April is Coming Up

[dancer]

So awards may be coming out this week.... Fingers crossed as I never got contacted for an interview. CS PhD looking to work at WSMR

[jaf1324]

I've had 3 interviews and all of them said April 1st. All 3 were different departments of the same SF though, so I'm sure they all heard the same date, it could possibly be that they're all wrong.

What lab was that at?

MDA, all 3 in Huntsville.

[PlutoBoy]

Dang, I wish we could have re-ranked our SF preference after interviews last year. I had an interview with an SF I hated but still somehow got assigned to them. It’s been hell since.

Can I ask which SF you are at?

I had a similar thing happen - my SF was AEDC - not even on my list of choices (I was interviewed by others on my list and told I was a name they were putting forward to SMART... AEDC got me because I was their ONLY name submitted). Fortunately was able to eventually move somewhere else.

How did that work? I currently dislike my SF. They have agreed to let me leave and another SF has agreed to take me. I don't know how do I initiate the change.

[Bitter2018Scholar]

Dang, I wish we could have re-ranked our SF preference after interviews last year. I had an interview with an SF I hated but still somehow got assigned to them. It’s been hell since.

Can I ask which SF you are at?

I had a similar thing happen - my SF was AEDC - not even on my list of choices (I was interviewed by others on my list and told I was a name they were putting forward to SMART... AEDC got me because I was their ONLY name submitted). Fortunately was able to eventually move somewhere else.

Definitely jealous you were able to transfer. I know LMI has been extra strict about it. I got the nastiest email at the time of award asking if transfers happen in certain circumstances. My SF isn’t using my research, they technically aren’t using my major, and it’s across the country. I live in a pretty big city near a ton of SFs (all three of my top choices, one that uses my university for their agency, hence why I asked) but no luck. I even had the SF I wanted’s HR people reach out because I knew they had selected me and they also got nasty emails staying I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere doing nothing productive.

[Guest]

Dang, I wish we could have re-ranked our SF preference after interviews last year. I had an interview with an SF I hated but still somehow got assigned to them. It’s been hell since.

I received a phone call from SMART last year asking if I wanted to re-rank my SF preferences. I think it is pretty uncommon for it to happen, but it does happen every year.

[Rerathar]

I didn't get a call from SMART about reranking, but I also made my top 3 choices all three of the USACC facilities, and the person who did my interview said they were getting ready to shift the Maryland and Virginia ones to Georgia within the next couple years.

[AnotherGuest]

How did that work? I currently dislike my SF. They have agreed to let me leave and another SF has agreed to take me. I don't know how do I initiate the change.

TL;DR version - you need to be proactive and do the legwork. You already have most of it done with one SF agreeing to let you go and another agreeing to take you on. You need to contact the SMART program office or your original SF's liaison (would recommend the liaison first), and explain the situation. You are more likely to get the liaison on your side before SMART, and they can help convince SMART that your change of SF request is legitimate.

----
I'm in Phase 3 now -- the contractor running SMART at the time was ASEE instead of LMI, but I still had to do all of the legwork. That group at AEDC wasn't completely honest about the work that I would be doing when I went through the interview process... So even though they weren't on my list I still accepted it based on the work that was described to me still fitting into where I wanted to go with my research/future work after grad school. During my first summer internship there I quickly found out I would be placed in a position that capped out after 2 years, doing work that wouldn't even make use of or require a graduate degree (they also couldn't sponsor me when I decided to pursue a PhD because they were only authorized to support up to Masters level employees, which seemed very bizarre). There were other issues, but the biggest one was I only accepted the offer (I had other funding offers) because of the work that was described to me and they weren't truthful about it.

I started contacting the AF liaison to see what could be done -- he tried to convince me to apply for SMART again, however for a PhD and that would put be back in the pool for nearly random selection. I wasn't really up for doing that process again, so I hunted around for positions at other SF's that were much more in line with what I was supposed to be doing and closer to what my degree was focused in. Eventually came across a DoD lab job opening that was circulated through my grad lab that sounded like a perfect fit -- interviewed with them in-person and explained my SMART situation. SF's on both sides of the transfer had to be good with the transfer itself and the SMART program office/liaison handled things from there. The transfer took a long time... I started working the transfer ~9-10 months before I graduated... I didn't start working until 6 months after I graduated. Also of note... Once you get a transfer to go through, SMART puts a document in your file (and e-mails it to you), that 100% comes across that they aren't happy with what you did, and that you aren't in line with the original agreement you signed, etc... The note is meant to blemish your file for anything in the future that might come up was what I got from it. I haven't noticed any issues - applied for SMART again, however as a retention with my new SF and it sounds like they are expecting me to get an award notification this week - also received NDSEG (was run by ASEE when I did SMART, so I half expected my SMART file to be shared w/ NDSEG office).