Duke NEO positions

[spentfuel]

they are hiring for all three sites

https://de.taleo.net/careersection/2/moresearch.ftl?lang=en#

[eviljim35]

I have submitted my resume for these positions. Getting in seems to be very competitive, any advice on how to stand out?

[sovbob]

- Proofread your resume.  Nothing says "I don't take this seriously" more than having a resume full of spelling and grammatical errors.  If spelling and grammar is not your strong suit (i.e. SloGlo  ) then have somebody else look it over.  It's not enough just to run Spell-Checker.  "Performed" and "Preformed" are both valid words, and the Spell-Checker won't catch it.

- On your resume, don't just talk about your academic performance.  Yes, it's important...but if that's the only thing on there, it will blend in with a dozen other identical resumes in the stack.  Talk about your achievements (ideally related to the job) that show you're more than a Just-Do-The-Absolute-Minimum kind of guy.

- State your achievements in concrete terms (e.g. "I reorganized the XYZ program and reduced overhead costs by 15%") instead of vague descriptions.

- Wear a coat and tie to the interview.  Better to be slightly overdressed than underdressed.

- During the interview, be friendly and professional.  Don't spend a lot of time going over what's on your resume.  They've got your resume in front of them; They don't need you to recite it for them.

- Many utilities now do something called "Behavioral Interviews" where there are no right or wrong answers.  Some examples might be:

"Describe a situation where you were given an unreasonable task, and how you responded to it."
"Describe a situation where your integrity was challenged.  How did you handle it?"
"Describe a situation where you failed to meet expectations."

The purpose of these kinds of questions is to gain an insight into the candidates that cannot be gained from a resume.  If you respond by saying "I've never failed to meet expectations" then they might think that you're the kind of person who doesn't challenge himself.

- Because of the substantial amount of time (and money!) spent training an operator, utilities aren't going to be interested in somebody who's going to leave after only a few years.  They want somebody who is going to stick around (and eventually go to license class...) Having ties to the area (family / friends) is a very good way to stand out.

[redline]

Just FYI...Duke posts operator positions 365 days/year. They do hire a couple times a year but standing out is the key. Unfortunatly they are very methodical and hiring managers often will never see your resume' based on the hiring matrix used by HR so it's very difficult to stand out. It's unfortunate but what they want is to take the human factor out of hiring.

[MMM]

So, are there any suggestions on how to make your resume stand out?

[retired nuke]

So, are there any suggestions on how to make your resume stand out?

- Proofread your resume.  Nothing says "I don't take this seriously" more than having a resume full of spelling and grammatical errors.  If spelling and grammar is not your strong suit (i.e. SloGlo  ) then have somebody else look it over.  It's not enough just to run Spell-Checker.  "Performed" and "Preformed" are both valid words, and the Spell-Checker won't catch it.

- On your resume, don't just talk about your academic performance.  Yes, it's important...but if that's the only thing on there, it will blend in with a dozen other identical resumes in the stack.  Talk about your achievements (ideally related to the job) that show you're more than a Just-Do-The-Absolute-Minimum kind of guy.

- State your achievements in concrete terms (e.g. "I reorganized the XYZ program and reduced overhead costs by 15%") instead of vague descriptions.

Having ties to the area (family / friends) is a very good way to stand out.

Here's a good start...

[MMM]

So, basically, attention to detail on the resume/cover letter and, if possible, know somebody at the company? Maybe I think of standing out differently, although I have heard that knowing somebody might get your resume a good look and possibly an interview.

[spentfuel]

I will add if you have any engineering training make that stand out in your application as well as advanced math i.e. calculus

Seems odd to me for a starting OPS position but they are impressed by quals in both those areas.

They seem to prefer navy folks

sf

[ChiefRocscooter]

They prefer "local folks" over navy but have not gotten the numbers of quality apps they needed off local so they are looking for more and more navy nukes each class.  Heard last SOM (shift operations manager), he has moved on now, say that they were really only looking at navy nukes and engineers for last years class.  If you are wondering, yes that is what they hired last year.  This years class many have 1 or 2 non nukes but they had inside contacts (family, friends) at least that is my understanding.

My advice is to emphasis why it is you want to be there, what your ties to the area are can be just as important as experience sometimes.  If you are almost even with someone else and you can make a local link or reason for being there you will pass them up.