Am I shooting myself in the foot?

[smh]

I am currently scheduled for an interview for a NLO position.  Today, I see they are also accepting resumes for an I&C Tech position at the same plant.  As a retired navy ET, I have performed both as an operator and technician.  There are aspects of both jobs I like and feel I would do well in either position.  I know one obvious question is, "Which would you take if offered both?"  Right now I don't have all the information I need to make that call.  I have an idea of what to expect as far as NLO but I don't know enough about an I&C Techs work conditions, schedule, pay, and advancement opportunity.  Would I be shooting myself in the foot if I also applied for the second job?  Would this be looked at negatively?  I hate to let a good opportunity go by without responding.  Any advice or info would be appreciated?  Thanks.

[Dustball]

I don't believe applying for both position would be viewed as a negative.  If it is questioned you can respond similar to what you did in your post.  It would show that you are interested in working for them at that particular facility.  Just don't hide it and attempt to play them against each other.  Be honost and upfront about the reasons you applied for both.

At our facility Operators are on shift work.  I&C Techs are straight days.  I&C is union.  Operators are union until they become shift supervisors / shift managers.  Here, because of shift work, stress/pressure, ops requal and pay I&C is the more desired position.  It could differ from plant to plant.

In regards to advancement positions, I think both offer advancements.  Now with scheduling, planning, procedure writing, supervision positions, etc grabbing bodies I would think once your in you can determine your advancement path.   

[Fermi2]

You're not hurting yourself one bit by applying for both jobs. However if you get offered an Ops position and turn it down hoping to get the other job I guarantee your chances of the second job just became zero.

I+C works different schedules based on whatever plant they work at. For instance at Fermi they worked a sort of modified rotation. They had something like 6 volunteers who always worked nights. There were 5 who worked permanent days on the Fix It Now Team. The rest were divided up into 5 shifys (maybe it was 4). Something like every 5 weeks they worked an afternon shift. I and C worked 8 hour shifts except during outages.

If I recall correctly at one point they earned a higher pay rate than the NLOs because they were "skilled labor" Then our new Ops manager pushed to get NLOs the pay raise to 20 cents higher than the highest payed I+C tech. This went back and forth for a few months. I don't remember the final resolution.

As for the Ops jobs being stressfull. That's a bunch of BS, it's only as stressfull as you let it be. The best operators I know will all say they don't really feel a lot of stress. Yes there's more responsibility, but that doesn't mean more stress.

Mike

[alphadude]

tell the company that you would accept what ever position BENEFITS the company the most. that takes the "me me" out of the situation. they would consider you part of the team immediately upon hire.   you can always bid into the other positon later.

[Fermi2]

tell the company that you would accept what ever position BENEFITS the company the most. that takes the "me me" out of the situation. they would consider you part of the team immediately upon hire.   you can always bid into the other positon later.

That won't fly with Ops. Don't even mention the second job bid unless they bring it up. Odds are neither dept will even know you bid into the other department.

All Ops will care about is how you can benefit Ops.

My guess is that's all I and C will care about.

Mike

[HydroDave63]

That won't fly with Ops. Don't even mention the second job bid unless they bring it up. Odds are neither dept will even know you bid into the other department.

All Ops will care about is how you can benefit Ops.

My guess is that's all I and C will care about.

Mike

Mike is exactly right, Alpha gave some not useful advice there. I lost out on an operator spot at Comanche Peak doing that exact thing, even though I was a qualified NLO at another large PWR.

As they say in parts of Texas..."ya dance with the one that brung ya..."

[shayne]

I can't think of too many of the maintenance types that didn't like the Operations Shift rotation schedule that gave us 7 days off in a row.  When I left Fermi, I&C made slightly more than the Operators.  I don't think it really made that much of difference though, it really didn't come down to that much at the end of the year.

[hamsamich]

Some organizations may view pursuing the other job as either a slight or that you don't really want to do that job.  If you get in as ops, you can always move to I+C.  Or, go I+C first then be an operator eventually.   Pursue the one you have the best chance (unless you really want the other job, which doesn't seem to be the case here) at getting then move over is what I would do.