NEST
- Thread starter Cirrus12
- Start date
A friend of mine got word from the November panel. They were retained after a long while in the agency and have been given a list of available locations at the last level facility that they checked out in (7 or below). That wasn't the surprise. All the choices are 3000 miles away, basically across country. They have 7 days to decide. According to my limited source the next panel will be held on the 18th of December. I can't imagine anything else will be passed down until after the new year. This process needs some tweaking.
Hang in there.
Hang in there.
Do you know if/how he was officially notified or was this just someone in management finding out and letting him know?
I was in the November NEST and I received my facility offers on Monday 12/09. I was offered HTS (level 5), RDG (level 6), and ACY (level 7), all up-and-down facilities. I was offered up-and-downs because I already had at least two radars here at ZJX, but if you don't have radars you will almost certainly get tower-only. The agency seems to be aggressively washing-out people from Centers because officially the centers are over-staffed. From what I'm told the FAA magically came to this conclusion after Sequestration last spring. According to the new target staffing numbers ZJX is around 20% over-staffed, with current staffing being around 308 and target staffing around 250-260. Anyway based on what I've seen and heard, if you have all your d-sides you're most likely going to be retained, but you're getting a tower only level 7 or below. If you have any radars you're almost guaranteed to be retained, but the FAA will never say that officially. Also it doesn't seem to matter how many radars you have (I've heard stories of people now at the Academy in tower class with four and five radars out of total of six), you will be getting level 7 and below up-and-downs. Anyone who doesn't at least have all their d-sides is in a more uncertain situation.
^^ Good to know for me with a TOL to ZJX...I think I'll try calling my rep and asking for a redirect. Not sure why the FAA is still handing out TOLs to 20% overstaffed facilities, but that is beyond that is not a reasonable line of questioning.
Did you make any requests to stay in a particular geographic area? My profile is going to be submitted into NEST this week and I was just wondering if they took requests into consideration at all. I contacted the towers facility NATCA rep and she said that they were "desperate for trainees," I just don't know how much bearing all that has on the process. Im not getting my hopes up though.
I know in the response letter, if you chose to write one or not, you can list your geographic preference on where you were thinking of going. I guess its up to the panel to deteremine if you go to your preference or they give you facilities in where they need people. And who was "desperate for trainees" when you contacted the NATCA rep??
That is pretty much the deal estup24. They can completely ignore it, too. Your manager also gives an opinion as to whether or not you can make it at another facility and what type. The amount of weight given to your manager's recommendation is still unknown. This system is in it's infancy and unfortunately we are the test... I hate to say it but, Dummies. We are not the only one's either. This thread has gotten almost 8000 views.
Yes I specifically requested FL, VA, and PA in that order. I even emphasized that I would go anywhere in FL because my family is here. I'm the third person to go through this process at my facility, and I'm the first person to get offered anything in any requested geographic preference area; the others all got offers for facilities that were not in the geographic areas they requested.
The first thing you learn in the FAA is just how ridiculously irrational the agency is. Like I said they 'magically' came to the conclusion that the centers were over-staffed once the budget crisis hit. Anyway you must be one of the four new hires I've heard are coming to ZJX in 2014. Good-luck!
I dunno about that, we got a list of people who hold TOLs on the ZJX thread and I'm a few past 4th oldest, I think theres 8-10 of us on there, and I'm sure a few more who aren't on SM. Would be nice though.
I already wrote my response letter which included my geographic preference and it was ISP that is desperate for trainees.
See that's the thing with rumors. They may be "desperate for trainees" but they are overstaffed. Good luck man. I hope this process gets straightened out so that people don't have to go through the hard process of washing out and have to be subject to this waiting and guessing.