POSS to Job offer time frame?

[BoilerHP]

All,

I was curious what some people have experience as far as time durations between taking the POSS, interviewing, and receiving an offer. I figured I would create the topic since i have seen numerous people ask similar questions.

This is my current situation, I interned with the company in the summer of '08. Pretty much everyone on site and corporate wanted me to go into ops since that is the path of highest success to receiving an SRO. I took the test in October and was not recommended. The interview was directly after the exam at which time I expressed serious concern over my exam and mentioned I would be very surprised if I passed (my gut was of course right). From what I know, I am the only person they brought back to retake. As many of you know I was recommended, but I did not re-interview. After taking the exam I spoke with the HR person proctoring to find out that the people who interviewed me are no longer there. The SOS is now in Maintenance, and the the HR director left to Palo Verde. There was supposed to be a third person, but he "did not need to be there since I was so well known throughout the site". My understanding is that he is now the hiring manager, and from what I gather of the 13-16 people he is choosing from I am likely the only one he has not personally interviewed. To make matters worse, the HR person who was doing the corporate recruiting is no longer with the company as of Thursday (1/29).

I spoke to an on-site HR personnel a few days after finding out that I was recommended and knowing that I had not interviewed with the people that are now doing the interviewing... I gave her my phone number in case the new hiring manager wanted to have a phone interview. I figured this would be good so that way he could get a chance to know me and ease his mind about hiring someone he has not met or interviewed.

It has been a little over a week since I was told that I was "recommended" and have yet to receive any further information, part of the reason I am surprised that I have not heard anything is due to the fact the class starts on the Feb 16th.

Any input from the forum would be appreciated.

My time line:

Oct 15th: POSS & BMST
Oct 16th: Interview
Oct ~18th: Not Recommended  POSS; BMST- PASS
(We want you to retake)

End of Nov: We still want you to retake...

End of Dec: We want you to retake on this date..

Jan 20th: POSS Retake

Jan 22nd: POSS Recommended, recruiter asks me to specify which site I want... which makes me nervous cause at this point I really need to be at the site I interviewed with (personal reasons with location).

Jan 26th: No selections made yet according to site HR

Feb 1st: No further update

Feb 16th: Start date

Thanks again!

[Fermi2]

It depends on the company. What position exactly are you interviewing for?
Most likely you're screwed on this one.

Mike

[BoilerHP]

NEO with Exelon.

[Fermi2]

To Be Honest,

They probably went with those who passed the POSS the first time. I know they'd be the highest on my list as they showed the most focus.

Let's face it, yeah you met some managers but you were only an intern. They always encourage interns to apply but unless you interned in Ops you didn't have any real in. Just trying to spread a bit of truth over what at times seems to be a self created Rose Colored parade. You don't have a background that makes you standout, you're just a former student who happened to spend some time getting to know a company, you have no experience of note. My advice, keep at it, I'm positive you'll get a job someplace. I'm not with Exelon, I've turned them down 3 times, I'm not an expert on when they give offers but usually most companies try to give you a month heads up, unless they're really strapped. My philosophy is you pick the amount of people you want. I don't believe in alternate lists so if someone on your to be hired list says no then you don't offer the job to someone else you weren't going to hire to begin with. That's just me though.

[BoilerHP]

Well part of it was the HR person kinda screwed everything up with my first time around... was fired after. What confused me was that they kept telling me I had a position for me, but there has been so much turnover I pretty much think that I may be screwed.

[Fermi2]

I doubt it. If they wanted you they'd contact you regardless of who was fired. Your name doesn't go on an HR list. Ops keeps the list and designates someone to bird dog it through. HR has more or less nothing to do with it.

Mike

[BoilerHP]

Got the call/offer 30 min ago! Thanks all for all the help on getting this far. Any one out there an operator at a GE BWR 6 Mark III Unit? If so I would love some advice 

[Nuclear Renaissance]

I take it you're off to Clinton - congratulations.

