Transferring sections

[SMARTgirl]

Is it possible to transfer sections/departments for your internship and/or service commitment. If so, how do you start the process? I'm on a base that has SMART scholars in several different areas, so isn't there a way that I could move to one of the other areas? Or another facility all together?

I'm doing my first summer internship and realizing that the work is not what I signed up for. The work, as described to me, is not engineering work at all. It's more administrative and acquisition than anything.

I don't want to break my contract, but I also don't want to spend 3 years post graduation doing administrative work that has relatively little to do with my degree.

Please, if anyone could enlighten me on this, I would truly appreciate it.

[GuestAQ]

Sorry to hear about your situation. I was in the same situation a few years ago. SMART nor the SF are obligated to do anything and unfortunately they probably will not. I informed SMART, the base POC, the service liaison, etc, all with no luck. They are unfortunately very uninterested. You can try reaching out to all of those people, hopefully attitudes have changed....but don’t hold your breath.

This theme —of being duped into administrative, acquisition, and non engineer type work is very common — you can find lots of threads on this.

Is your facility on a GS payscale? Are you in an DAU coded position? Mind sharing the service branch?

[GuestAQ]

I want to clarify — I think SMART should be obligated to do something. They recruit students by advertising research opportunities and engineering. Acquisitions is not engineering. Twiddling your thumbs is not engineering. An office full of employees Watching full metal jacket on YouTube is not engineering. My experience has been that they do not see it that way and couldn’t care less about skills mismatch. They did not follow their own handbook to address the skills mismatch issue.

I ended up quitting through my commitment for an engineering job in the private sector because no one would take the issue seriously.

[SMARTgirl]

The service branch is AF and it is a GS position. It falls under the gs 7-9-11 career ladder.

I'm very sorry that you had to leave due to the same issue. I'm worried, because I would love to hold a government position, but I want to do something value adding and related to my degree. This position is essentially researching and acquiring equipment. I don't feel like it requires an engineer to do it.

I think it's insane that they have so many engineers down here doing this job. It may be a good position to end your career (not stressful, very easy work), but it's not a position to start in. I'm worried that I will lose everything I learned while here and have a hard time getting hired somewhere else when my commit.ent is up.

[GuestAQ]

Down here? Happen to be at Robins AFB?

I had exactly the same concerns as you and thus why I left. The concern is real. The private sector is competitive.

[SMARTgirl]

Down here? Happen to be at Robins AFB?

I had exactly the same concerns as you and thus why I left. The concern is real. The private sector is competitive.

Did you work at Robins?

[GuestAQ]

Sure did. I don’t recommend anyone who wants to do remotely anything technical work there.

If you create a user name, I will login and private message you. I can tell you what I tried, whom I contacted, etc. I was not successful in relocating even on base, but maybe I can save you some energy.

You’re not the only person who’s gone through this. A lot of people have quit Robins for this exact reason over the years.

[SMARTgirl]

I registered this user name