Between Graduation and Starting Work at Sponsering Facility

General Discussion for SMART Scholarship Recipients
JBerg

Between Graduation and Starting Work at Sponsering Facility

Post by JBerg »

I was wondering what the time frame is for being hired to start your job at your SF after graduation and does SMART offer payments to live off of between graduation and the start date? Also, what is the starting pay for Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering? Thank you in advance.

AnswerGuy

Re: Between Graduation and Starting Work at Sponsering Facil

Post by AnswerGuy »

JBerg wrote:I was wondering what the time frame is for being hired to start your job at your SF after graduation and does SMART offer payments to live off of between graduation and the start date? Also, what is the starting pay for Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering? Thank you in advance.
Time frame varies, its the same hiring process everywhere, but different facilities handle quicker. From lurking on here, the average seems to be 6 weeks. If you are proactive and your facility is willing to be quick, it can be sooner. I was offered a start date the week after finals ended, but I've also seen people say they didn't start until September.

SMART officially says they will provide 1 additional payment after graduation, but you only get this if you haven't started working that month (i.e. if you graduate in May and you start working in July, you get a June payment, but if you start in June you don't). In the past, SMART has offered to provide additional payments when the hiring process was delayed for reasons outside of your control, i.e. government shut down etc.

If you qualify for SMART, you should start at a Grade 7 Step 1 ("Bachelor's with high academic achievement"). The salary will vary based on your locality. If your SF uses GS scale go to: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversig ... alculator/ and put in the location of your SF. Fair warning, its not going to seem competitive, but your SF might put you on a special pay table (augments GS grade) or a promotion ladder (i.e. 7/9/11, where you jump between the grades with 1 year intervals). This should fix that after 1-2 years.

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