Navy Nuke Asking For Help

[GARYGWOODJR]

I am a Master Chief ELT  getting out in May looking to break into civilian nuclear power.  I am newbie here so please forgive me if I commit some serious breach of etiquette.  I spent a few hours looking through the message board and this is what I think I know so far:

1. DOD and DOE security clearences are not readily tranferable, the fact that you hold a DOD clearence only make the process a little quicker.  It does sound like they use the same SF form so you can start working on it while you are still in the NAVY.

2. South Florida is the armpit of the world but the easiest place to break into the business because of the high turnover rate. (That explains why the FPL jobsite has so many open positions)

3. My ELT experience only gets my foot in in the door.

4. There are many disgruntled ex-Navy nukes working in the civilian sector.

The questions I have are:

Can the management and supervisory experience I have get me into that type of position at a plant or do they prefer people with RCT, HP, Chem Tech experience at a civilian plant?

What can I do in the next few months to keep me from looking like a fool if I happen to land one of these positions?

Does anybody have contacts at any plants that they are willing to share?

I am not looking to get rich but I would like to pull down at least 60-65K a year.  I understand that there is alot of overtime available at many plant so hiring in a $25/hr doesnt mean that you wont make considerably more.  I appreciate any and all help.

 
   

[JassenB]

MMCM --

First of all, thanks for sticking it out and serving your country, I really appreciate it.

You weren't on the TR or at NPTU Charleston anytime in the past 6 years by any chance, were you?

Second, I'm by no means an expert, and I myself am still vying for my entry into commercial nuclear power. I'm finishing up some college work right now and will be jumping back into the work force this summer. But, I have learned a *lot* from all the guys/gals here on NukeWorker in the past several months, and I'm working on compiling an FAQ for commercial power newbies, based on what I've learned here.

To your questions: First of all, your ELT experience counts for quite a bit, *especially* if you've been on a decom crew or a ship refueling. Experience during that time counts on a 1 month:1 month basis. Otherwise, being an ELT counts for 12 months of equivalent experience towards the ANSI 3.1 requirements to qualify as a Senior Health Physics Technician, which requires 4 or 5 years of relevent experience (or something close to that).

If you have completed a college degree, that counts for another 12 months, also. That's what I'm counting on to get into commercial power, since I was an EM, which really gets me nowhere in the HP field.

While you're waiting to get out, you might want to study up for the theory exams. Somebody else chime in here, but I *think* you have enough qualified experience to probably take the NRRPT exam, which is the standard certification for civilian HP techs. Also, the Dept. of Energy CORE exam is the gateway to DOE work. This site has practice tests and study guides available in the "Study" section.

I would imagine that your experience  in supervisory roles would count for quite a bit if you found a full time, in-house position at a power plant. A lot of plants have a position called a Shift Technical Specialist or something to that effect, that is basically a supervisory/technical advisor type position, available in Operations departments. As a road tech, I have no clue what is available.

For full-time work and some really good career advice, there is a well respected member of the NukeWorker.com communityu that is a nuclear recruiter, but I would never label her a "head hunter." Her user name is "NukeRecruiter". You might want to send her a private message here on the system. She helped me out a LOT when trying to figure out what to do to maximize both my Navy nuke experience and college education.

Check out the job boards here, and call directly and talk to the contract companies. The two largest contract companies for HP work are Bartlett and Numanco. They get the vast majority of the contracts for outages.

I hope I'm not breaking etiquette by mentioning this, but another individual you may want to talk to that helped me out a lot is Scott Wolf of the McLain Group in New Orleans. His number is 985-725-0290. He has a lot of experience with military-civilian transitions.

Well, I hope that is a good start.

Good luck, and welcome to CIV DIV!
Take care!
-Jassen

[GARYGWOODJR]

Thanks for the insight, I feel like I have been asleep at the wheel.  I should have started looking into this before now.  I was the first PLELT at MTS-626.  I left NPTU Charleston in 1996.

[actinium224]

From the NRRPT.org site:
An applicant must have a minimum of five years experience. Training may be substituted for experience if the applicant will submit to the Board information about the program and proof of completion. This information should include curriculum, typical examinations, and passing requirements for radiation related subjects.

Experience credit allowed for formal education, company training programs and applicable military training is cumulative up to a maximum of two years. Note that an applicant may not claim work experience while in formal classroom study.

(Un)Fortunately, depending on your opinion, the NRRPT gives limited experience credit for military time (2 years max) and the HPS gives no credit for enlisted military time towards meeting qualification requirements. 

As for pointing the MMCM in the right direction, the fact that you only want 60-65K a year is good.  Working OT consistently will almost get you there.  The supervisory aspect is less promising, but, depending on your interview skills and how much time you spent improving upon the initial skills the Navy educated you with, you might be a good fit somewhere.

