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

Mon Feb 23 01:29:22 UTC 2009

Fellow Listers:

My apologies for my previous post.  I do not mean to post it on-list. 
Please disregard.  My apologies for any confusion.

Nathanael

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nathanael T. Wales" <ntwales at omsoft.com>
To: <nfb-science at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2009 4:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Nfb-science] [nfb-science] professional networking

> 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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