The same SM who hired me was still running the NLO hiring program when I left. He was an RO when he made the best decision of his life in hiring me.
Even in 1990 he had a degree or organization that I did not see from other utilities and by the time I left he had it down to a T.
First he'd distribute the resumes to SMs, SROs and ROs so we could screen them and to see if there was anyone we'd recommend from past experience. The NLOs would get a shot too.
Assuming we were hiring 15 I believe we'd ask up to 40 for interviews. As a rule you'd lose about 10 on the POSS.
Everyone stayed at the same hotel. Kevin would usually have a couple SROs, 2 or 3 ROs and 2 or 3 NLOs for interviews.
The first night there'd be a big reception with food and drinks. The members of the interview team would eat with the candidates, the candidates could ask questions and get more comfortable with the team. It is also an excellent arsehole filter.
The next day half the candidates would take their POSS while the other half did physicals. In the afternoon they'd switch.
If you didn't pass your POSS you left then.
Then the following day was interviews. In most cases Kevin had job offers out within about 3 weeks.
All in all DTE may have been the most professional and efficient organization I have seen when it comes to NLO hiring probably because they had a Shift Manager in charge who knew his stuff. Also, we rarely hired dirt bags. (Though in truth I think that's the norm, I have yet to see TVA hire a true dirt bag either).
When I was hired in the big difference was they did not have the reception, the interview was pretty low key. I figured I had the job when after the interview Kevin told me he had Tigers tickets for that night but couldn't make the game so he wanted to know if I wanted them.
The biggest shocker to me was when I showed up I knew 3 other guys taking the POSS. Two were in my nuke school section and graduated with 3.6 averages. They failed the test. The other was a guy named Don. Great guy. I knew him at Mare and he was the first to get the patented Mikey What The F do you want? when he approached me about something at Mare.
Got to DTE and he walks in. During my interview they asked if I knew anyone else who was interviewing. I told them, Yep Don and if there's still a position open after you hire me I'd hire him too. Turns out he said the same thing. (Yes after our first meeting at Mare we got along fantastically, Don is awesome) They ended up hiring us both. Last I knew Big Daddy was an RO at Fermi. (He was one when I left) Great guy, in fact my entire class was great guts. I still have our class picture on my sitting room wall.
There were a few issues and moments of monumental ignorance. For example, for the 15 years I was at Fermi one of the guys who I hired in with, an otherwise very intelligent individual who also licensed with me as an RO, SRO and was a fellow SM, could never seem to understand what a great Quarterback Jim Plunkett really was. He's now the Ops Engineer at Fermi despite his lack of understanding of Hall Of Fame potential NFL Quarterbacking
