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Command department

Command Track: Contracts, Money, Hiring and Planning

Running the outfit: how government contracts work, pricing and cash, hiring legally and well, and planning technical work so it actually ships. For foremen, supervisors, small business owners and anyone moving into management.

Command covers the leaders who win the work, pay the crew and keep the plan honest.

4 modules · about 90 minutes in all · a quiz after each module · final test: 12 questions, pass with 10 right

Join the crew and start this track About Command

What's in it

  1. Module 1: Winning the work: contracts

    A lot of space and energy work is paid for by the government.

    About 15 minutes · quiz of 5 questions on this module · sources include SAM.gov and Federal Acquisition Regulation

  2. Module 2: Money: price, margin and cash

    Markup and margin are not the same.

    About 15 minutes · quiz of 5 questions on this module · sources include SBA and SEC

  3. Module 3: Hiring right and legally

    Structured interviews, where every candidate gets the same job-related questions and is scored against the same rating scale, predict job performance better than casual conversations.

    About 15 minutes · quiz of 5 questions on this module · sources include OPM and EEOC

  4. Module 4: Planning technical work

    NASA uses Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) from 1 to 9 to say how mature a technology is.

    About 15 minutes · quiz of 5 questions on this module · sources include NASA and NASA Systems Engineering Handbook

The full lessons, quizzes and final test are open to crew members. Joining is free.

A question from module 1

To get a federal contract, a business registers at:

  1. A. LinkedIn
  2. B. SAM.gov ✓
  3. C. The DMV
  4. D. Any bank

SAM.gov registration gives the UEI.

What you get

SAMPLEMars Mining Academy

Sample certificate

Your name here

completed the

Mars Mining Certificate in Operations Leadership Fundamentals

  • Winning the work: contracts
  • Money: price, margin and cash
  • Hiring right and legally
  • Planning technical work

Each real certificate gets an ID and its own page at marsmining.com/academy/verify/, plus an Add to LinkedIn button.

This is a certificate of completion from Mars Mining, not academic credit or a license. It shows you studied the material and passed an unproctored online test.

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