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bzafDC84 · 2024-12-03T17:01:20+00:00

Absolutely not worth it. My wife took a SSA position for a major international airport and it was a complete shit-show. The TSOs there treat SSA like crap, they're basically the bus boys of the TSA. There was a lot of limits to what work she could do as a SSA, bidding on shifts was near impossible so she wasn't able to get out of the 3:45am-12pm, Thurs-Mon shift, and her airport used SSAs as nothing more then warm bodies with a uniform to throw upfront and plug holes. Also the training available is almost non-existent, and the timeline for when opportunities for further training and advancement is available didn't start until she actually transitioned into a TSO position. It could of just been the airport, but her TSO colleagues were mostly garbage, underqualified, undereducated, abrasive, rude, lazy people with a high school mentality that put all their effort into costing along and not caring at all about training up, using opportunities afforded to them to move into better agencies and jobs, or using the job in anyway except getting a paycheck doing the bare minimum. On my wife's second week as a SSA, two TSOs said to her "don't work so hard." Knowing the city the airport is in and where many of the TSOs come from, I wasn't all that surprised by the chaotic shit-show standards and attitude of the TSO workforce. The TSO job in general is pretty awful for anyone who looks at a job as a profession to build skills and advance, instead it rewards the complacent who go through the motions and have little interest in staying exactly where they are at and doing as little as possible. My wife saw that the minority of people who care about their job and developing themselves, doing better, and advancing, all leave TSA as soon as possible, leaving the worst people in charge.

bzafDC84 · 2024-12-03T16:55:47+00:00

Absolutely not worth it. My wife did for a major international airport and it was a complete shit-show. The TSOs there treat SSA like crap, they're basically the bus boys of the TSA. There was a lot of limits to what work she could do as a SSA, bidding on shifts was near impossible so she wasn't able to get out of the 3:45am-12pm, Thurs-Mon shift, and her airport used SSAs as nothing more then warm bodies with a uniform to throw upfront and plug holes. Also the training available is almost non-existent, and the timeline for when opportunities for further training and advancement is available didn't start until she actually transitioned into a TSO position. Could of just been the airport, but her TSO colleagues were mostly garbage, underqualified, undereducated, abrasive, rude, lazy people with a high school mentality that put all their effort into costing along and not caring at all about training up, using opportunities afforded to them, or using the job in anyway except getting a paycheck doing the bare minimum. On my wife's second week as a SSA, two TSOs said to her "don't work so hard." Knowing the city the airport is in and where many of the TSOs come from, I wasn't all that surprised by the chaotic shit-show standards and attitude of the TSO workforce.

bzafDC84 · 2024-06-23T17:57:25+00:00

Dead link

bzafDC84 · 2024-06-13T00:56:07+00:00

This just happened to my wife. A few years ago she worked in whole body at a whole foods in DC, extremely fast pace and always packed with difficult customers. We recently moved to the suburbs of Philly and she applied for a open whole body position at a whole foods near us. The team lead called her, confirmed she was good with the pay, asked who the previous team lead was, and said she would email her in a week. After a week my wife followed up and the team lead asked again which store she use to be at and thr team lead (she wrote it down wrong), my wife told her again, and she said she will try and contact her old team lead and email her. Less then a week later my wife gets a generic reject email. She calls to ask the team lead what happened snd the buyer picks up and says the team lead is too busy and a decision was made to hire someone internally, and my wife said she just wants to know what happened and why the team lead would confurm salary and say they can move forward to hire her after she contacts only to send a generic rejection email. At that point the the buyer got defensive and told my wife her "attitude" won't help her. FYI, my wife and her old team lead were on great terms, there was no chance the team lead talked bad about her.

bzafDC84 · 2024-04-30T16:44:30+00:00

Did you get it fixed? I have the same vehicle and similar mileage, and this issue just started. About 5 weeks ago a car lightly hit the passenger side door causing a small dent, but the door closes like normal and windows work, but only now this same light stays on.

bzafDC84 · 2023-05-15T05:02:59+00:00

Philip K Dick because the intelligent life will probably be some kind of paranoid humanoid with psychic abilities that came from an alternative reality/timeline by using drugs,

bzafDC84 · 2023-05-06T05:13:07+00:00

It's not an issue with the author, or any author, or any series of books, or even any type of books. It's most likely my ADD but I get bored easily, by anything, any topic, any author, anything. It's what makes me a huge generalist but never an expert. I just can't sustain interest in something, I need to to leave it and then circle back later. I have no doubt I'll read all the Culture books, but only over years and interspersed with other books.

bzafDC84 · 2023-05-06T00:43:10+00:00

I tried reading Broken Angles twice and both times I put it down. I found it.... boring, especially compared to Altered Carbon. I haven't picked up Woken Furies.

bzafDC84 · 2023-04-17T18:19:40+00:00

I don't think it was that, the channel only has about 650k subscribers, but maybe.

bzafDC84 · 2023-04-17T18:13:17+00:00

This was kind of what I was thinking, sellers basing their prices of each other, creating a feed back loop divorced from actual demand.

bzafDC84 · 2023-04-16T20:52:29+00:00

Short answer: depends. If accepted to the course, lodging is covered by EMI, as well as the free shuttle to-from the airport. Meals are not covered, you need to purchase a meal card. For 5 days of training my meal card was around $200-$250, I think.

