Symoné Berry
- Symoné Berry made over $225k working as an overseas US government tech contractor .
- While in Taiwan, she took a week off every month and received “rest and relaxation” pay to travel.
- Berry sometimes worked 90+ hour weeks — the benefits were worth it to her but it’s not for everyone.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Symoné Berry, a 31-year-old government contractor living in Atlanta. Her jobs and income have been verified by BI. It’s been edited for length and clarity.
I always knew I wanted a government contracting job .
My mom was a mortgage underwriter and we lived in the DC area. She would always tell me about these overseas government contractors who lived in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they would buy $500,000 houses in all cash.
I didn’t know how I was going to do it and I didn’t know anything about it — but I knew that’s what I wanted to do.
At 16, I started to build my career in government tech and went to vocational school. From there, I went to Christopher Newport University on a basketball scholarship and eventually transferred to Virginia Commonwealth University. I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in computer science with a minor in math.