See, with enough time since service our level of disgruntlement can recede to near background levels.

[moodusjack]

Being a MCMM will make it difficult to swallow teching, where ever the assignment.  Some outfits might consider you for Site Coordinator if your people skills are right.  Auditing and assesment might be an option, but other than INPO, I don't see a long-term market. 

Did you get the sheepskin?  What do you need to finish?  Your experience plus some paper might make a company consider you for staff position.

Good luck.

[IPREGEN]

You have alot of options. Don't rule out working in the maintenance department. First off, have you kept track of anybody that has been discharged and gone to work at a  site? It helps alot to have somebody as a breathing reference for any site you want to work at. Try contracting for a while, HP, Maint , Safety, whatever. A site may be in a place you want to live but not be the best place to work. Contracting will give you a chance to speak with the housefolks, let you see the area and give the house to see you prior to applying.  Also find out who owns each site you want to work, PSE&G, Excelon, FPL, Entergy, SNC, PGE, go to their web page and check back freqently. Postings may not stay up very long. Another option is try to recall where some of the officers that liked you went, they may be moving up quickly in management and if you gave them the impression that you are a go-getter, you may have a way in that door. It's not kissing butt, it's networking.

[GARYGWOODJR]

I am currently taking the last two courses I need to finish my BS from TESC (Nuclear Engineering Technology).  Just so anyone reading this knows, I do not think I am too good to swing a meter or spill some water in a lab.  As anyone who knows me will tell you, I have always prided myself on working at least as hard as the guys who worked for me.  I have one goal, put food on the table.  Thanks for all of the good info.       

[Already Gone]

Welcome to the club Wingsfan,
The best advice I can give you is to write a resume that shows you as a leader.  That won't be hard for a Master Chief.
Stress overhaul and shipyard experience, since this is the closest thing you have to commercial nuke work.  But don't use dumb phrases like "maintained the reactor system on a 130 person mobile facility."  Just tell it as it happened.  Say that you were a Machinist's Mate on a Nuclear Powered Submarine/Cruiser/Carrier...etc.  That doesn't need to be candy-coated.  It is something to be proud of.
Passing the Nuclear Fundamentals Exam will be a walk in the park for you.  The NRRPT is nothing more than a professional achievement.  It will open a few doors a little wider, but not having it won't slam them shut either. You'll be qualified to take it in three years or less anyway.
$60-65k won't be hard, especially if you include unemployment.
As I tell a lot of ELT's coming out, you can get work as a Senior HP immediately.  The advantage is that you can work short term jobs, and earn that kind of money while you're still looking for that permanent job.  It also gives you the advantage of workng at a bunch of diferent plants in a short time.  It's like getting paid to go job-shopping.  And it adds to your resume.
Don't rule out any job based on what you hear.  You have to see it for yourself to decide if it is right for you.  A lot of us had bad experiences in places like Florida or Illinois.  A lot more of us had very good ones there.  If you can name a power plant, I can throw a ping-pong ball and hit at least three people who hated it there.  If I throw it again, I'll hit three who loved it.  People tend to talk more about the negative things than the positive.
We ex-Navy nukes are not necessarily disgruntled.  We just saw something better out here early on.  Almost all the ex-Navy folks I work with have very positive things to say about our time in the Canoe Club.  Some of them are retired MMCM's like you.  It was--after all--the start of our career.  I wouldn't have stayed in a day longer.  But, I value the experience as much as the training.
Best of luck, and thanks for getting between me and the bad guys.
Troy

[RP Instructor]

Wingsfan:

Please see your "inbox" for a personal message with a possible link to a job.

SST

[Chelios]

Congratulations for staying for the long haul. The benefits that you will get as a retiree will give you a nice head start and help serve as a safety net. You sound as if you could get your foot in the door in several areas - HP, Chem, Rad Waste, Mech Maint, etc. Call some of the companies that advertise on Nukeworker and talk to the recruiters. The call is free and they may be sstaffing. You don't mention where you are stationed, but you may get an offer and be able to take some terminal leave and get started. May is the end of spring outage season, so it may be difficult to catch an outage. March and April are peak and often there is a shortage of help. We aren't disgruntled. Just remember the old Navy adage - if the crew ain't whining, they aren't happy.

[GARYGWOODJR]

I guess I didnt provide enough information in some areas, this is a list of my duty stations/experience:

NPS CLASS 8504
S8G PROTOTYPE 8605 (Including ELT School)
USS Von Steuben (ELT/LELT/EWS/EDPO)
USS Daniel Webster Conversion to NPTU (ELT)
NPTU Charleston (Plant LELT/EOOW/EDO)
USS Jacksonville (LELT/MLPO/EDMC)
Squadron 16 (EDMC/LELT)
USS Pennsylvania (EDMC)

EDMC=Department Master Chief

And by the way, the disgruntled ex-nuke thing was my failed attempt at humor.

