Like many others in the technocratically inclined second generation of Yugoslav communists, Kontić entered politics through directorial stints in state-owned companies. In Kontić's particular case, he worked his way up the corporate/political ladder in the Nikšić steelmill throughout the late 1960s and 1970s. Finally in 1978 he became a member of SR Montenegro's Executive Council, thus entering politics full-time.[2]