My job search is over, lasting about 7 weeks total.
As a separating MMC/SW with PPWS, I was looking to start as an NLO somewhere or another, and really left it wide open for location. I found that many of the utilities were hiring, and applied to nearly all of them. I was contacted by Excelon, Progress, FPL, Entergy, and Constellation. I actually made it to one POSS, on which I didn't make the grade for whatever reason. I did prepare but it wasn't to be on that day.
In parallel, I put a resume (that took me all of about a half hour to draft up) on Monster. I was contacted by several of the job placement companies, and went with the first one to contact me that I recognized as a nationwide leader in military placement. They marketed me aggressively in several sectors, but I found that I was most marketable as a Maintenance Manager. To "land the plane" on this one, they put me together with an international corporation who offered a lucrative package to run preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance at one of their plants (agricultural field). I accepted the position yesterday.
I wanted a nuclear job, and can say the following about my personal experiences with the utilities with which I worked:
1. Progress: POSS's with them, but the process was less than smooth. They told me that my rental car and hotel would be covered in advance, and I showed up at almost midnight the night before to find out that this was not the case. I was stuck with the bill and had to submit a claim which may take up to 8 weeks to recover. I didn't pass the test for nuclear ops, but was told that I was eligible for one of their fossil fuel plants. I was told to apply to a fossil job and that someone would be in touch. I, of course, tried for at least a week to get with the fossil fuels recruiter to no avail. I finally gave up on them.
2. Excelon: I liked the recruiter over the phone and would have possibly gone to interview there, but frankly, was not interested in taking 3 tests for an entry level position. FYI: Quad Cities is still looking for AO's for a May class and Dresden is for June.
3. Entergy: Like the Ops guy I spoke with over the phone at Vermont Yankee, but the timing wasn't right. Their next AO class is in December.
4. FPL: What can I say? Was contacted on the day that I POSS'd with Progress, and I returned the call the next day (and a couple more times after that). TWO WEEKS LATER the recruiter called me and put me in touch with the Ops guy at Duane Arnold. After a good conversation in which he said that he was going to get the recuiter to fly me up the next week...TWO WEEKS LATER and I haven't even heard from the recruiter, despite at least 3 calls/voice mails left for her. What a piece of crap unprofessional outfit (the hiring part, anyway). Not even a courtesy call.
5. Constellation: They contacted me for an SRO-instant position, and I wasn't really interested anyway, so I let that one drop.
6. Southern Company: Never had a chance to get in touch with them, despite applying for ever power plant job in the southeast with them, fossil and nuclear. I was willing to take significantly less money to stay in GA (home state) and even relocate myself. I couldn't even get a call back..."Recruiter Reviewing" status for every job. Unbelievable to me.
In conclusion, to you guys getting out I just want to tell you not to forget non-nuclear opportunities. In my limited experience of the past seven weeks, they were more interested in my ability to manage maintenance schedules and lead people. The final interview was skewed to those aspects of my naval experience.
I'll still hang around here because I am still worth a little to this part of the forum. If any of you who are getting out want some of my contacts on the nuclear or non-nuclear side, I would be glad to give you some direct contacts inside the companies I listed above and my contact with the company that placed me. I do know that my new company is hiring the exact same position that I was offered, but in Raleigh, NC, and are looking for a retiring CPO or above (I am not retiring, so they sent me to the plant who was looking for a more "energetic" guy. I have plenty of info to share with anyone who needs it.
Thanks to Jason, Mike, Rick, and the rest of you for your help and support.
