Outages For 2010

[koop225]

Hi. I'm fairly new to the nuclear world. I worked for 10 months doing firewatch and then went to a steam generator outage this past fall as a Jr. Deconner. I am finding that trying to get into a couple outages for the spring is damm near impossible. I've been calling recruiters since the end of october for the spring. I have been calling everyday since then. I still have not gotten into any outages for the spring. I am totally lost on what to do. I've said that I will go anywhere and do anything I can get but still nothing. Does anyone have any advice for me on what I'm doing wrong, If I'm doing anything wrong? What can I do to make sure I get a spot for work?  

[Bonds 25]

Begging Eric Bartlett is a good place to start......it worked for me, 12 years ago.

[koop225]

I call joey everyday.....i mean everyday.....is that not good enough?.....i tell him i will go anywhere and do anything.

[Old HP]

Were you a deconner or a good deconner there is a difference.  ( Same goes for HPs.)
What kind of evaluation did you have?  It sometimes makes a difference.

If you have tried that hard and don't have a job offer, perhaps it is time to try a different company.

[koop225]

I was a good deconner. I was always early to work and never missed a day at the last outage. I do believe I got an overall B on my review. I always did what I was told and asked questions when there was an issue. I always volunteered for work. I think overall I was a good worker.

[Rennhack]

I call joey everyday.....i mean everyday.....is that not good enough?.....i tell him i will go anywhere and do anything.

That is good, UNLESS its Monday, and he tells you to call him Friday.  ASK him when you should call back.

Also, it wouldn't hurt to check with at least one other recruiter.

Have you called any other companies?

[Content1]

Don't fall in the trap and feel like Job.   Why are good deconners not offered jobs, and feel it must be you as some suggest.   That what Job "friends" tried to tell him it was something he did or he would not be cursed.   If you were a good deonner it is no guarantee of future jobs. You may be a victim of good old boy" network where preferred people are given the jobs even if they are inferior, but know the right people.   I've seen it many times.   Take the Spring outage.   For some reason Millstone is not taking juniors we are told.   So even if, like my daughters who have been there many times and got good evaluations, are not even offered a position.   What do you do?   First, realized you have no real friends in the business, no recruiter who will always come through, and you have to just keep getting as many contacts as possible and take a job whoever offers first, and if you regular recruiter calls you at the last minute after you have taken something else, that is the way it goes.   I applied for Hanford prior to the job I am at now.   My job called first, I took it and am still there, and the recruiter seemed miffed at me for not dropping the first job when an offer from Hanford finally came.   Don't expect too much from people and you will never be disappointed, and you'll keep working.

[koop225]

He does tell me when to call back which is usually the next day. I have also contacted Atlantic, but the same thing there. As far as recruiters, I have contacted a few at bartlett and a few at atlantic, and I still get nothing. I know I'm fairly new but it seems I cant get a job anywhere.

[hamsamich]

call whitney and ask about limerick.

[koop225]

I talked to scott about limerick, he said to call back monday.

[Rennhack]

You might also consider work that does not include outages, try calling, or emailing some of these other companies:

http://www.nukeworker.com/job/list_companies.php

[sparky601]

hey im new to this sit and im a cwce ibew local 601. ive never worked a nke before and am tking a referral to lasalle next week. any advice from any jdubz?

[sparky601]

I am a construction wireman construction electrician (IBEW local 601) . I am wanting any input from fellow journeyman wireman (electricians) on any aspect of working a nuke outage. I apologize for the abbreviations and posting this here when it clearly should be posted under a different topic.

[Rad Bimmer]

I am one of the hardest workers in the industry. I give a million percent of myself at work, I am on time, never take a day off, and I only got confirmed for one job in the spring. Hopefully I can sneak in one more job during the spring. In some plants if you aint friends or family of the site manager, good luck getting in LOL. Just my 2 cents. Good luck in your job search

[Content1]

I am one of the hardest workers in the industry. I give a million percent of myself at work, I am on time, never take a day off, and I only got confirmed for one job in the spring. Hopefully I can sneak in one more job during the spring. In some plants if you aint friends or family of the site manager, good luck getting in LOL. Just my 2 cents. Good luck in your job search

They are using the "economy" as the excuse to cut back and double up on your work.  You can't live on one outage a season, eventually you leave it if continues.   It seems they use less and less juniors, yet they expect seniors to be available and there has been no let up on their demand.   Can't get a senior unless you are first a junior for many years.   The current older seniors are falling all the time out of the pool.   It will catch up with them, their short sightedness, someday.

[HydroDave63]

They are using the "economy" as the excuse to cut back and double up on your work. 

Ahh...the conspiracy of "they"

Maybe this is the outage of 2010? 

[Content1]

Very GOOD ANALOGY.   The plant manager is the one calling "Ramming Speed."   The guy with the whip is your site coordinator, the rowers are a collection of deconners and and only a few juniors, and the seniors were absent out taking surveys on the oars.   Can reach a senior unless your a junior first.

[RDTroja]

What I want to know is why they weren't all knocked out cold when the guy said "Rest" and everybody just let go of their oars? Those things would have come straight back and clocked them all right in the face if that was really a boat and they had been moving as fast as they should have been.

[Content1]

Now I am starting to get ticked off and wish to know the proper way to vent my anger: revenge by shifting recruiters or simply not be loyal to any and split my services as a matter of course.   My daughters, who are not new to the business, have done well and one is close to being a senior find themselves only getting one outage in the Spring.   I feel the recruiters are not doing enough.  I, as their father, have sat on the sidelines hoping Bartlett would do the right thing by them.   During my days of traveling before I became a house tech always found work and contacted anyone/everyone when I found myself getting short-changed.   Up until now Bartlett has always found them at least 2 outages a season as juniors.  When I traveled with them as a senior we came as a package, that is, I would go when then had work for them too.  Using myself as a wedge, it is amazing how they alway found work for them.   I am thinking of helping them get some places anywhere which, unfortunately, may lead them away from Bartlett if Bartlett can't come through with the jobs.   They should know their longer term loyal people cannot live on one outage a season.  That is a formula for a large business to become a small one.  Anyone else who have been in the business many years getting the run around from Bartlett this season?  Is it just us and do what we have to do to get enough work to survive?  Is Bartlett losing their edge?