As for the BWR6, it's got 3 safety divisions (most BWRs have 2), so I would recommend starting at the 20000 ft level of understanding the 3-division electrical distribution and start working your way down from there.

They'll teach you everything you need to know, though, but if you have aspirations of getting in the control room someday, that's a proficiency you'll want to start honing sooner rather than later.

[Fermi2]

Got the call/offer 30 min ago! Thanks all for all the help on getting this far. Any one out there an operator at a GE BWR 6 Mark III Unit? If so I would love some advice 

PM Me. I used to be a BWR Shift Manager.

Mike

[BoilerHP]

Thanks guys,
Yes Clinton would be correct. I certainly have aspirations to go further in operations and I certainly want to master as much as I can and prove myself as an operator.

[Fermi2]

I take it you're off to Clinton - congratulations.

As for the BWR6, it's got 3 safety divisions (most BWRs have 2), so I would recommend starting at the 20000 ft level of understanding the 3-division electrical distribution and start working your way down from there.

They'll teach you everything you need to know, though, but if you have aspirations of getting in the control room someday, that's a proficiency you'll want to start honing sooner rather than later.

Don't bye into that Three Safety Divisions BS. On the surface it;s true but all that did was take one Quasi Divisional Steam Driven Safety System (HPCI) and turned it into a Diesel Backed Motor Driven Pump (HPCS) Realistically and from a License/TS standpoint the change is indistinguishable.

The main differences are the design of the Containment Building and the Reactivity Controls, though I heard BWR 6s are going to VFDs vice VPVs.

Mike

Mike

[BoilerHP]

I was able to run off a copy of GE's BWR 6 Manual when I was there over the summer. I am going to dig that out and start reading it. This will very likely not teach me anything about operations, but its something to do and I can get to know the plant and plant design that much better.

Mike,
I take it you are currently at a PWR now? How was the transition from BWR to PWR (I assume at the SRO level), or were you a NEO or RO at both PWR and BWR prior to moving up. I have wondered how that works, since I heard there are certain aspects that are all most completely opposite.

Thanks again everyone!

[Fermi2]

I came from the Navy so my background was in PWR's. A Navy PWR is nothing like a commercial PWR so eh. I went straight from the Navy to working at a BWR 4. I was an NLO there for a couple years, then I got my RO license, followed shortly by my SRO License. I went from NLO to SM in about 9 years. It wasn't that tough of a transition from PWR to BWR especially since I started from the ground up.

After spending 14.5 years at a BWR I went straight from being an SM at Fermi to being an SM at Sequoyah, a 2 unit Westinghouse 4 Loop PWR. The technical transition wasn't tough, after all when push comes to shove it's just neutrons bouncing around and banging into *stuff*, only the events that control that are different. Once you get a License you learn a LOT of tricks as to what you need to learn to get another license. The biggest issue for me was it took TVA too long to get me through License school. Over 26 months and they could have put me in a room by myself for 5 months, gave me about 6 weeks of simulator training and I coulod have gotten it on my own 19 months sooner.

The biggest adjustment for me wasn't technical, it was learning a different utilities administration procedures and how to get things done. Also going from a Single Unit BWR to a Dual Unit PWR that has common systems was a bit challenging because the thought process on how you perform maintenance is a bit different also it's easy to get wrapped up on one unit and forget I'm responsible for another.

And yes Technically some stuff is EXACTLY backwards.

Mike





*language*

[BoilerHP]

I was having a discussion with a friend, in a dual unit site is every system a 100% independent of one another? So basically my question is: Could an event on Unit 1, affect and then trip Unit 2?

[Fermi2]

It depends quite actually on how the site is designed. Some events at Sequoyah will affect both units, an example being the Service water system is interconnected. Also some systems are linked by the license, for example it's a two unit site, with one control room and a common control room ventilation system. By the License of the Control Room Ventilation system fails both Units are required to Shutdown.

Mike