[Nfb-science] [nfb-science] professional networking

[Nathanael T. Wales]

Paul,

  Your very welcome.

  To follow up on my suggestion about letting your blindness help you bypass the red tape when applying for a federal government job, be sure to mark on the online applications that you are blind/disabled.  Most often this is referred to as Schedule A.  Of course, be sure your search of www.usajobs.gov includes all positions that are advertised under Schedule A separately or before they are advertised to the general public/all U.S. citizens: be sure that your searches and agents that you should have set up have checked "yes" for "Applicant Elligibility (non-competitive appointment)".  This may be important because many jobs are advertised exclusively to applicants on this schedule or may have been laid off from another federal job, be veterans, etc.  Applying under this schedule will not at all guarantee you a job, but it will 1) flag your application, 2) almost always get you an interview if you meet the minimum elligibility for the job (like having the appropriate college degree), and 3) streamline the process that the hiring official has to follow to make a hire (making filling the open position with an otherwise great candidate easier and faster).  Finally, using Schedule A is just another tool;not all positions are advertised or filled using Schedule A priority: in fact the job I got didn't use Schedule A at all; I just happened to be the competitive applicant they wanted (and, perhaps, keep reading...).

  When I was looking for a job to be closer to my then girlfriend two and a half years ago, persistence and patience did pay off, trite as that sounds.  As you relate in your first issue, I too had the experience, especially when applying for federal government jobs, of very little personal contact with the officials making the hiring decisions that would be my supervisors.  If I got called for an interview, I made a careful point of considering if the particular job, my qualifications for it, and what I learned about the proposed depth of the interview were worth the time and expense of traveling to an in-person interview.  Indeed, on this point of finding out the depth of the interview for which you are being scheduled, it can be very valuable: will it be just a 15-minute screening interview or will it be an hour-long interview with standard technical questions conducted with a panel called by the hiring official.  In my search, one job I interviewed for had a hiring official who wouldn't let anyone come in person: they did all of their interviews, even of local applicants, by telephone.  The job I have now was the first that seemed worth it to me to make an additional trip and come all the way from California to New York City (and, well, spend an afternoon with my by-that-point fiance).  I felt well qualified, the work sounded interesting, I liked what I knew and learned about the employer, and I hoped that coming in person would show how serious I was about the job.  How much coming in person actually helped me I don't know even two years later, but I do know that the other engineer who got hired under the advertisement (they were looking for up to three) also came in person, in her case, from Florida.  For federal government jobs, in my opinion, only then can sending a follow-up note to a person you've shaken hands with be practical and worthwhile.  Finally, traveling to an interview as part of a job search is tax-deductible, so if you do get a job write it off the income taxes you'll pay, and VR should also assist you; most federal government interviewers will NOT pay for you to come in person.

  On your second issue, CAD software, I have very little experience to offer.  You describe what you do knowledgeably and well, and this--and perhaps demonstrating with a laptop--may convince hiring managers.

  Let me know on- or off-list if you have further questions.  My thoughts are here in part because they may be useful to everyone.  Let me know if you need any help with www.usajobs.gov, the various agency-specific application forms, etc.

  Again, best,
  Nathanael


    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: aerospace1028 at hotmail.com 
    To: ntwales at omsoft.com 
    Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2009 4:51 AM
    Subject: re: [nfb-science] professional networking


    dear Nathanael,
    thank you for responding to my message.  I would be very interested in hearing any tips you might have for locating and obtaining a job (especially bipasses to red-tape).

    currently, I use threemain job searches; indeed.com, dice.com, and usajobs.gov.  

    There seem to be two main issues I am having trouble getting around.  The general advice i get from the public at large--V.R., parents, siblings, etc--is to "remain persistant and keep my name in front of the hiring manager:" call or e-mail once a week with questions about the job/company or just to check on the status of my application; write a letter or call the day after an interview to thank him/her/them for the interview; etc.  But I find that I rarely have a human contact to which I may apply this technique.  The bulk of my applications are through nameless internet forms (nameless in that I have no hiring manager or senior engineer to whom I may refer questions, not that the internet page has no name [I.e. possible identity theft scam; it is an expanding practice]): and when I get to the point of an interview, it's usually over the phone--they give me a number to their conference line with a meeting code and a date and time, that way an H.R. manager, an engineering manager and I can have a three-way conversation (no possibility for a follow-up thank you).

    The second problem involves CADD/CATIA.  At least in aerospace, it seams that the bulk of entry-level positions require a high degree of 3D modeling.  I have some limitted exposure to CADD; in highschool, I took two semesters of arcatectural drafting (the copy of auto CADD was running in Windows 3.1, but the concepts are still the same).  When I got to college, there were difficulties in arranging access to the required 3D modeling course, so my academic advisor had me substitute the class with an extra technical elective.  I can make basic wire models, I tend to zoom in and out a lot to get the detail in different areas.  When working with someone else's models, I tend to save a working and an original copy of the file, and then alter the working copy to better contrasting set-up--usually white lines on a black background (true story; in my senior design, our resident CATIA-guru worked with purple lines on a kind of bluish-grey background--I wasn't the only one who had problems seeing them).

    When the topic of CADD arises in an interview, I am honest about what experience I do have.  I let the interviewers know that I have my system worked out--it's methodical, but it works for me--and that usually works as my entry point in the conversation for my visual impairment.

    Thank you gain, I apreciate any advice yu might have.
    --Paul

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