Interested in a cleared career with a small business? Learn more about the advantages of working for the hundreds of small business contractors supporting the federal government in this special feature written by Todd Keys, Program Manager with Cantada.
According to 2012 U.S. Census Bureau data, as reported by the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, firms with fewer than 500 employees accounted for 99.7% of U.S. businesses. Businesses with less than 20 employees make up 89.6% of the employer firms within the U. S.
At some point in your career, you may be faced with the opportunity to work for a small business. There are advantages to working for a small business, and you should know them.
FLEXIBILITY
In a small business, decisions are made locally, by managers and owners who know you and your customer. Rather than having every move governed by corporate handbooks and decrees, decisions that impact you are made by owners and managers that understand your situation and know your value to the customer. From an overall business perspective, decisions that impact company direction are also made by owners that fully comprehend the market and the opportunity.
DEVELOP SKILLS
Working for a small business, you have the opportunity to develop skills and experience in areas that will make you a more well-rounded professional. This could be working business areas such as Business Development, Capture, and Proposals. You may also have opportunities to expand technical skills by becoming a contributor to internal projects. Exposure to all facets of the small business operation could also provide insight into how to run your own small business.
WHO ARE YOU?
With a small business, you are a name, not a number. You are more than a bottom line on a spreadsheet. As an individual, you are known by the company owner who understands your customer, your mission, and develops a deep understanding of your skills and goals.
TEAM AND CULTURE
The small business will often have a defined niche – an area of the market for which they are well-known. This focus develops expertise that is shared among the team. There is a comradery and a defined culture inherent in a small business, and it is something that you will be able to notice from the first interview.
cantada: A small company with big talent
Cantada provides all of this and more. Founded in 2003, Cantada is a veteran-owned, full spectrum technology development and consultation firm intent on providing the finest cutting edge technology to the United States Intelligence and Military communities. With offices in Sarasota, Fla. and Fort Meade, Md, Cantada supports the intelligence community, DoD, and other federal agencies. Throughout our tenure as a provider of specialized products and services, we have been driven by one goal, to provide our customers with the tools necessary to ensure mission success. To this end, we have created an impressive catalog of capabilities including sophisticated antenna design (microstrip patches, electrically small antennas, and concealed specialty antennas), DSP-based SDR frameworks, satellite communications equipment, RF modeling and simulation, RF testing and characterization, and fiber optics (SDH and SONET), and FPGA design.
While Cantada provides hardware and software engineering, CNO expertise, SCADA and Industrial Control analysis and design, virtual infrastructure and data center design, installation and maintenance, and data analytics, Cantada is known for embedded expertise. This includes Forward and Reverse engineering, PCB design and assembly, and DSP and RF solution design and manufacturing. Many of our engineers live in the embedded world. We are at our best when our talented engineers are able to partner with our customers, to hear about their most difficult problems, and develop mission-impacting solutions. Cantada developed solutions have resulted in innovative missions and patented solutions. In a commoditized, LRU-based technical world, the components are often overlooked. This is an area where Cantada lives and thrives.
Whether it is developing new and innovative solutions or providing technical staff to support customer missions, small businesses contribute to the intelligence community every day, and Cantada is no exception. With experience as both a prime and sub-contractor within the intelligence community, Cantada has become a recognized leader in embedded and reverse engineering. We created the first embedded platform for use within an agency CNO framework. We have developed a range of satellite communication products, and we have designed a next-generation DSP-based SDR framework. Without question, small businesses can and do have big impacts with customers, missions, and technology in general.
At Cantada, we take care of the mission and we take care of our people. The culture is innovation and mission support with integrity. Here you work alongside the brightest of engineers while solving interesting, technical challenges. Cantada owners and management are U.S. military veterans, each with a quarter century or more of experience as contractors and consultants within the IC. Do you have an idea? Well, the owner is right here, so let’s talk. It’s as simple as that.
Cantada is a small businesses making big contributions within the intelligence community. Come experience this for yourself, whether it is for personal career growth, the opportunity to experience more, to gain business acumen or technical skills or all of the above while being more than just a number. Be recognized for your contributions and consider spending some career time with a small business. The skills you gain will be of value for the rest of your career. If this interests you, then we need to have a conversation.
