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Post by rmspringfield on Jun 22, 2023 18:39:36 GMT -5
Starting tomorrow morning everyone should answer any unrecognizable number in your best Lionel Richie voice and, emphatically say, " Hello? Is it me you're looking for?" [Should I get the call] I’m considering letting it go to voicemail so that I can freak out in private before composing myself and being totally professional on the phone. I’ve been contemplating the same thing. Especially since I’m likely to not get any sleep tonight and if that call comes early in the morning I’ll be so out of it that I’ll think I dreamed the whole thing. At least the voicemail would be a record that it really did happen. |
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Post by neufenland on Jun 22, 2023 18:39:41 GMT -5
Is tomorrow confirmed? Or we just are sending those vibes into the void?
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Post by rmspringfield on Jun 22, 2023 18:41:43 GMT -5
Is tomorrow confirmed? Or we just are sending those vibes into the void? Has anything been confirmed? Someone put that out there so even if it’s bad intel you can’t unsee it. |
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Post by neufenland on Jun 22, 2023 18:49:10 GMT -5
Is tomorrow confirmed? Or we just are sending those vibes into the void? Has anything been confirmed? Someone put that out there so even if it’s bad intel you can’t unsee it. Has anything ever been confirmed? Yes. This year? Not yet. People are talking about upcoming sleep troubles, etc., so I thought there was more to the rumor this time. I suggest melatonin if worried about sleep issues. Can get at CVS. Most are open late or even 24 hrs. |
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Post by jagvet on Jun 22, 2023 19:05:36 GMT -5
Starting tomorrow morning everyone should answer any unrecognizable number in your best Lionel Richie voice and, emphatically say, " Hello? Is it me you're looking for?" [Should I get the call] I’m considering letting it go to voicemail so that I can freak out in private before composing myself and being totally professional on the phone. Don't play games! Answer the phone.  |
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Post by ARobeByAnyOtherName on Jun 22, 2023 19:10:20 GMT -5
[Should I get the call] I’m considering letting it go to voicemail so that I can freak out in private before composing myself and being totally professional on the phone. Don't play games! Answer the phone. View Attachment You’re right; who’m I kidding? It’ll never reach the second ring. |
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Post by Gaidin on Jun 22, 2023 20:42:50 GMT -5
You’re right; who’m I kidding? It’ll never reach the second ring. The answer is yes. Where am I going? |
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Post by roonie on Jun 23, 2023 4:43:02 GMT -5
You’re right; who’m I kidding? It’ll never reach the second ring. The answer is yes. Where am I going? I’m sure this has been asked and answered, but are offers ever made to a city you did not list? Asking for a friend. |
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Post by hillsarealive on Jun 23, 2023 11:52:25 GMT -5
The answer is yes. Where am I going? I’m sure this has been asked and answered, but are offers ever made to a city you did not list? Asking for a friend. I think the short answer is no, although it's hard to say for sure. During the last round, somebody reported getting an offer for an HO that was not on his or her GAL. This was surprising. However, some surmised that this person's GAL may have included a city with multiple HOs--and so the candidate was technically placed within his or her GAL but not in the desired HO within that city. That seems like a more likely explanation than TPTB calling an audible and offering someone a location he or she did not want. But it is hard to say with certainty. Nobody else reported anything like this, so if TPTB do give offers outside of candidate GALs, the practice must be fairly uncommon. Looking back, the application noted that "if you select a city with multiple office locations, you will be considered for both locations." I see that Phoenix, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston and perhaps a few other cities have multiple locations. I suppose these cities are big enough that one might have a strong preference for commuting to one office rather than the other. |
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joy
New Member
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Post by joy on Jun 23, 2023 13:31:09 GMT -5
Is there a reason we believe calls happen on Fridays? Is that when it's always happened in the past? Just curious about the frenzied focus on Fridays.
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Post by neufenland on Jun 23, 2023 13:55:40 GMT -5
One of these days, there actually is going to be a wolf...
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Post by luckylady2 on Jun 23, 2023 15:25:36 GMT -5
The answer is yes. Where am I going? I’m sure this has been asked and answered, but are offers ever made to a city you did not list? Asking for a friend. Usually it's only cities on your list. I know of one, and only one, instance in which an insider (ie already an employee of SSA) was offered an ALJ position in a place that the candidate did not list on his/her GAL.
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Post by privateatty on Jun 23, 2023 18:47:38 GMT -5
I have said this before, but I will say it again. Making a decision on whether or not to become an ALJ by choice of city is almost always made with the limited database of past experience--it's just another job. What a mistake.
Being an ALJ under the APA is unlike anything you have ever experienced. It is truly metaphysical. I suspect (but I don't know) that is why Pixie is so slavishly devoted to this Board as has ALJD been in the past. Pixie confessed recently that she was in trial when she got the call. That tells you a lot.I have been an ALJ for 14 years now, and I have this Board to thank as my chief sponsor. Put simply, absent this Board, no job. There are 24 or so federal agencies that have ALJs. SSA, OMHA and very few Labor and SEC Judges are the only ones that direct hire.
