goal in mind is to meet new people, to learn these like professional development skills, like who want to, you know, have the camaraderie that we did end up getting, um, was all really nice and awesome. So were there any challenges at all, like, like,
Yohanna: did you, there were certainly challenges.
Yohanna: What kind of challenges, um, did you kind of encounter, like how did, how did your coach kind of help you navigate? You know uncertainties and yeah,
ABBY: I mean, I think the biggest challenge was around [00:07:00] like our project that we worked on and it wasn't I mean, not a bad challenge by any stretch of the imagination, but more of like, you know, you work, it's a group project, like, somebody's gonna, you know, have something actually that they're getting paid to do that takes precedence over your volunteer, uh, research project, so it's kind of like, how do you find the balance between, you know, like, yes, we're not getting paid for this, but like, the experiences, the payment, um, if you will, as well as, um, we worked with some government I Um, POCs, and of course, you know, the government, it's big, it's got much bigger priorities than helping, you know, the associates do a research project, so it's kind of, a lot of it was figuring out, you know, how much I can push, like, you know, I've only been working for five years, like, you know, I'm not a CEO that can, like, leverage, you know, my, my experience and skills quite to the extent that I can now.
ABBY: Um, getting there, certainly, um, but yeah, so a lot of kind of how my coach helped me was, you know, [00:08:00] you're gonna get what you're gonna get, like, it's not the end all be all. If you can't get 20 interviews, like, it's okay, like, getting one in the craziness of fiscal year end is perfectly fine, like, it's, it's okay, um.
ABBY: And it was a lot of, you know, I took over a lot of the leadership part of our project and project management, making sure that editing was getting done and emails were getting sent out. So it was a lot of, uh, You know, you can ask other people for help, you don't have to do it all yourself, which I usually have issues with, but, um, yeah, that was very helpful as well, and having a senior leader be like, it's not all of your problem, like, let other people step up and help you out as well.
Yohanna: That's good. Yeah. Teamwork really does make the dream work. Exactly. Um, speaking of leadership, you know, you, you mentioned your, your mentor, um, like mentorship, I think can be like a game changer when it comes to like career development. How would you describe your relationship with your coach, like throughout the program?
Yohanna: Like how, how was [00:09:00] that?
ABBY: Yeah, it was really good. And, um, a lot of it was, you know, I joined the emerging technology group, which that's not something I typically focus on in my job. Um, and so, like, I was a little nervous about, like, you know, we're when we were coming up with our research project, we had thrown quantum around and I can Spell quantum nine times.
ABBY: I could not tell you what it actually is. I was like, Hey, like, is this, was this a good decision joining this group or whatever? But, um, yeah, my coach will was awesome. Like, you know, very much of, you know, let's. you know, bite things in easeable and easy chunks so that everybody can understand them. Like, we're not expecting you to be a rocket scientist by tomorrow to handle these problems.
ABBY: Um, so yeah, it was really helpful to, um, have him be like, okay, well, Here's how you initially saw something. Let's, let's rethink about this. Let's figure out like how you think and, you know, kind of match up like where we want to go and how to get there. [00:10:00] So it was very helpful. That's really
Yohanna: good. Yeah. So mentors help you kind of like see things from a fresh perspective and like it.
Yohanna: help you, you know, walk through a problem. That's really nice.
ABBY: Which Will? Will Minnell. So, uh, he's from Periton. So, and we, our crew was called the Eat My Crews. So, the emerging technology more than meets AI. I like that. You guys have such clever names for your groups. We tried really hard and, um, it took like 20 minutes and we're like, Oh my gosh, we want to do something with like little punny.
ABBY: Like we've got to have a play on words and like a fun little acronym to go with it. So it was, it was fun deliberating that name. That's really fun.
ET & I CONFERENCE: Join ACT IAC at the Emerging Technology and Innovation Conference. On May 4th through the 6th at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay in Cambridge, Maryland. We will explore how technological advancements are changing the ways government operates, interacts with citizens, and delivers services.
ET & I CONFERENCE: Topics include artificial intelligence, quantum [00:11:00] computing, 5G communication and cyber security. And of course, attend the Innovation Awards and meet the awardees. If you would like to learn more about this event or any other upcoming events, please visit actiac. org slash upcoming dash events.
Yohanna: Welcome back.
Yohanna: We've been diving into the experiences of professional development graduates, and now it's time to talk about what happens after the program, how it's made an impact, and what lessons are carrying forward. Now that you've graduated from the professional development program as an associate, how do you think it has influenced your career path now?
Yohanna: Like, where do you see yourself going?
ABBY: Yeah, that's a great question. Um, I think for the moment, um, yeah, I'll just be continuing with being a capture manager as well. Um, I love learning new things about, you know, what the government does and what other people do. So, um, I think the best, biggest part that I really like is like the strategy behind everything of reading in between the lines for like procurements.
