Originally Posted by
Golden Bear
I'm sure I'll catch all kinds of grief for this, but it sure would be nice if we lived in a society where prospective candidates were judged solely on their qualifications and positions were awarded only on merit.
USMC, for many years and over many announcements I pursued the job you currently have. I feel strongly that my education, training, and experience (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities, if you will) were a perfect fit for the job in question. Throughout that process I tracked down the heads of the offices in both SAC and OKC and spoke at length with them several times. The last conversation I had ended with a statement to the effect of "you are exactly the kind of candidate I'd love to have in this position, and you have demostrated your desire, ambition, and commitment, but due to the preference required by Federal Law I have not had a civilian application forwarded to my desk by the selection office in over two decades."
I certainly have no beef with the military, and thank our soldiers every chance I can for their service. I also don't have any problem with prior service being credited towards an overall candidate's evaluation when it directly applies to the position applied for. It is just really frustrating to not even be able to make my case as the best qualified for the position because my pre-employement screening questionaire doesn't score high enough to even get my application on the desk of those who make the decisions.
Not that the government has ever been a model of efficiency or logic, but this kind of preference would receive all kinds of anti-affirmative action backlash if it benefited a gender or ethnic group.
These are governent, not military jobs, and I am a tax-paying citizen of this country just as much as anyone who has worn a military uniform. Level the playing field, and let the best man win.
FWIW, my grandfather was an electrician in the Navy during the attack on Pearl Harbor, my uncle was in the 82nd Airborne, and my Father-in-law was on a destroyer off the coast of Viet Nam, so please don't think I do not understand or appreciate the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform.
GB -
I know your frustration and can agree with you on parts of it. I have benefited by, and I believe that I have earned, some consideration for my sacrifices and service above self to the country. The above posts from Dragon7 burns me to the core. I can spend 11-20 years in the Corps and not get a single preference point towards a gov't job (UNLESS I am disabled), but a guy who spends 4 years in the military (3+ of those being in schools before he ever hits the fleet) gets 5 points preference. I think the preference points could be directly related to years of service for example.
As for my current job, I know that you have applied over the years and have contacts in the offices. But unlike the networking civilian world, you have to make it through OPM HR first and it doesn't matter who you know at first. When I started this thread this morning I started thinking of the guys in my office who are non-military. Not one that I could think of came to flight check just out of the blue. All of them came to flight check via other means within the gov't/FAA - mostly through ATC and TERPS. One guy came here through TSA (the smurfs - not the airline) just a few years ago.
There are other ways. I didn't have a lot of time during my stints in the desert in the last few years to being hanging around the FBOs of the country networking for a job with XOJet either and it seems that I couldn't even reach the status of 'glimmer in the eye' to the recruiters there without an internal recommendation.
USMCFLYR