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Post by JudgeRatty on Nov 3, 2014 11:40:39 GMT -5
Confirmed. A judge in my office just forwarded me an email from another judge indicating emails are going out today. HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS. They are already reporting! Whooo hooo! See the other thread.
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Post by Ace Midnight on Nov 3, 2014 12:45:07 GMT -5
Cert email confirms both mid-November (start) dates for interviews and "late January" 2015 start dates for this group. With as many as 27 cities reported, this could very well be a class of 45 - we already have 2 or 3 confirmed hires - if just 1 per city (didn't exactly pan out last time, though) that's 30 already.
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Post by moopigsdad on Nov 3, 2014 13:38:24 GMT -5
Remember ace that not all cities hired last time either. So, although there may be 27 cities they may only actually hire for 25 or less still depending upon transfers which may occur. I think the class will not be over 30 ALJs total this time. So, don't expect more than that amount total, I do not think we will see anything like the 50+ hires from last time. I think the people hired already were informed the class would be 25 or so total.
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Post by Ace Midnight on Nov 3, 2014 13:41:49 GMT -5
Oh yeah - I remember that. This seems like a lot of trouble to hire just 25 people - but, I guess the more folks they interview from the register, the fewer they will have to if we get 4, 5, 6 rounds of hiring as some expect. ~150 or so new interviews this time will make that over 1/3 of the register (assuming ~900 total).
So, progress is good - how good remains to be seen, but I'm on the "progress is good" train at this time.
ETA: And I created a poll asking whether or not you need to interview this time - please respond to help us get better data resolution.
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Post by moopigsdad on Nov 3, 2014 14:12:12 GMT -5
I don't know if there will be 150 or so interviews for sure this time. I think the interviews will be less in number than that considering the past people who have already interviewed like you. Remember there were 170+ interviews when hiring originally for 90 in the first cert, which became 56 or so ALJ hires. Hence, the interviews this time will be less than 150 in my opinion.
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Post by Ace Midnight on Nov 3, 2014 14:39:52 GMT -5
I'm hoping my poll allows us to firm up some numbers on the new interviews, too.
25 positions would be ~1/3 to 1/4 that of last time. They interviewed 158 (+10) - Theoretically, a round number of 80 or so (meaning they already had enough interviewed) should suffice - the fact that there is more than an insignificant number of new people interviewing suggests they have gotten concessions from OPM regarding the number of new names and intend to leverage this interview process into future hiring rounds.
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Post by moopigsdad on Nov 3, 2014 15:52:30 GMT -5
I agree with that completely Ace.
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Post by 71stretch on Nov 3, 2014 16:18:00 GMT -5
Looking at the calendar, and the distance I have to travel, there is ONE day out of those dates that will work for me. Fingers crossed.
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Post by funkyodar on Nov 3, 2014 16:22:43 GMT -5
You have been waiting too long to let a little scheduling issue derail you Ob53. Get on the phone to Hell and Highwater Movers, Inc. and get your arse to FC whenever they want you there. Good luck.
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Post by moopigsdad on Nov 3, 2014 16:49:34 GMT -5
You have to do, whatever is necessary for you to acquire the ALJ position. It might be hard, but if you want the position, you will do whatever is necessary to achieve it.
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Post by 71stretch on Nov 3, 2014 17:36:00 GMT -5
I understand all that, guys. We'll see what happens.
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Post by 71stretch on Nov 3, 2014 17:48:42 GMT -5
I'm hoping my poll allows us to firm up some numbers on the new interviews, too. 25 positions would be ~1/3 to 1/4 that of last time. They interviewed 158 (+10) - Theoretically, a round number of 80 or so (meaning they already had enough interviewed) should suffice - the fact that there is more than an insignificant number of new people interviewing suggests they have gotten concessions from OPM regarding the number of new names and intend to leverage this interview process into future hiring rounds. The more new names there are, the more of them that are just "filler" with little (no) chance of getting hired. But, at least SSA gets a look (literally) at more people for future hires. The more they've already seen, the faster they can do future hires.
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Post by moopigsdad on Nov 4, 2014 3:36:45 GMT -5
Yes observer53, the more interviewed now, the less needed later to fill open positions
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Post by orchid on Nov 4, 2014 17:18:14 GMT -5
What hotel do you all recommend if you can't travel in one day? There are a few options on the travel email, and I was wondering if anyone had any experiences they would like to share?
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Post by 71stretch on Nov 4, 2014 17:23:53 GMT -5
Last time, I stayed at the Best Western in Falls Church. I actually had to stay 2 nights, and I did not want to front a bunch of money, not knowing how long it would take to be reimbursed. It's not fancy, though I see they have renovated rooms. They have a morning and evening shuttle to the Metro, though it's not a long cab ride. Not too far to ODAR, either. Free breakfast, but IHOP next door too.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2014 20:32:09 GMT -5
What hotel do you all recommend if you can't travel in one day? There are a few options on the travel email, and I was wondering if anyone had any experiences they would like to share? There are two hotels across the street from Skyline towers, both around $200.00, the agency will pay if they can't fly you in and out in one day. I stayed at Hampton Inn at 4800 Leesburg Pike, (on my own dime) literally a football field or two away from HQ. Hilltopper stayed at a Hilton property a little closer, next door to the Hampton Inn (shared the same parking lot).
If you drive in to Skyline, there is a huge open parking lot directly in front of Skyline tower that is wide open EVERY day. Plenty of parking in front of HQ, $20.00 and it is paid as part of travel.
I didn't file for travel pay, but I should of as it would of been $150.00 or so, but I didn't care after 17 months of this process (insert any other word that works for you)!
Good luck!
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Post by Missundaztood on Nov 5, 2014 2:15:21 GMT -5
I stayed at the Hilton property. They gave me a "military" rate when I said I was a vet, well below the gov't rate. Includes a breakfast of sorts. Lol.
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Post by Ace Midnight on Nov 5, 2014 9:41:10 GMT -5
As of this morning we had exactly 100 respondents to my poll regarding interview or not (versus 107 on Gaidin's scores poll) with 69 reporting a need to interview. Unless we're missing a bunch of first certers on the poll - this looks to be ~4 names per city - of course, we don't capture everybody with these polls. However, only 31 report having already interviewed.
That implies lots of attrition from the board's perspective, anyway - I don't want to speculate on whether that is people who've taken themselves out (implicitly by eliminating cities or declining positions, or explicitly), 3-strikes, or just they live their lives away from this board or whatever - but the numbers are certainly interesting.
So, assume we've missed at least 10, 15 percent of "need to interview" folks, that puts it at about 80 to 90 - a round up to 100 - that's an average of 12 1/2 per day for 8 days - fairly easy based on the June 2014 numbers.
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Post by hopefalj on Nov 5, 2014 10:20:52 GMT -5
If you don't want to speculate on the low number of repeat candidates, ace, I will. I think it's mostly GAL restrictions. On the first certs, the majority reported having 1-5 cities on their list. I believe there are only 10 holdover cities from the first cert. No Michigan cities. No Oregon/Washington cities. Pennsylvania and Indiana are gone.
I would also think we would have heard from a first certer that had been left off the second certs by now if it happened, but maybe not.
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