Anyone else feel duped?

[SilverFox22]

I have been reading many of the posts on this forum and found that many of the participants share the same problem of not having engineering design work at their facility. This post is also on the forum as a topic of its own, but has been placed here to increase awareness. I have not yet seen any proposals to improve the situation, so here’s what I’ve been thinking about. Please let me know your thoughts and how you can help.

SMART Program Major Change Proposal

The Problem:
The majority of SMART participants are working in ACQUISITION Facilities, which do not DESIGN products to be used for defense. As a result, the engineers are not using their engineering skills. This is a problem because government funding is not being maximally utilized. Another problem is that the engineers are losing the skills they learned in school because they are not using them during their commitment to the DoD. As a very rough conservative estimation, SMART funds approximately 600 students a year, at an average cost of $60,000. This amounts to roughly $36 million a year, not counting program overhead costs, and any other costs attached to the program.

Proposed Solutions: 1.
1. Allow SMART participants to work for approved DoD contractors, so they can meet their commitment requirements by working for companies that DESIGN the products. The SMART program itself could create a list of approved contractors, and also create a form for approving requested contractor companies. This would allow engineers’ learned skills to be used, which is what SMART paid for in the first place. This will benefit the government directly, because there will be an influx of highly trained engineers working on the products that the ACQUISITION facilities buy. One thing that the head of the SMART program may say to this is that the Government paid for the students’ tuition, and therefore must be repaid in terms of work. The way to explain this is that SMART could contract out the engineers to contractors, using the money the sponsoring facility would have paid anyway.

2. If this is not possible, create 1 or 2 CENTERS for SMART engineers to be employed. These could be research facilities in which the SMART participants work together, under senior engineers, to tackle many of the current problems. An example would be creating a large team of engineers to come up with and design devices to detect IEDs in Afghanistan, which account for more than half of all NATO troop deaths.

3. Create a network of bases that have contacts in each engineering discipline and are doing design or research work, so that scholars can easily find and locate any existing engineering related to their major at facilities across the country.




Implementation:
1. First, contact the SMART program directly and ask about proposed changes. This action will likely result in SMART leaders considering it, but not having the will or ability to take action themselves, because they are busy keeping the program itself running. Remember, the SMART office is not huge, and the priority is on the students currently receiving funding and maintaining all that goes along with this. Once a SMART scholar has graduated, the program primarily makes sure that the participant completes his/her commitment period, and is less concerned with what they’re doing and how they’re benefitting the DoD.
2. Next, contact as many other SMART scholars who are currently working and would like to see this sort of change. There are over a thousand scholars who have graduated and are serving their commitments to the DoD, and a thousand engineers making noise will get the attention of leaders.
3. Begin to draft LETTERS to members of CONGRESS, as well as governors and other political leaders who make the decisions that control the program.
4. Request of these political leaders that a team of new employees is created whose task is to help engineers find positions at engineering defense firms.
5. Lastly, assure that this process moves QUICKLY so that money can stop being wasted, and current scholars serving their commitment can begin to be used in a proactive way that will truly benefit the wellbeing of our nation and its ability to provide necessary equipment to the war fighter.

NOTE: I am serving my first and last summer internship now and have been in contact with many SMART participants and many have discussed this same problem. I don’t know if these proposals have been made to the SMART leaders. I would assume that the program has received some substantial information that many of its graduates are not using their engineering skills. My best estimation of this is that SMART is not concerned, or cannot afford to be concerned with these changes. But I absolutely think it’s someone’s responsibility to step up and make appropriate changes.

[Inuyushi]

Read the whole internet... haha yup, that was exactly what I did for two years at my SF. They did not have the tasks for my skill set anywhere where I worked. BUT i servied my two years and now I actually have an engineer job. One thing the SMART Scholarship taught me was if you want to help the military, do it from outside of the government on the contractor side. Oh, it also taught me that half of the analysis is really just made up and the other half is computers being tweeked to show what the higher ups want to see.

GL to all those out there still paying off their time. It's a pain, but you can do it!

[Dahlgren and pissed]

Preface: Computer Science degree, I was hired as a “Computer Scientist” and the most CS thing I’ve done in almost a year is make an excel spreadsheet (no formulas either).
This applies to several of the threads on this forum. Specifically the ones about leaving during phase II and this one. The absolute biggest problem was already pointed out, ACQUISITIONS. To any people seeing this before you sign that contract, make sure you ask someone at your SF if you’ll have to be DAWIA certified. If the answer is yes, you should be very wary of taking a position. That isn’t to say that all DAWIA personnel don’t enjoy their jobs, but if you think you’ll be doing anything actually related to your degree, think again. These positions exist because of bureaucratic regulations. OPM (DoD HR) requires everyone to have a degree that is in acquisitions. So these SF have a huge amount of work to accomplish, but because they deal with (as simple as making PP slides) systems everyone has to have a degree. What you end up with is a work force that 90% perform mundane administrative tasks, 8% manage the process, and 2% that actually DO something. Also, don’t be fooled when you talk to your SF. If you ask what the position does and they give you a canned high-level job overview YOU WILL NOT DO ANYTHING USEFUL!
The second biggest problem, which heavily relates to the first, is that most of the SF have no idea what to do with new hires. There are no “entry level” tasks; there are only tasks and management. These managers are so far removed from your day-to-day activities they don’t actually know what their people do. You are thrown to a group that has work, but no one is actually going to teach you what you’re supposed to do. This would be somewhat workable if the tasks related to your field of study in the slightest, but I’ve personally been handed tasks that exist nowhere outside of the DoD and told here build this paperwork package. When I ask what that meant I was emailed a previous example. Now mind you, this gives a great template, but none of the content is the same! You’re somehow just supposed to know what this thing is. The entire process leaves you feeling setup to fail and the prospect of becoming obsolescent is very real. Note that this isn’t only in my location or my opinion; I have met with many people, fairly new graduates, that are in the exact same situation throughout the organization.
The only redeeming feature in all of this is if you are an undergrad. Most, if not all, SFs have some sort of program to pay for advanced degrees. Use this time to get a masters on their dime, and go somewhere else. I truly feel sorry for those individuals that received masters or PHDs and are short of royally screwed. Given the choice, I would still take the scholarship, but I’m an undergrad. I will be getting my Masters, getting several certifications, and getting the hell out of here.

[Inuyushi]

Yea, I know how you feel. I passed on my Masters because I'm done with school. I don't need anymore of that type of paperwork. Just give me a PE and I'm good.

But like you said, the tasks that they have are not something you would find outside of the DoD. They are all unique and there may be a template, but rarely is that. I always figured this was mainly due to the fact that the Army was always working to be ahead of the curve. Which meant, they are attempting to do what no one else has yet. But either way, be prepared to basically make stuff up and reference people (people, not documents) and trust their word.

I personally was part of a V&V project that was supposed to finish after my internship, while I was finishing school, but came back after a year to find out it wasn't finished and that it was still on going. Two years later, it still was not finished and the CS guys laughed everytime someone asked, "When will VV be done?"

The saddest thing I ever heard one of my co-workers say was: "The best part about programming here is no one knows how long it will take." Which meants, if it takes an hour, but I want to work on it all week, I can watch Youtube for 39 hours and get it done that last hour of Friday. People in my office were really good at minimizing the internet when you walked by.