Cool, I was on the Nimitz and said screw your shore tour, I'm getting out!!!
The interviews are straight forward. 1 phone interview just to get to know you. Then you'll take a personality/leadership questionnaire(agree/disagree statements, blah blah blah). 2 onsite interviews.
They use a behavioral interview format. Sit down with 3-4 interviewers and they will ask about your past work experiences. "Give me an example of where you..." I just googled these...this is the basics, the actual questions are much wordier...
- Tell me about how you worked effectively under pressure.
- How do you handle a challenge? Give an example.
- Have you ever made a mistake? How did you handle it?
- Give an example of a goal you reached and tell me how you achieved it.
- Describe a decision you made that wasn't popular and how you handled implementing it.
- Give an example of how you set goals and achieve them.
- Give an example of how you worked on team.
- What do you do if you disagree with someone at work?
- Share an example of how you were able to motivate employees or co-workers
They want
specific examples in your previous jobs. STAR - Situation/Task you faced, Action you took, Results of your actions. Bonus points if you wrap up each question with a lessons learned
You'll do fine. Adhere to the watch standing principles and root cause analysis you're golden.
The last interview will be with 3-4 higher ups outside of operations. You know, the more outside eyes they can get on you the better. This is their leadership interview. 30 minutes tops. From what I remember, it was a rehash of the previous interview just not as detailed.
The first interview was 1 question per page about 15 questions and they filled each page chalk full, they never stop writing.
The second interview has 20 questions or so per page about 10 pages. Each interviewer asks 2-3 questions from the packet and jots down maybe a sentence or two.
Your navy background will put you heads and shoulders above everyone else. The SRO license class has a 70-80% fail out rate here so they prefer navy personnel since we have been through it before.
If you don't do SRO now, you'll have to do it later if you want to move up in the nuke world. I initially interviewed for a maintenance supervisor position and after the interview he flat out told me, with my background, he won't hire me because operations is just going to steal me away and he'd have to fill the position again. Aaaaannnnd here I am in operations.
As far as living in CR, live where your wife wants to live. You're going to make good coin so you can live anywhere you want.
Commute time anywhere in CR to duane arnold will be 30-35 minutes tops maybe a little bit more in the winter. You'll have zero traffic to deal with given your work schedule. Google maps says it takes 25 mintues for me to get to work. In 25 minutes Im at my desk after going through 3 security check points to boot. It's sad I know all this, but the navy has programmed me this way, lol.
I hear ya on the commuting, ugh. I was in ballston spa for prototype, that drive everyday sucked!!! Then being on Coronado with the Nimitz, Reagan and Carl Vinson was a nightmare.
