So apparently I have to await until perhaps sometime in May to find out if I am accepted for the job...and yet the class up begins June 1st. This is pretty low ass S*** because I have to move at some point and giving people two weeks to move is pretty crappy.....So I pretty much am going to take these people as a NO and move on to the other interviews
My advice is to have 4-6 job offers on the table, sit down with your family (if applicable), and make a decision on which to accept. Give yourself some choices....think outside the box...and most of all, have fun. It's a great time to be transitioning from military to commercial power, but some HR Reps don't see it that way. I'll resist the temptation to go off topic there.
Getting into a licensing class is all about timing for both you and the company. The trainee has to be on site 6 months before starting GFES. It's even less restrictive and a faster timeline for NLO trainees. The company doesn't want to pay you to be on site for more than 6 months...that's just additional money wasted on someone that isn't qualified. In your case, it sounds like HR is behind the curve, (oh wait...big surprise) they're waiting for other applicants, finalizing their offers and will then send out offers to their "top 10" (or whatever). If people tell them no, then they'll go down their list...only to find in some/most (?) cases that the applicant has accepted a job elsewhere.
If you're very aggressive in this process, then you'll be getting calls for 6-12 months after you're in your new job. In many cases, I told the HR Rep..."I would have loved to interview with you, but you took too long to respond to my application".
Separately, other threads have chosen to bash on Instant SROs. In fact, we should simply start an Instant/Direct SRO child board on the forum and get everyone's facts, rants, opinions in one focus area. My challenge to those ranters will remain consistent: (1) If your company doesn't "like" Instant SROs or otherwise views military nukes negatively, please post the name of your company here and save everyone the heartache of trying to apply at your company, (2) If your company has a training program that doesn't get an AUO, RO, SRO ready to execute that position skillfully and professionally (recognizing the different backgrounds) than your training program needs an INPO AFI...(oh wait...that is happening already across the country), and (3) saying that all Instant SROs are "broken" based on one watchstander at one plant on one shift is not very statistically significant. I've seen the INPO daily downloads, I've seen Navy Incident Reports...I conclude that human beings sometime make mistakes from Sub COs to AUOs. Managing human error is a very difficult and important aspect to our industry. So, once you hire a Navy Nuke, he/she is YOURS, not the Navy's. If you can't grasp that concept, then you're headed down the road of TMI where a Navy Nuke was licensed into the chair after what seems to be a "familiarization course" compared to today's standards. In short, if YOU think a licensed SRO is unqualified to stand watch than YOU have an unresolved, significant nuclear safety concern at your utility.
So bringing my lengthy post together for the original posters and others job searching: it's a great time to transition from the NNPP especially if you have gathered the senior qualifications, experience, and maturity to be competitive in the commercial world. If you get a chance to be an AUO (think ERS, AEA, and RT rolled into one watchstander), we all agree that "growing up" slowly is much better than the nearly impossible 18 month Direct SRO training program. However, I'm seeing peers (20+ years Navy experience) get jobs in Operations Training, Quality Assurance, Maintenance Management, SRO Licensing, Direct Corporate Management jobs, etc. You most likely will NOT land in a geographical area of first choice, but everyone has been happy with the most important variables: job, local economy, post-Navy taxes, etc.
You need to NETWORK and most of all...have fun. There is life after the Nuclear Navy and it's better than I expected!
Co60