NOR First Cut Announcement

Got mine too (i.e., "congratulations! You have met the criteria to proceed ..." If anyone's still checking on the alphabetical release issue mentioned earlier in this thread, my last name begins w/ a "G." Good luck, all.

I just got this and thought I would post it for those who may be interested in how it looks.

Congratulations! You have met the criteria to proceed to the remaining
assessment parts of the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) examination consisting of
the Written Demonstration (WD) and Structured Interview (SI) described below.

Written Demonstration (WD): The purpose of the WD is to evaluate your ability to
prepare a clear, concise, and well-reasoned legal decision of the type that one
might be expected to write if employed as an ALJ. The WD is an assessment
exercise that is conducted in a proctored environment and is designed to
evaluate your abilities in the following four competencies: (1) Reasoning, (2)
Decision Making, (3) Judicial Analysis, and (4) Writing. You will take the
examination using a laptop computer provided by the U.S. Office of Personnel
Management (OPM). Although the actual WD will last approximately four (4)
hours, you should plan to arrive at least 30 minutes early to allow time to
clear building security; you should also allow time after the test is concluded
to complete certain administrative requirements.

Structured Interview (SI): The objective of the SI is to evaluate your responses
regarding situations related to being an ALJ. A panel of experts consisting of
an OPM chairperson, a sitting ALJ, and a private attorney will conduct the
interview and evaluate your responses. The interview will last approximately
one hour and is designed to evaluate your abilities in the following seven
competencies: (1) Reasoning, (2) Decision Making, (3) Self-Management, (4)
Interpersonal Skills, (5) Oral Communication, (6) Stress Tolerance, and (7)
Judicial Management.

You will receive separate scheduling notices informing you of the date, time,
and location of the WD and SI, as well as other instructions about the process.
The WD and SI will be conducted on different, non-consecutive days beginning the
week of October 20, 2008, with the WD concluding in early December 2008 and the
SI concluding in mid-February 2009. Applicants must complete the WD before they
can undertake the SI. Both assessments will be administered in Washington, DC.
Attendance will be at your own expense.

Applicants who complete both assessment processes will be notified of their
final ratings when all applicants have completed these exercises. Those who
receive "eligible" ratings will be added to the existing ALJ register which will
be used as a source of names to make referrals to agencies for employment
consideration.

Sincerely,

Administrative Law Judge Examining Office

PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS EMAIL MESSAGE. IT IS AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED.

I just got my congratulations email. Whew. I got the email about 1:21 pm EST. I'm a government lawyer with 2 years of federal service. Prior to joining the government; I worked for a litigation defense firm for about 5 years. I also completed a federal clerkship.

Got my congrats also. Californiagirl, I hope you made it, b/c I remember that you (and I) were nervously checking our emails everyday for the results. Of course, today, I decided not to check. My friend had to call me to tell me that the results were released. Anyway, good luck to anyone still awaiting results.

As promised, I told you I would advise on my norr at this stage, fair weather or foul: this afternoon, I got invited to take the written test and interview. For those of you who didn't, try again. The COSS seems committed to building up the ALJ corps. In the meantime, I feel it was Lady Luck who was on my side more than anything else, but I do have to admit, I exerted a tremendous amount of energy revising my original materials. . .

As someone who was rejected twice, I congratulate those who made it. I particularly congratulate those who were rejected the first time and made it this time. I don't expect another cert for years, and so I will go back to directing my energy toward other things.

The bottom line is those of us who were rejected will always think of the selection process as random. Those who were accepted will think of the process as fair. There is no way either group is going to persuade the other of the correctness of their position.

I have no idea whether the system is random or fair. But we should all avoid being critical of the people who got rejected. A few people last time around made some (I think) unfair assumptions about the rejected applications. Nobody really knows. But I hope the people who do get jobs show as much grace on the bench as this person has.

Folks,

I agree with Zero's assessment completely. This board was founded in part to provide a civilized forum where we can exchange information regarding the ALJ hiring process/work conditions in peace.

We're all professionals here, and so far, I think everyone has done their best to be mutually supportive and being considerate. Unfortunately, because we're in an anonyomous forum and there's very little context as to the individuals behind the posts, one person's way of saying "hang in there" can be misconstrued as an insult by another person. I think most of us here mean well, but let's all do our best to be sensitive to other people's feelings in this time of heightened stress.

So as we advance into another cycle of ALJ testing and hiring, I would just like to thank all the posters for making this forum an informative and civilized place to be, and let's all support each other through another cycle of this madness.