ABBY: As well [00:12:00] as, you know, kind of like when you have those business calls and like, I'm trying to fish for information, you're trying to fish for information, we're both reading in between the lines, like that's very entertaining for me. Um, so yeah, I think I'll, I'll stay in business development and capture for a while.
ABBY: And then, um, really like the biggest thing from the program has been like having a network, um, and growing my network. So, um, like talking with, you know. Obviously my team members, but other people within the associates class to be like, Hey, did you see this? Are you interested in it? Let's talk. Um, or do you know who's going to go after this?
ABBY: That sort of stuff. So having those people that I can just text up real quick and be like, Hey, did you see this? What's going on? It's been really awesome. Um, and then my team was, and you know, remains pretty close. We're actually going to go get dinner tomorrow, um, to celebrate our white paper getting published as well as my promotion.
ABBY: So that's great. Congratulations. Thank you. Oh, that's cool. Cool.
Yohanna: Yeah.
ABBY: Thank you. I'm [00:13:00] happy for you. Appreciate it. So yeah. So I'm a manager now and I was just a specialist, um, beforehand. So yeah.
Yohanna: So it looks like the skills and knowledge that you've gained, they just, I mean, it just doesn't stop after, after the grant, it like keeps going, like you keep accumulating a lot.
Yohanna: And it sounds like the networking. Part is really vital, I think, like it's, it's vital. That's really good.
ABBY: Yeah, I think so. I mean, the biggest part about like what we do in our industry is just talking to each other. Like whether or not it's exchanging ideas or, you know, partnering on opportunities to go after.
ABBY: Like just having people to be like, I don't know this person at this agency, do you? Um, and kind of helping each other out that way. So yeah, definitely networking is, uh, I think a vital piece of it.
Yohanna: All right. So if, if someone is listening and is on the fence about applying to our professional development program at IAC, um, what would you say to them?
ABBY: Um, do it, take the leap. It's awesome. The, the ride is [00:14:00] fun. Um, all of the support staff at ACT IAC as well as the coaches, they're awesome. Like I, it's been amazing getting to meet them and talk to them. So they're, they. They're industry experts. Um, they know what they're talking about. They're great mentors and it's worth, it's worth the time and the effort and it's, the program is what you put into it.
ABBY: The more you put into it, the more you want to try and talk to people and go to the events, like the more you're going to get out of it of, you know, you're going to have these friends for a long time. So it's worth putting that effort in. That's
Yohanna: good. Thank you so much. Yeah, of course. All right, so we have made it to, uh, the end of our conversation.
Yohanna: And before we wrap up, I want to have a little bit of fun. You've mentioned a couple of acronyms already throughout, and I, I don't know all the acronyms. Like, I'm going to need a list from you. We're going to play a quick game called Acronym Wars. The rules are pretty simple. I'm going to quiz you on your knowledge of just and maybe not so common, government acronyms.
Yohanna: Are you ready? Are you born [00:15:00] ready? Here we go. Alright, I'm ready. So here's the first one. What is F I S M A?
ABBY: FISMA is um, oh it's a security thing. Federal Information Management and Security Agency.
Yohanna: You're close. Close. You want to try another, try again?
ABBY: Federal Information Management. No, I don't know this one.
ABBY: Off the top of my head.
Yohanna: Alright, time's up. Alright. Federal Information Security Management Act. Act, gotcha.
ABBY: That
Yohanna: one. It's agency or it's act. Agency, administration,
ABBY: act. It's one of the three of them. One of those.
Yohanna: Alright, here's another one. What is HUD?
ABBY: HUD, uh, Housing and Urban Development.
Yohanna: There ya go! Ding, ding, ding!
Yohanna: What about [00:16:00] NPS? Uh, National Park Service. What?! Easy, easy peasy lemon squeezy. They're a new customer of mine. I'm glad I know that one. Oh, are they? Oh, that's great. That's good. Alright, yeah, those were the only three that I had. I always trip them up. I, it's like, there are like three different types of acronyms that I always, yeah, I never get them right.
Yohanna: My cyber guys
ABBY: are going to be making fun of me that I didn't get the MISMO one though, so.
Yohanna: All right. Yeah. So thank you so much. I hope that was fun. Thanks for playing along. Uh, before we go, is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners?
ABBY: Yeah, sure. I mean, for anybody, um, wanting to connect, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.
ABBY: Happy to talk about the Associates program or kind of anything GovCon in general, um, and certainly get involved with ACT IAC. It's been fun and getting to connect with, uh, senior leaders in the government has been invaluable. So [00:17:00] definitely recommend it.
Yohanna: Great. Thank you so
ABBY: much. Of course.
Yohanna: This has been such an insightful conversation.
Yohanna: Thank you for sharing your journey and experiences with us. And to our listeners, if you're interested in learning more about ACT IAC's professional development program, be sure to check out actiac. org slash professional dash development. Until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and we will see you in the next episode.