[Roll Tide]

MMCM,
Sounds like you must have had a good career to have advanced to E-9 in under 20 years. I remember how few promotions were available when you would have been up for Chief / Senior Chief, so you did something that really made you stand out from the crowd.

It also sounds like you are ready to begin a new era of your life, and not expect to have everything given to you on a silver platter. That attitude will serve you well.

NUMANCO and Bartlett have the (vast majority of) commercial HP outage and long-term support contracts. Call their recruiters (links on this site) for more info. After working an outage season, you might prefer to look for long-term employment. DOE is available (sorry, I have no first-hand knowledge, so I give no details) as well as D&D and Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Unit 1 restart (my current assignment).  Send me a personal message if you want to discuss whether we worked together / had mutual friends and if you need a reference. (Actual hiring BFN-1 is NUMANCO, but site input is requested).

Our common friends might include former ELT Chief Sparks, MMCM Ralph Carter and others from the Boomer Navy of Charleston.

Final note: NRRPT may accept more experience than a previous poster expected. NRRPT is not exclusively commercial nuclear power, and I would definitely prefer your experience to that of a hospital radiology department technician. Check NRRPT.org for yourself: they accepted my application which documented all my Radcon and Radcon related and trainning, though some didn't expect it to pass. Study up and be ready to take the fall exam, if they accept your application.

Best of luck

[kwicslvr]

Welcome to civilian life.   Unfortunately here at Calvert Cliffs they just stopped accepting resumes for a chem tech position a couple weeks ago.  You are correct in saying that you will make a lot more even though your base salary only starts at $25/hr.   Most the chem techs here seem to bring in close to $90k-$100k/yr after bonuses and overtime. 

One thing I've found out while I've been here, it doesn't hurt to send your resume off to a site even though they don't have any positions open currently.  If it's a good looking resume, they'll hold onto it.  Positions come open all the time and the chance for you to notice that before they close it is very little.  So to have your resume already on file there will help a lot for when that position comes open.   That is what happened with me here.

When do you get out?

[GARYGWOODJR]

My cerimony is at the end of May so I could be working by the middle of June if everything works out.  I talked to the Directory of Chemisty at Dresden and he said I have a strong resume but I wasnt available as soon as they needed somone.   I appreciate everbody's help.  I havent forgotten about you Role_Tide, I will get you an email today some time.

[GARYGWOODJR]

I appreciate the help from everyone that has replied to this post.  I hope to see you on a jobsite in a few months. 

[bigstew]

I know you've got the ELT background but don't avoid the Operations departments of the various plants. You've got the background for that, too, and the big guys are generally always hiring for Ops. Operations is the career path to move throughout the other plant departments and your Nav experience will get you in. You will have to go through another 14-18 months of utility training and probably work shiftwork but the money is solid and you'll have many options when you're ready to expand your horizons again. Let us know how you make out, Good luck!

[darkmatter]

3. My ELT experience only gets my foot in in the door.

4. There are many disgruntled ex-Navy nukes working in the civilian sector.

I am not looking to get rich but I would like to pull down at least 60-65K a year. 

I'm merely a gruntled ex-Navy ELT nuke, subs, (fast attack)
Age may be a factor that the utilities won't mention, but I've seen too many resumes accepted/rejected sided to the concept of "How little can we offer to get them hired, and how little do they know so as to not rock our boat" Some managers seem to have the concept that "will this person ever be a threat to my job?"
Other then that, go for the NRRPT cert and join a job related professional organization like the HPS.
Your best bet is to get your foot in someones door and take your best shot at oppourtunities from there.

[moodusjack]

If you are looking to "settle" long term somewhere your options are tight.  If you are open to short term projects...then the field opens up a little.

Learn the outage cycle.  Nuke news typically shows who is doing what and when.  Watch for posts on websites where the demand for bodies is high and the supply is low (there's probably a reason, but hey, you want to work, neh?).  Download MARSSIM and NUREG 1727 for information that could help you get a foot into the growing field of decommissioning.

[GARYGWOODJR]

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed.  I figured that when I left the Navy I would never again work with people of that quality, intelligence, or humor.  If the people that post here is any indication of what to expect, I may have figured wrong.

[Roll Tide]

I figured that when I left the Navy I would never again work with people of that quality, intelligence, or humor.  If the people that post here is any indication of what to expect, I may have figured wrong.

NAH! The people who post here are the cream of the crop of the Nuke workforce! The few, the proud, the literate!

[GARYGWOODJR]

My job search finally came to an end last week,  in large part to the information I gained from the people on this site.  Whether or not you responded to one of my posts or sent me a private message, I would like to say thank you to everyone.  I look forward to seeing those of you I cross paths with during outages.