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A good sign indeed, Bob. It's also a good sign for me when ithe person who interviewed me for te EPA position asked me for my technical handwriting samples again. I checked and I did send her it to her before. I sent her it again and called her to confirm it.
I just finished my interview with NIOSH. It looked like the guy they hired quit after 5 months because he wanted to be closer to his family (North Carolina). I assured her that I have no problem, even if I'm here now in California. I should know after the holidays.
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Done with the NIOSH interview..the shop is a small one with only 3 people and they look out for a 35 acre facility and bldgs which has laboratories. with a satellite facility in a quarry 15 miles away (where they do destructive testing evidently). The last guy on the job died and his replacement decided we wanted to work closer to his family. I told her I have no problems about that.
Also got another pass HR screening for an OSHA position in San Antonio, Texas. Which might pose a problem. I'm a Lakers fan. Can I learn to root for the Spurs..especially when it's against L.A?
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The San Antonio following is a pretty loyal one - many have been for years! It'll be pretty hard to take when the Spurs are having a lousy season.
Otherwise, enjoy the atmosphere. Hemisphere Park is lovely, and in the spring time I highly recommend you take a drive down some back-roads to enjoy the wildflower season. The Battle of the Roses parade is always a treat (and one with a fun origin story behind it), and Fiesta is hard to miss - a ten day long celebration of everything that is San Antonio.
It's also home to several major amusement parks, such as Six Flags and Sea World.
The only downside are the summers - they tend to be rather humid. The winters, on the other hand, are usually very mild (high 50's to low 60's on Christmas Day).
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Firing horror stories
05-20-2010, 06:33 AM
I'll keep that in mind.
I helped my employment mentor as an assistant for a workshop he hosted on Wednesday. There was this guy in his late 50's-early 60's who was there with a horror story to tell. He was with his last job for 6 years when his boss pulled him in and told him he was going to be laid off. Then his soon to be ex-boss told him, he'll be retained for 2 more weeks to train his replacement.. his boss' son....which he did..when 2 weeks are up he was asked to stay on for another week...because his replacement wanted a week's vacation before going to work!
I'm beginning to think my ex-boss isn't a cold inhuman s.o.b after all. He at least didn't pull that sort of crap on me.
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My next-to-last job in New York ended like that -- I came in one Monday morning and the comptroller called me into his office. "I meant to tell you this on Friday," he said as he pushed a severance check at me, "you weren't supposed to come in today." His nephew was there that morning to replace me.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Gyaaaaahhhh... Douche-bagimus Maximus!
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Well, at least he paid for a car and driver to take me home when it became clear that I had more stuff in my cube than I could get home in one trip on the train, even when Peggy (who was then still my fiancee) came up with boxes and bags to help me pack it all to go.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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ordnance11 Wrote:I'll keep that in mind.
I helped my employment mentor as an assistant for a workshop he hosted on Wednesday. There was this guy in his late 50's-early 60's who was there with a horror story to tell. He was with his last job for 6 years when his boss pulled him in and told him he was going to be laid off. Then his soon to be ex-boss told him, he'll be retained for 2 more weeks to train his replacement.. his boss' son....which he did..when 2 weeks are up he was asked to stay on for another week...because his replacement wanted a week's vacation before going to work!
I'm beginning to think my ex-boss isn't a cold inhuman s.o.b after all. He at least didn't pull that sort of crap on me. Yeah... at the end of the two weeks, I'd at best quote a high 'consulting rate' for working that extra week, or tell them, "no thanks, I need to get my job search started right now." Although, admittedly, they might have used that as ammunition against having to pay out the unemployment....
--
"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor
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At least the cost of living will be cheap
05-21-2010, 07:07 PM
For this week (3rd week of May):
Total Applications: 146
Applications passed HR screening
1- IH Position @ Marine Corps
1-IH Position @ Navy
2- Enviromental Protection slot @Army
1 IH position @ Air Force
1- IH slot @ CDC/NIOSH
2 -FCIP slots @ VA
1 job application @ Los Angeles County
4 (or 5 depending on how you look at it) FCIP slots @ EPA
5 positions @ OSHA
Total : 17/18
Interviews pending:
1- position at VA
Interviews done:
1- interview from Los Angeles County
1- interview from VA
1- interview from EPA
1- interview from CDC/NIOSH
Edit: I just checked back on th applications I submitted to the army and there was another one for the U.S Army depot at Herlong California. Right at the California-Nevada border. 2 miles north of Reno Nevada. Boy..talk about remote. The place still has cows roaming the place!
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Dare I hope?
05-26-2010, 12:06 AM
I just got calls from my ex-boss and current boss about the VA in Minneapolis. They were asking for references about me. I don't want to get my hopes up, but I'm already starting the planning for moving as a contingency. Now where is that road map, and what do I want to visit along the way?
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If they're checking your references, then you've cleared the other hurdles... but there's always a chance that (a) they don't like your references, or (b) they like somebody else's references better. Still, it is a good sign.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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Lesson fromn Star Wars
05-26-2010, 12:57 AM
robkelk Wrote:If they're checking your references, then you've cleared the other hurdles... but there's always a chance that (a) they don't like your references, or (b) they like somebody else's references better. Still, it is a good sign. I took steps for a. B, I can't do anything about. Right now the only thing I can do is this:
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See what happens when you stay on target?
05-27-2010, 01:16 AM
Got another interview from the EPA (Philadephia) set for Wednesday. Go for broke!