Performance reviews, ignorance of the APA, fear of the unknown and failure to research are the precursors to so many wrong decisions. My best friend took 5 years to get where he needed to go into another agency. He has another 10 or 20 years to retirement. Who knows? He doesn't. We shake our heads about our past perceptions. And he is so happy he chose to be so far away from his family. Yes, it was hard. But what he can offer now to his family in terms of mental and ultimately physical health, is priceless. And there is so much more to say on this.
Honor the Job. There is no other job like it. Yeah, it would be nice to be a US Magistrate--the job I thought I wanted and didn't get due to politics in a small town. I would be retired now--due to the stress of the USDC breathing down my back and just the lack of respect every time a litigant wanted fees when they got before me and asked for the USDC Judge. Stupid me, choosing the FBI knocking on my door at all hours for a signature on a subpoena vs. staring at the stars.
This job saved me in ways that if I were to tell you would be dismissed as hyperbole.
Thank you.
-privateatty
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Post by Gaidin on Jun 24, 2023 12:51:31 GMT -5
I am 7 years in and there is not a single day that I am not grateful for this board helping me get this job. It is not perfect but it is so much better than what my prior situation.
No job gives you everything. It's a job not a vacation. However, this job is worth the struggle for me at least.
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Post by jagvet on Jun 25, 2023 17:14:49 GMT -5
I am 7 years in and there is not a single day that I am not grateful for this board helping me get this job. It is not perfect but it is so much better than what my prior situation. No job gives you everything. It's a job not a vacation. However, this job is worth the struggle for me at least. My experience is the same as @gaidin. In fact, we were classmates. As a supposed "civil servant" GS-type in my last legal job, I was hounded by political appointees of both parties to twist the law to the point of breaking. Just trying to follow the law was a challenge. No such problem at OHO. I'm in my third presidential administration, and no one has bothered me at SSA as they did in my last job. I do what I think the law and facts require, no one makes me do otherwise, and it is quite satisfying. When the AC or USDC remands a case, I take a brand-new look at it and I will admit to myself when I was wrong. The workload is big, but you get used to it. This is not the job for everyone, but it is the best job for those who don't mind hard work. Take the call and say yes! |
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Post by Pixie on Jun 26, 2023 13:13:10 GMT -5
I have moved all of the posts relating to the Call to the Offers Are Live thread. Please post in that thread.
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Post by rmspringfield on Jun 26, 2023 13:13:55 GMT -5
I got the call!
I created a separate thread to let folks know that calls are live and to get ready. The call came at 11:37 Central time from Tucson AZ. Caller ID did identify the call as coming from SSA/US Govt.
And I wanted to thank this board and for all the moderators and regular posters for all the intel and info. I don't think I'd have gotten the application done in time and under the wire without the heads up from this board. You've all made this long process less kafkaesque. Even if there was no info at least knowing I was just as lost as everyone else made me feel less alone and at least I knew I didn't get left behind. It's been a long hard fight and a tall tree to climb. But I've finally made the next stage of my career in no small part to each and every one of you.
Hopefully I'll see many of you at judge boot camp in DC!
Until then. 2 wheels down and the truth.
rmspringfield
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Post by neufenland on Jun 26, 2023 13:57:40 GMT -5
I screwed up and accidentally posted this in the "call" thread, which I specifically intended NOT to do. Apologies. I don't want to clutter up the other thread with ancillary questions that detract from the celebrations.
I'll repost here, where I intended:
Did anyone who got a call today interview last year (Summer 2022)?
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Post by ARobeByAnyOtherName on Jun 26, 2023 15:13:15 GMT -5
STRATEGY: plan a non-refundable vacation for when in-person ALJ training is rumored to be held. That way, when you DON’T get the call, you get to say “I’M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!!”
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Post by hillsarealive on Jun 26, 2023 15:29:05 GMT -5
Dear TPTB. You forgot to call me. This is getting a little embarrassing, as you made the same mistake last year. I’m willing to look past it (again), but please try harder in the future.
In all seriousness, it looks like the offers are winding down for this round. Congratulations to all the great candidates who made the cut this time! You should celebrate making your way through this difficult process and snatching the ultimate prize. It was not easy—but you pulled it off, and you should feel very good about it.
I did not receive the call, and while I’m not happy about that, I will get over it. For others in the same situation, just remember that there’s always next time, and the time after that. Unless you’re close to retirement, the game is not over until you want it to be. A career is very long, and if it takes you another year, or two, or 5, or 10, to become an ALJ, well that’s just a blip in the grand scheme of things. Besides, it may be that becoming an ALJ at a later date, or going in a different direction altogether, are better outcomes for you. As a great author once wrote, you don’t know what worse luck your bad luck saved you from. So chin up everybody—and may good things come to those who wait.
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