[Social-sciences-list] Schedule A hiring Authority

Tue Aug 6 12:00:17 UTC 2013

Hi

I googled " center for excellence for Visual and Neurological
Rehabilitation".  That didn't come up precisely but "Center for Visual
and Neurocognitive Rehabilitation" did.  Is that it?

They have an impressive list of publications.  While perusing the list,
I had a terrible image of returning soldiers as research rats, grist for
the research mill.  Science always advances nicely under these
conditions.  There is no need for producing brain lesions and trauma
experimentally.  With sending young people to war, it's government
sponsored, it's legal, and it's somewhat OK.  And there's always all the
"glory" that goes along with winning wars.
One major way to treat trauma, is to prevent it.  In this effort, I
teach a course on the Evolution of Aggression in Humans.
One book I use in the course is:
Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence 1997 by Richard
Wrangham and Dale Peterson.  It's available from Learning Ally.

All The Best

Paul Gabias

-----Original Message-----
From: Social-sciences-list
[mailto:social-sciences-list-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Gabias,
Paul
Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2013 4:01 AM
To: Blind Social Scientists List
Subject: Re: [Social-sciences-list] Schedule A hiring Authority

Who wrote this?  Very interesting!

All The Best

Paul Gabias

-----Original Message-----
From: Social-sciences-list
[mailto:social-sciences-list-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Vincent
Martin
Sent: Monday, August 05, 2013 6:31 PM
To: 'Blind Social Scientists List'
Subject: [Social-sciences-list] Schedule A hiring Authority

Peter,
The Schedule A hiring authority is a very unique and tricky entity to
use, but can be the most powerful one for getting a person with a
disability hired.  Other than Veteran's preference and political
appointments, the hiring authority is extremely powerful.  What is the
most powerful portion of it is that it can be used to hire a person with
a disability without competitive consideration.  That means that if a
job is not advertised through the normal means, a hiring manager can
hire a person with a disability and not have to even interview anyone
else!  During the normal hiring process, if you let a hiring manager
know that you are Schedule A eligible, that puts you in another
category.  It is then up to you to impress the hiring authorities.  I
was just at the US Census Bureau last week making a presentation and had
a long conversation with the Diversity and Inclusion employee that is
responsible for recruiting veterans and people under the Schedule A
hiring authority.  I had a very good personal friend get recruited away
from her job at the VA to go to work there and she was hired using the
Schedule A hiring authority.  They flew her up to D.C.
to interview and we don't think they even interviewed another person!  

When I was working for the VA as a research scientist, my supervisor
used it to hire several severely visually impaired and totally blind
employees.  He even used it to hire a Bio-medical engineer that had ADHD
as well.  He was so sick and tired of the hiring process and how long it
took to get a person hired that he thought it was more efficient to hire
competent people with disabilities and get the projects done.  The
center is the center for excellence for Visual and Neurological
Rehabilitation now.  I will probably go back to the facility when I
finish my Ph.D. to continue the research that he started about twenty
years ago.  The primary focus is on wayfinding for blinded veterans and
that is extremely complex.  He, and the center head and medical
directors know that having competent researchers that also have the
disability can lead to an insight that they cannot get from focus groups
or by reading journal articles.  They are very discriminating in who
they even remotely recruit to work there and they rarely ever post a
job.  Although I am not officially on staff anymore (I got kicked out
and pointed to graduate school, (lol), a part of my duties is to still
scour the country for bright and intriguing students that they think
will fit into the research goal for the future.  The US Veterans are
aging at a phenomenal rate and blindness is one of the afflictions that
affect many of them.  With the use of body armor and better helmets, a
huge number of Veterans have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with
vision problems related to brain trauma and direct trauma to the eyes.
Having competent researchers who are passionate about working with this
population and who realize that so many things are necessary to make
their lives comfortable is what the mission of the research facility is.
Over the past few years, they have extended inquiries to three people
and two have been members of this list.  So far, only one has come in to
tour the place and is seriously considering making it a career choice,
but the Schedule A hiring authority is there to be used when it is
needed.  In the area of rehabilitation research for the VA, there is
also a Disability research award available.  It can be used to pay the
employee's salary for the first three years as they transition into
their research role and start to write their own grants for their own
projects.  

In conclusion, I would advise you and anyone else that is considering
Federal employment to "get" to know as many hiring managers as possible.
Be willing to look at every Federal agency and see who is the hiring
manager for the Agency or for the particular facility or building you
are considering working for.  If you get hired this way, you can have up
to two years of probationary period, instead of the normal six month
period though.
You can also still become eligible to move to another job or agency
after one year of work.  You could start as an employee in the Forestry
department and get into the agency you actually want to work for in a
year.  

>Does anyone know how the opm operates in the special hiring authority 
>with
section a in the U.s? I'm thorughly confused by the complex machinery of
the process cause of the application side of it.
For example, applying for a job but this Hr specialist in San Fran said
that "in addition" phrase that I could apply for certain job hiring
authority for persons with disabilities via a certain url page that he
gave me. Not even my VR coun selor nor any blind people till this date
can fully understand this process, so any insight would be great of you
to share with me.

Thanks,
Peter

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