My Experiences with the NLO Job Hunt/Advice for Those New to Nuclear Job Hunting

[eaton1981]

Figured I'd share my success story from this week. I received offers from two different plants for an NLO position. While I have no idea how this narrative will help others at different companies, my goal is to shed some light on the job hunt process. I am definitely NOT trying to show off or sound arrogant, but simply help out those trying to get their foot in the door.

I've somewhat separated the various companies' methods with bold, underlined headers.

OPPD (Fort Calhoun Station)
I applied for a Equipment Operator position on May 21st at Fort Calhoun. On June 4th, an HR rep called me to setup a phone interview with the Asst. Ops Manager for June 7th. Sure enough, he called and the interview went well, so he offered me a chance to be flown out to the plant for testing and a formal face-to-face interview, as well as a tour.
A few days later HR called to firm up the flight, rental car, and lodging details, and I was flown out on June 20th and tested the following morning and taken to lunch by the AOM. He and one other guy (a control room supverisor) conducted a behavioral interview, and then the AOM went back to his office while the CRS gave me a tour.
I left Omaha a few hours later with the statement that they would make their hiring decisions on July 15th.
On July 18th, I was offered the job and I ultimately accepted.

Entergy (Arkansas Nuclear One)
I applied on May 28th and did a phone interview on June 29th. Again, it was the AOM of the plant who did the phone interview and offered to have Entergy fly me out for the POSS and face-to-face interviews.
I flew out there July 9th and did the POSS and interview on July 10th. At the interview, I was honest and told them that I was also pursuing employment at Fort Calhoun. I originally thought that ANO would be a better fit, and I told the panel of interviewers so. I also offered to inform the AOM if Fort Calhoun made me an offer, as a professional courtesy.
On July 19th I e-mailed the AOM to inform him about OPPD's offer. The AOM emailed me back after an hour and said that Entergy was ready to offer me a job as well. I spent the next 8 hours thinking over the options, and ultimately declined Entergy's offer. Not because I think Entergy is a bad company or the plant is in bad shape, but simply because Omaha makes more sense for me from a geographical standpoint.

PSEG (Hope Creek)
This company offered to fly me out for the POSS and interviews, but since I was so busy with the other interviews, I e-mailed them back and told them I would be seeking employment in "the near future." Thus, if I didn't receive any job offers, I could then schedule in a trip to New Jersey to interview with PSEG.

So, ultimately, the key pieces of advice and salient points I think are good to know for you prospective job seekers are as follows:
1) Wear a tie.
2) STUDY THE POSS. It is extremely hard to finish all sections. Don't take it lightly. Even if you've been standing EWS and/or have a degree! I'm beyond glad that I took the practice test as well as bought a book with more practice tests from Amazon's Kindle store.
3) Learn about behaviorial interviews! Practice this with a friend. If you don't have any friends, practice it with a recorder or your phone's voice memo system so you can hear how you sound.
3a) Be ready to relate your Navy experience (or past civilian experience) to work as an operator. I read somewhere on here to have 4-5 "stories" to share that highlight a problem you had, what you specifically did to fix it, and the results of your actions. It helped.
4) Be ready to wait for weeks to hear back. Some people might recommend calling back to the HR people, but my impression was that HR was REALLY busy at both plants, so I figured wait for them to contact me.
5) Be open and honest at your interviews. I decided to drop out of school full time to pursue a job, and I was matter-of-fact about it. However, I also intend to finish online, which I also told them about.
6) Go with the ambition to eventually obtain RO and SRO licenses. My resume flat out says on it "Objective – To gain permanent employment in a nuclear operations department as a non-licensed operator with long-term aspirations of obtaining reactor operator and senior reactor operator licenses."
7) If you do get multiple job offers, make sure you formally notify the companies that you are rejecting offers from. It's common courtesy, and helps them get a proper number of candidates in for an initial NLO systems class or whatnot.

Hope that helps you on your job hunt
Luke

[Fermi2]

Excellent post:

However you do not need to wear a tie. Most prefer business casual.
And I do not advise telling anyone where else you have interviewed. It's absolutely none of their business and can seriously hurt you.

[eaton1981]

Fair enough. Thanks, BZ!

[pharmtech]

Congratulations and thanks for the advice/info.  After 3 years of being away from Navy Nuclear Power, I am trying to secure a job at a commercial plant in SC.  Waiting will be tough, I applied 3 days ago and i'm already anxious about if i'll hear back.

[rmm1209]

I applied for an AO position with Entergy in early March.  On May 15th, I received an email inviting me to take the POSS test on May 23rd.  I took the test on the 23rd and received the results (Recommended) via email on June 6th.  I haven't heard anything since then and my status is still "Hiring Manager Review" on the Entergy website.  All this to say, don't assume that the process will happen quickly.  It's been over 4 months since I initially submitted my application.   

[Dexter--]

Thanks very much for the OP, I've been applying for these jobs over the past month and a half after my stint in Navy nuclear power. I'm glad to know that it can sometimes take awhile to hear anything back, was starting to get a little worried. One question though, how many positions did you apply to before hearing back from these 3? Oh and also, do you have any random resume tips?

[a|F]

Resume tips:

Keep it simple, concise, and error free.  HR screens them first- they will compare your resume to the job description and experience that they're looking for.  Assume they know nothing about the position, so don't expect them to translate your RPPO/WCS/McDonalds duties into something meaningful.  Simple idea, but you'd be amazed how many people "nuke" it out.