Why employees would work for a sub rather than a prime

One phenomenon that has puzzled me for a while is why a W2 employee would work for a sub-contractor rather than a prime, assuming they had an opportunity to take either option.

After all, it's probably less risky to work for a prime who has won the contract then for a sub who is a layer removed from the government client.

I've been trying to recruit and place a potential employee on a project. I had him interview with a prime and told him if he feels like he'd rather work for them, he should do it. But if he'd like to work for me I can probably get a sub-contract arranged with them and he can work for my company.

He interviewed and told me he'd rather work for my company.

I asked him why and he mentioned the benefits package was sub-par compared to mine, but more importantly he liked being able to be honest with me and talk about his interests and life goals and such.

Even though the work in this case would be identical, my company offered a better compensation package and a better culture fit for him.

So sub-contractors can indeed compete for talent with much larger companies who primes on government contracts.

The implicaton for solo 1099s is that primes won't always have the ability to attract the talent they need. They need sub-contractors/1099s who can do the work but for whatever reason, won't work for their company.

It's a strange ecosystem, but it's one that you can take advantage of to get your first 1099 gig.

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.