Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 17, 2014 23:30:49 GMT -5
Thank you for sharing!
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witty
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i tawt i taw a puddy tat (Livingston/Foster/May/ made famous by Tweety B.)
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Post by witty on Nov 18, 2014 7:09:13 GMT -5
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Post by Gaidin on Nov 18, 2014 14:10:09 GMT -5
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Post by orchid on Nov 18, 2014 18:47:21 GMT -5
Anyone else not sure what do with cities 25-43? I've struck a few but have no idea how to pick which is the least desirable of the least desirables. I want to strike all but about 15 cities but don't want to destroy my chances. Thoughts?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2014 18:54:19 GMT -5
I am in the same boat. No great advice to give.
Good luck!
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Post by orchid on Nov 18, 2014 18:56:24 GMT -5
I am in the same boat. No great advice to give. Good luck! Yes, good luck to everyone:) |
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Post by mamaru on Nov 18, 2014 19:44:15 GMT -5
I ranked the cities I was excited about and left the remainder unranked. If I can't go somewhere I would like to be and get an offer elsewhere, I would feel better knowing it was a more or less random decision to exile me to that location. Neither of my first round hire friends who had really high scores ended up with their number one choice so I am not expected miracles.
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Post by orchid on Nov 18, 2014 19:51:49 GMT -5
I ranked the cities I was excited about and left the remainder unranked. If I can't go somewhere I would like to be and get an offer elsewhere, I would feel better knowing it was a more or less random decision to exile me to that location. Neither of my first round hire friends who had really high scores ended up with their number one choice so I am not expected miracles. Did your first round hire friends at least get a top 10-15 choice? |
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Post by sealaw90 on Nov 19, 2014 9:36:48 GMT -5
Since I am half Hungarian, I immediately like the Paprika method and will have to try it when my turn comes to rank cities - GO TRIADS!!! Speaking of ethnicity - any city that has a German, Hungarian, Italian, Jamaican, Puerto Rican, or other ethnic food store will always rank high on my list for those hard to get ingredients!! JMHO of course, add your own column to your list.  |
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Post by mamaru on Nov 19, 2014 10:06:11 GMT -5
My wife, who is retired from the military, suggested that the GAL is similar to a "dream sheet." I had never heard of this document. Apparently, selection for a duty station in the military is made based on the "needs of the service" and a form called a "dream sheet," which lists the service member’s assignment preferences. Military personnel are sent where they are needed most rather than where they would like to go. However, the dream sheet serves as a tie-breaker if the military has an equal need at Base X and Base Y. If Base Y is listed on the dream sheet and Base X is not, they will assign the service member to Y. On the other hand, if Base Z is on the dream sheet but the needs of the service are at X and Y, then the assignment will be made to X or Y and not Z. I suspect the GAL works much like the military dream sheet and offers will be based upon the needs of SSA. It will be a happy coincidence if your offer happens to come from one of your top five picks. FWIW this has been my take on it. |
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Post by HallmarkFan on Nov 19, 2014 12:03:47 GMT -5
Very impressed with the spreadsheet! But I'm old school. I have each city written on separate little post-it notes that I have been moving around on the dining room table. Coincidentally, Orlando started looking good at about the same time the temp hit 0 this week.
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Post by yellowrose on Nov 19, 2014 12:47:45 GMT -5
Dying from curiosity--can you tell us your top and bottom 5?
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Post by sealaw90 on Nov 19, 2014 12:48:29 GMT -5
The analytical side of my brain loves the spreadsheet, but the other half of me needs to consider the following things as I grow older:
access to GREAT medical care
access to the GREAT outdoors (even if its a lot of parks)
access to GREAT cultural arts
access to GREAT big highways/airports/trains so I can escape to my bucket list locales
etc.
But the methodology is still the same
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2014 12:51:26 GMT -5
It is also about priorities. Are you looking for a good place to send kids to public school, a certain climate, or population size? The answer like varies widely. I know of at least one applicant at this stage who is single, one older but no kids, and a handful married with school age kids. I decided to worry most about my top and bottom choices. The ones in the middle were a bit muddled. Good luck to all.
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Post by orchid on Nov 19, 2014 16:36:43 GMT -5
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Post by HallmarkFan on Nov 19, 2014 17:27:31 GMT -5
The analytical side of my brain loves the spreadsheet, but the other half of me needs to consider the following things as I grow older: access to GREAT medical care access to the GREAT outdoors (even if its a lot of parks) access to GREAT cultural arts access to GREAT big highways/airports/trains so I can escape to my bucket list locales etc. But the methodology is still the same
Well said. Totally agree. Just sent mine in.