[Old HP]

It can be frustrating. I would point out to you that it is the scheduling of the outages that is creating most of the problem.Bartlett and Atlantic would love to have a longer outage season, they realize more people are walking away from the business because it is getting harder for the Techs to get more than 15 to 20 weeks work each year.  There are not a lot of jobs that line up to be able to get back to back outages. Then you should also recognize that there are a lot more interns and new graduates in the loop now so the few plants that do take juniors have a better selection for those limited positions.

Good luck and I hope things work out.

[Content1]

So we are to the point the firms such as Atlantic and Bartlett are unable to provide work for the experienced traveling techs at outages, and getting 2 outages devolves into a game of "musical chairs" and sometimes when the music stops you find yourself on the sidelines even though by work performance you should still be working?   When an industry cannot provide work for its people it slowly dies, like the auto industry and manufacturing did in previous decades.  It also sounds like the power plants themselves are not aligning themselves to allow back to back outages, indicating they do not care or business models are not considering their workers interests.   

I have been watching nukeworker postings for the last year and noticed there have been almost non-stop posting for seniors every week.   In spite of this being a severe recession, the need has increased.   You cannot make up for the loss of seniors from the system due to age and health if you do not train replacements.   There are many internships at plants but a lot of those interns will never finish nor stay in the industry during non-recessionary times.

I predict a time will come in the not to distant future where the plants will not be able to fill their requirement for 3.1 seniors and they will have nobody but themselves to blame.   You can see it coming like a waterfall ahead on a river.   In slow motion you watch as the large boat suddenly realizes, when it is too late, they are headed for a waterfall.   Maybe industry will respond by trying to make some 3.1 jobs filled by the unqualified.   It does not take more then one more 3 mile island to sink this industry, then the demand for 3.1 will be higher to due all the plant decommissioning.

I guess my advice is to keep options open in other lines of work.  One outage a season is not enough to keep a trained steady workforce in any field.   People will adapt to the industry and current market conditions.   I only am looking at the big picture from an old-timer's perspective and wish something more could be done to save the industry.

[Content1]

Past, present, and future tech shortages has been bantered about in many threads.  It still boils down to simple economics; supply and demand.  When or if the demand for RP services rises sufficiently, the compensation package will rise to the point where ANSI 3.1 techs who have not covered a job for eight years will be enticed to come out of hiding.  That is just one solution...there are many others.

If you are referring to 03/79 - you are making an inaccurate and irresponsible analogy.

You must realize that your daughters, or any other Jr techs are not as valuable or in demand when they fly solo.  Placing blame on Bartlett is misguided.

I did not blame just Bartlett.  I included Atlantic and the others, and the plants themselves.   I say they are short sighted when you do not first take care of your long term faithful workers.   You tend to lose them.   They tend to take there skills elsewhere if underemployed long enough.   In referring to 3-79, I am saying you have a better chance of avoiding incidents that can shutdown a plant, a company, or even an industry if you have long term well trained qualified people running it.   If you are a patchwork of people who come in and out, only working an outage or two a year, and a constant turnover with apprentices that do not finish you will never get more 3.1's.   It takes 8 years or so now with 4 outages a year.  3.1's are not just dropping out, they are deceased in greater numbers all the time from age and not being replaced.  Eventually you will reach that tipping point where industry will try to do some of the same work with less qualified or non-qualified people.   When one of these non-qualified causes enough incidents not due to incompetence, but lack of training, you can shut a place down.   I have heard the arguments that road techs do not do sensitive enough work to be in a position to cause an incident.   If that is truly the case, why hire them to sit at a bench.   They are there to supplement the outage work and there are high risk jobs that the house tech can't cover it all.   Look at Davis -Bessie, nearly having a failure of the reactor head.   You do not think had it failed that plant would be history?   How much maintenance is being ignored now in these fast outages?   Look at Limerick, it was so dirty in some area I had to take a smear on a cement floor with 1/2 of dirt on it.  It was in its condensate bay and was contaminated.   They ignore things to save money.   This will catch up with the industry someday, the cheapest shortest outage is not always the best.   What stake do I have in this?   We all will pay higher bills for power if Nuclear is impacted.  I am saying a lot of short changing of the workers now reflects an attitude that, in essence, we are not needed.  I am saying our demand is down as plants and not doing the necessary work to keep them viable in the long run.

You may then say, if you don't like it, leave.  I did, I am just trying to save my daughters positions as I try to help the industry at the same time.  When they leave, they take with them thousands of dollars of training they will have to redo with someone else, and others and the turnover increases due to people leaving.

[Asa1]

"and there are high risk jobs that the house tech can't cover it all."



please, spare me.


asw

[Content1]

"and there are high risk jobs that the house tech can't cover it all."



please, spare me.


asw

I meet a detractor with a lower karma.  Consider yourself spared.

[Content1]

Koop225,

How is the job search going?

Tim

He emailed me and is having a hard time. 

So I put out the offer to help, if anyone who has worked outages is having trouble finding one this spring and are assured they have not pissed someone off or other malfeasance, email me and I will form a list of resources of what I have done in the past, and maybe pass on ideas and as a group let the right people know you are out there classified by your name, job title sought, years in business or number of outages, and see I can be of any assistance.