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For this week (4rd week of May):
Total Applications: 148
Applications
passed HR screening
1- IH Position @ Marine Corps
1-IH
Position @ Navy
2- Enviromental Protection slot @Army
1 IH
position @ Air Force
1- IH slot @ CDC/NIOSH
2 -FCIP slots @ VA
1 job application @ Los Angeles County
4 (or 5 depending on how
you look at it) FCIP slots @ EPA
5 positions @ OSHA
Total :
17/18
Interviews pending:
1- position at VA
1- position at EPA
Interviews
done:
1- interview from Los Angeles County
1- interview from
VA*
1- interview from EPA
1- interview from CDC/NIOSH
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Well, at least I made an impression
06-02-2010, 08:07 PM
Just finished the EPA interview. 2 things stuck out:
1. Part of the job would end up being the PR man for the EPA at the local level. Time to bone up my speaking skills.
2. Part of the job also means taking manageable risks? Isn't that the opposite of what being a bureaucrat is?
I made at least a few of them chuckle when I described a project where I was working in a public housing project where the gang-bangers roam.
I'll know by mid-late July.
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Good luck.
I just got back from another job fair, where I think I made a couple good contacts for jobs at companies like McGraw-Hill. At least this one was much better than the last one, especially since I wasn't zonked on cold medicine while recovering from the flu.
Met a couple of interesting people while in line for one of the tables, too -- it was a long, slow line and we actually were chatting for almost an hour; we ended up trading email addresses. One was a slender, tiny Chinese woman (girl? She could pass for 16, easily) who was an experienced Cisco tech and more than a little entertainingly manic. (No, not a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, although she was certainly manic, pixie-ish and very female.)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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It's really getting hard to estimate a woman's age nowadays.
It's becoming a common occurrence that every time that I'm on the phone during the interview, there's a disturbance that threatens to disrupt it. The first one was the cat decided to start howling. He'd done that before at night, but it's the first time he's done it during the day. So we placed him in another room for this interview. Now the canary decided he's going to sing his lungs out 10 minutes into the interview. Jeeze...good thing there's no dog!
You know, over here most (if not all) of the job fairs are dog and pony shows for the most part. The prospective employers essentially give a spiel, but it's "look up our web page and click on Employment" most of the time. Probably the best advice I had was from the Air Force recruiter who told a group of other vets what they use for screening criteria.
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I just passed HR screening for another OSHA position ..this time in Birmingham, Ala. That's 6 so far for this agency. But I'm beginning to wonder when they're going to start arranging for interviews?
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Just got back from an interview with an agency that I got thanks to a former co-worker who thought of me when she heard about an opening. I've recently been telling recruiters that I'm open to consulting/contract work, if only to start working again and keep my skills sharp, and this place may have an opening for me on one of their teams at Dun and Bradstreet. So wish me luck.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Ask and ye shall receive!
06-03-2010, 10:24 PM
Good luck for that position Bob!
Remember my last post on when OSHA is going to call? Lo and behold, they called me asking when I can be interviewed! Tomorrow at 1100 local. Good thing I got most of the review material ready.
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Today's Impossible Job Requirement: Quote:8 - 10 years experience with .Net 2005/2008 (.Net Framework 2.0/3.5)
How can anyone have 8-10 years' experience with something that came out five or less years ago? Doesn't anyone proofread these things for sense?
-- Bob
---------
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...and my shoes began to squeak.
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My interview for San Antonio OSHA got rescheduled for Next Monday June 7. So here are this week's stats.
For this week (1st week of June):
Total Applications: 150
Applications
passed HR screening
1- IH Position @ Marine Corps
1-IH
Position @ Navy
2- Enviromental Protection slot @Army
1 IH
position @ Air Force
1- IH slot @ CDC/NIOSH
2 -FCIP slots @ VA
1 job application @ Los Angeles County
4 (or 5 depending on how
you look at it) FCIP slots @ EPA
7 positions @ OSHA
Total : 19/20
Interviews pending:
1- position at VA
1- position
at OSHA (San Antonio)
Interviews
done:
1- interview from Los Angeles County
1- interview from
VA*
1- interview from EPA (Washington D.C)
1- interview from EPA (Philadelphia)
1- interview from CDC/NIOSH
It's looking like it'll take 4-6 weeks from the end of the interview process before a successful candidate gets notified based on my talks with HR folks at the VA. Since I know I was the first one to be interviewed, my guesstimate it will be the mid to late June when the word is given and the other interviews would follow also.
Of course there are exceptions to the rule. The application for San Antonio closed on April 26. I got pass HR screening and was submitted to the hiring official on May 28. Said official called me on June 3rd. Talk about fast!
Edit: : Forgot to mention I passed another HR screening for OSHA in Toledo Ohio.
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Just finished the interview for OSHA. The job entails me to be a cop, an educator and a fact-finder. The cop part would require me to be with mercy or pity for those who break the rules. Judge and Jury in other words.
*Thinks*
I can do it.
Edit: He did ask at the end of the interview if my reference list is current. That should mean I'm on the short list...I hope.
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Got another passed HR screening for an OSHA position in Smyra, Georgia. So 22 total so far.
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Interesting article on the federal job process
06-09-2010, 12:32 AM
Streamlining the Federal hiring process
The guy mentioned in the article must be doing something extremely wrong. 50 applications in 2 years and no interviews. I feel sorry for him.
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