Best wishes to all. I'm going to go back to practicing law now. |
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Post by 71stretch on Nov 19, 2014 17:34:02 GMT -5
My criteria are purely subjective. Access to medical care, recreation, schools, and so forth are all valid and important considerations. Truth is, there is not enough time to do all the research necessary to come up with a comprehensive set of rankings. Bob's gotta have the list tomorrow. I'm adding the final touches and getting ready to email now. All I've really done is confirm that my original subjective rankings were mathematically valid. I'll bet ODAR uses a similar tool (of far greater complexity) to match applicants with cities. Until these recent certs for which they asked for preferences, I don't think ODAR gave any thought to matching applicants with cities before. They have filled cities in a certain order in order to get to certain people they want to hire into the corps, but who went where was entirely arbitrary. They would hire someone living in city A for city B, all the way across the country, and then hire someone living in city B to work in city A. We will see how they do with the preferences this time around. |
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Post by Gaidin on Nov 20, 2014 9:51:09 GMT -5
My criteria are purely subjective. Access to medical care, recreation, schools, and so forth are all valid and important considerations. Truth is, there is not enough time to do all the research necessary to come up with a comprehensive set of rankings. Bob's gotta have the list tomorrow. I'm adding the final touches and getting ready to email now. All I've really done is confirm that my original subjective rankings were mathematically valid. I'll bet ODAR uses a similar tool (of far greater complexity) to match applicants with cities. Until these recent certs for which they asked for preferences, I don't think ODAR gave any thought to matching applicants with cities before. They have filled cities in a certain order in order to get to certain people they want to hire into the corps, but who went where was entirely arbitrary. They would hire someone living in city A for city B, all the way across the country, and then hire someone living in city B to work in city A. We will see how they do with the preferences this time around. On the first cert they appear to have given it a fair amount of weight with most people reporting they got a high choice. Now I would rather go to my last choice than take a chance on my top choice being there on the next cert. BUT they do seem to have attempted to take it into account. |
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Post by moopigsdad on Nov 20, 2014 10:05:43 GMT -5
Until these recent certs for which they asked for preferences, I don't think ODAR gave any thought to matching applicants with cities before. They have filled cities in a certain order in order to get to certain people they want to hire into the corps, but who went where was entirely arbitrary. They would hire someone living in city A for city B, all the way across the country, and then hire someone living in city B to work in city A. We will see how they do with the preferences this time around. On the first cert they appear to have given it a fair amount of weight with most people reporting they got a high choice. Now I would rather go to my last choice than take a chance on my top choice being there on the next cert. BUT they do seem to have attempted to take it into account. The issue would be if your score and rank is high enough for your first choice when they go to fill it. If your score is not good enough and they want to hire you, unfortunately you may end up in your last choice. Furthermore, there could be 20 other people that list your first choice as their first choice and if SSA is hiring, even one other person besides you out of the 20 people and that person's score is higher, he or she would get the first choice over you. |
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Post by sandiferhands (old) on Nov 20, 2014 10:55:58 GMT -5
I wonder whether they try to fill the cities looking to crapland places first, and dream cities thereafter, thus initially ignoring expressed preferences. Logically, they should do this to maximize their chances of filling all openings.
Hypo: there are dream cities A, B, and C, and crapland D to fill.
There are 40 candidates each for A B C, and only three for D.
The three who have agreed to D are also on the certs and near the top of the list for A B C.*
If they consider and fill A B C first, and place those three top candidates there, they are left with no one for D.
If they consider D first, and place one of the three candidates there, they still will be able to fill A B C.
Thus, it behooves SS to try and fill the more difficult to fill places first--which results in a slight disadvantage to those three top candidates as they would thus have a greater chance of crapland despite their higher scores AND despite their preferences.
If this is a methodology that is used, then our expressed preferences would indeed take a back seat to their needs, at least initially. Once they fill the crapland cities with the top of that cert, they will have more candidates per dream city and thus more flexibility to consider candidates' preferences.
*before you say "this could never happen", I will say that my #1 and possibly #2 cities are definitely crapland, but I chose them for logistic/travel/financial reasons. I suspect others have done the same.
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