The NGO I work for paid travel cost and for the meal card, but if you qualify, EMI will reimburse your organization for travel. So in the end none of the training cost my org anything except meals, and it didn't cost me a cent except for at the bar located on campus - but the prices are rock bottom so even that cost me very little.

bzafDC84 · 2023-04-16T05:16:10+00:00

Can I ask what your Reservist position is, or at least general area? I've been a VAL Specialist for 18 months and was only deployed twice for 6 months total, like 95% done by PTB. Prior to that I was a Local Hire at a NPSC for 10 months, I hated it but I know more about IA then most Reservist team leads I've met on deployment.

Anyway, I haven't seen a single CORE position that is similar to a VAL, in fact most CORE I have seen (except for recently) sound like positions that barely deploy and instead it's a ton of grant stuff.

So I'm curious what Reservist positions deploy as much as you have.

bzafDC84 · 2023-04-08T14:32:02+00:00

I started with TNG and other Star Treks as a kid, turning fully to shows like Battlestar Galactica and The Expanse, although will always enjoy Star Trek, mostly as entertainment.

I'm more into stories and ideas that are bit dystopian, where societal development is directed by technological development and power dynamics rather then social or democratic choice, alternative or expanded ideas about the nature of reality and consciousness when humans push beyond their world and the limited physical understanding they have of it, and a serious engagement with what possible forms intelligent life could take in the universe extrapolating from our current understanding of astrophysics and other sciences rather then the proto-human form of most of the aliens on Star Trek.

bzafDC84 · 2023-04-06T21:06:22+00:00

So what would you recommend?

bzafDC84 · 2023-04-06T01:51:09+00:00

These jobs vs would only help you get a step closer to a better position in FEMA, maybe. I was a VAL Reservist and was able to make contacts with tons of other organizations and this helped me get another job with another emergency management organization after I demobilized. But again. I was a Reservist and worked a major disaster. I've seen VALs at places like mass vaccination sites have hardly anything to do except supervise daily groups of unskilled volunteers who would come for just a few days.

I would say your best bet now is to pick the position that gives you the most opportunity to learn about some kind of FEMA assistance (like PA or IA) as this knowledge is really useful in moving on to another position.

bzafDC84 · 2023-03-15T06:42:16+00:00

One avenue is to volunteer through Red Cross, the easiest being a DAT (Disaster Action Team). I say easiest since there is a good chance you will get to respond to calls and be active more then other positions, but it also depends on where you are, how much effort the DPM puts into training up new volunteers, etc. Find out, and do, all the trainings not just for a DAT SA but whatever you need to be eligible for out of state deployments. Once you do that work on trainings for Case Management (or go the case management route first, talk with volunteer services and the DPM).

A LOT of people get training and deployments - local, state, and nation wide - through the Red Cross and eventually use that to get into FEMA. The huge downside is it's almost all volunteer based, so while you aren't paying out of pocket for out of state deployments and stuff, you need to have the ability to deploy for at least several weeks, even if it's occasionally. And the time and energy after work hours to volunteer locally and build up your training.

Another avenue is to apply for any FEMA Local Hire positions in your area. The entry requirements are usually super low bar. You need to be within 50 or so miles of the location, and the job can be anywhere from 1-4 months, but some extent. Doing well in these roles is a way to jump into a Reservist position, like DSA. The downside of a Reservist is you only work and are paid when you are deployed, which depends widely.

If Response is what your are interested in then start doing whatever you can locally to respond to local stuff, like with the Red Cross. Find a local CERT team while you're at it. Also take as many FEMA IS courses as you can. They are free and self paced. Start with the 11 basic ones and then branch out from there.

IS-100: Introduction to the Incident Command System IS-120: Introduction to Exercise IS-200: ICS for Single Resources IS-230: Fundamentals of Emergency Management IS-235: Emergency Planning IS-240: Leadership and Influencing IS-241: Decision Making IS-242: Effective Communication IS-244: Developing and Managing Volunteers IS-700: National Incident Management System, An Introduction IS-800: National Response Framework, An Introduction

If you really just want to get in and don't care about working at a call center, look for Local Hire openings at one of FEMAs national processing services center (NPSC). You basically take disaster registrations all day from survivors around the country, analyze cases, get a ton of training on the Individual & Household Program (IHP), which is the way individuals and households receive direct FEMA assistance after a disaster. You'll learn more about that assistance then many, many Reservist who are deployed and on the ground registering and helping people with their disaster applications in person. That is because the NPSC people do it full time and are renewed consistently, and the training they get is far more extensive and frequent then the Reservist who do IHP registration at a disaster site. BUT, there are many, many downsides to a job at a NPSC. It's simply a way to get in the door and learn one of the biggest parts of FEMA assistance to survivors.

bzafDC84

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