Post Job Search Observations-

[taterhead]

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. 

[JustinHEMI05]

Congratulations! Where will you be located?

Justin

[Fermi2]

Anytime!! If I can assist you in the future I'd be glad to do so again. You bring a lot of insight to this board so I hope you stay.

Congratulations by the way.

Mike

[taterhead]

Congratulations! Where will you be located?

Beautiful Des Moines, IA!

[number41]

Tater, I can't say that I agree with your assessment of Progress, Southern, or Entergy.  I've gotten offers from each of those companies, and even multiple offers from one of them.  I'm wondering if you just happened upon the wrong groups of recruiters at the wrong time.  Also, in my limited experience, seven weeks is not very long to be searching for a job.  I've been on 8 interview trips over the last 3 months, and everyone of those has turned into an offer.  Again, I'm not really trying to disagree with you.  But I think the people searching this thread should hear both sides of the story.  It seems to me that giving enough lead time is the key.  It's taken a little time to cultivate the relationships necessary to get offers for interviews and job offers, but it definitely has been worth the extra time.  I would recommend someone getting out start their job search at least 3 months if not 4 to 5 months prior to EAOS.  You may not get offers within 2 weeks of beginning your search, but if you keep after it you can definitely get some good leads.  I think the longest leg of my job search has been getting in touch with the people who do the hiring.  This takes some time and patience to say the least, but again, I think the wait made a big difference in the number of interviews/offers I got.  In fact, at my 8 week point, I had been on 2 interviews and had no offers.  Here I am after roughly 12 weeks, and I have declined 5 offers and currently have 3 good offers at my 3 top picks for employment.  So now it's simply up to me to decide which path is best.  By the way, we have very similar experience within the Navy, so I am assuming that the difference between you and I is timing.

[taterhead]

I never said that 7 weeks was a long time.  I am glad your experience was a little different than mine.  I was relating my own experiences.

Progress did give me a shot, and I appreciated that.  They screwed up my travel arrangements, which left me scrambling for a rental car at midnight in Wilmington.  Post-test, despite verbal and written (email) promises to the contrary, they never contacted me.  If a person say that they will call me "by the end of the week" I expect a call, or at least a message letting me know that they were tied up and will get back to me later (or not, if that is their intention).  Is straight talk too much to ask?  I am a big boy, if I am not desired, just let me know and I will stop wasting your time.

Southern has yet to call or email for any of the 12 positions for which I applied (dating back to January 12), all power plant operators, some nuclear but mostly fossil.  Judging by the pay range, I would say that I was at least qualified.

I don't think I said anything bad about Entergy.  Timing was off, but I had a good conversation with a guy at VY.

Look, I am not trying to say that I deserve to get every job or any job with a utility.  Maybe I wasn't competitive.  I don't know.  I appreciate all of the contact I had with all of the utilities.  I am more than happy with the position I have accepted.  I didn't settle...I got a lucrative offer well above what I would had set as my desirable level.

You make a good point that having a bunch of lead time is more beneficial.  If I were more patient, I would likely get an offer.  That goes back to my point that the nuclear hiring process is a bit convoluted and time-consuming as compared to other jobs that may pay as well or better for someone with the skill set of a navy nuke.  Now, there is a reason for that, and I get it...this is, after all, nuclear power.  I would suppose that another good take-away from this for people at our level is that there are a plethora of companies, both utility and non-utility, who covet our skill set.  To limit oneself to nuclear is unnecessary unless that is what one wants.

By the way, those pants, you need to upgrade...

[number41]

Did you use headhunters at all?  Just curious.  My opinion is that 90% of the nukes out there don't really need one in the current job market, but at least one place showed no interest in me until a headhunter contacted them for me.

[taterhead]

Did you use headhunters at all?  Just curious.  My opinion is that 90% of the nukes out there don't really need one in the current job market, but at least one place showed no interest in me until a headhunter contacted them for me.

No, I appplied directly to the utilities.  Strangely enough, though, I did use a headhunter type organization for non-nuclear opportunities, and from the first day I was in contact with them to the day I received the offer was exactly 1 month.  They were aggressive and proactive.

[Ranger88]

Taterhead,

Which headhunter did you use?  I was contacted by one after putting my res on monster.  I am in a similar situation as you but have only been looking hard for 2 months.  I just had a interview with a local nuke plant for NLO position.

I think on-line applications/resumes/job screening leaves allot to be desired.

Thanks,

David

[Loffy Muffin]

FWI, it is pretty standard for utilities to treat people in the manner you have been treated.  They are still living in the past, thinking they can let a person sit there for 2 months or more before they offer a position.  From an engineers stand point I can tell you all of the utilities are +10k's behind other fields.  I have no idea how they get, or retain anyone (non ops).  None.  My friends at TVA (engineers) just got their "performance raises" of 3%.  Which is a pay cut for anyone that has a clue.  Bonus was an insult.  Their mid point for a senior engineer is almost what we start new engineers out at.  The only thing I can think of is they get the home town discount.  People work there for a couple of years and its tough to move.

Be careful of those Maintenance Manager gigs, they will want you there on the week nights, weekends, outages, etc.  For no pay.  You will learn allot, though.  With  the boom in commodity prices, oil/gas/agriculture should be solid for years to come.  So, get certified level 2/3 vibration, get planning down, learn privavera, FMEA, and keep the resume updated.  Get a year or two in and shop the resume to refineries, chem plants.  If they are not giving 5-10% raises, 30% bonuses, OT, profit sharing, dump them after you get some good experience/training out of them.  Or at least gage the market to were you stand.

Sometime a headhunter is better then applying directly.  HH might have a direct contact that will bye pass the HR bozos. 

Des moines?  well, life is not over yet I guess.

[taterhead]

Des moines?  well, life is not over yet I guess.

Predictive Maintenance is supposed to be my baby...and they are really big on SMRP certs, so I would be willing to bet I will be going for that soon afer I get my feet wet.  The folks I talked to, both recruiters and managers, stress that the company is big on internal promotion.  One of the guys that interviewed me was pretty young (younger than me), and had recently moved up to refinery manager after a 2 year gig in a smaller plant.

Surprisingly, everything I have read about Des Moines is good.  Education, cost of living, crime; Iowa, and DSM in particular, tend to rank in top tens nation wide (on the good side).  On the other side, it is cold in the winter.  I have never lived where the temp went into negatives...eek.

[taterhead]

Taterhead,

Which headhunter did you use?  I was contacted by one after putting my res on monster.  I am in a similar situation as you but have only been looking hard for 2 months.  I just had a interview with a local nuke plant for NLO position.

I think on-line applications/resumes/job screening leaves allot to be desired.

Thanks,

David

David-

PM sent

[Ranger88]

taterhead,

Got your PM, thanks, I am using the same company, no results yet.

David