#isurvivedplacementweek (Executive Branch)

Hi everyone!

I made it back alive from that crazy adventure in DC known as Knauss Placement Week. We had all been warned about what a whirlwind it is, but you really don’t feel the sorority rush/hunger games (kidding, it’s not that brutal) nature of it all until you are surviving placement week. Placement week brings out a bag of emotions. It’s exciting, stressful, fun, exhausting, educational, challenging, and very rewarding. Each day flies by, but this one week feels more like two. At the end of the ride, you walk away with quite an eventful week, quite a unique experience to look back on and, not to mention, great contacts and a fantastic new job! You also become very familiar with the DC metro system (you might have to learn how to get from one side of the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) area to the other in a very short amount of time) and get a little sample of some bars in the area through the happy hour/dinner socials.    

#maytheoddsbeeverinyourfavor

Placement week eased us into the madness, starting off with dinner on Sunday night with only the other Knauss finalists and the Sea Grant staff. We got a chance to meet and briefly talk to everyone, and also got the run-down of the schedule for the week. Monday was jam-packed with 50+ ten minute presentations from all of the host offices on the available positions. After trying to digest that onslaught of information, on Tuesday morning we scheduled our minimum of 12 interviews over the next few days. Despite being pretty much a free-for-all sign up process, the scheduling went fairly smoothly. As soon as the scheduling was complete, the interviews began! For the rest of the day Tuesday through mid-day Thursday, I interviewed for 14 different positions in various NOAA offices, at the EPA, at NSF, and at the US Army Corps of Engineers. If the interview gauntlet wasn't mentally exhausting enough, as soon as we finished the marathon on Thursday we had to choose three offices to call back that afternoon to say that they were in our top three. Placement ended Friday morning with the matching process when we got to see how the host offices ranked all of their interviewees. Finalists who were ranked #1 had the first shot at the position. If the finalist took it, the finalist crossed his/her name off of the other lists and the process moved forward from there. Chances are you will be near the top (if not #1) of a few lists. It seemed very intimidating at first, but the Sea Grant staff and all of the other finalists were so supportive. At the end of the morning, we officially became fellows!

We hardly got a chance to relax during the week. At the end of every day was a happy hour/dinner social that the hosts attended so we could talk to them more about whatever we didn't get a chance to during the short 30 minute interviews. If you aren't the best networker, push yourself to talk to your favorite offices. It's important to take advantage of these opportunities to talk to the hosts in a social setting. These “dinner” socials were kind of crazy (I ended up eating dinner after the socials around 9/9:30 every night at a different restaurant), so I recommend eating dinner beforehand if you can. The social on Thursday night after making your call-backs is a bit of a shark tank, so prepare to be hounded by the hosts. It’s a wild week, but just remember: they want you (there are more positions than fellows!), you get the opportunity to learn about and network with so many different federal offices (when else could you say you had interviews with NOAA, NSF, USGS, EPA, USACE and Dept. of State?), and you get an awesome job at the end!

Dinner social at Vapiano in Chinatown!

Lunch at Union Station after the last of my 14 interviews!

#feeltheforce

I ended up accepting a position as the Modeling Analysis Prediction and Projections (MAPP) Program Fellow in the NOAA Climate Program Office! It was definitely a tough decision. I could see my year going in so many different directions with the wide range of incredible opportunities in various offices, but I had to “feel the force”. The Sea Grant placement week staff will advise you all week to trust the system, stay open and feel the force (all of which you should follow!). Past fellows have ended up with positions they did not expect, but no one seems to have been disappointed. As for making that decision on the last day or when you're picking your three call-backs (these calls carry a lot of weight in the hosts' rankings of their interviewees), think about flipping a coin over two of your options; which one would you be more disappointed to lose? Feel the force.

My recent background is in aquatic conservation ecology (mostly freshwater) and environmental informatics (GIS, remote sensing, statistics, modeling). My master’s project at U of M-SNRE focused on developing a land conservation plan to protect the water quality of the Kalamazoo River Watershed based on the results of an ArcGIS model. However, I grew up a weather nerd (and a math nerd) and almost specialized in atmospheric sciences in undergrad, but other opportunities took me in a different direction. So, I am very excited to work in the Climate Program Office on the MAPP team for my fellowship year! 

View of the Capitol at night from Union Station

 
#knaussmafia #VIP

After Knauss fellow initiation (aka Placement Week), we got the official welcome into the Knauss Mafia or "The Family". I already got an idea of the significant presence and extent of the Knauss Mafia in NOAA and throughout DC during placement week, and I am sure that was just the beginning. Knauss fellows are everywhere! It was really exciting to see where some of these former fellows have ended up. I could truly sense the strength of this support network. Seeing "the mafia" definitely got me hopeful for the future, post-fellowship. 

After that wild ride, I am now back in Ann Arbor, Michigan working at Michigan Sea Grant for a few more weeks until I make the move to DC! I am a Northern Virginia native, so I am excited to move back to where I grew up. I can't wait to hang out with the 2015 class of Knauss fellows and for this new adventure to begin! 

Celebrating the end of placement week with the 2015 Knauss Fellows!

Shout out at our last dinner social on U Street in DC!

                                     

                               

Becoming a Knauss Fellow at Placement Week

Feel the force.

That was one of the key pieces of advice given to the incoming group of Knauss Marine Policy fellows during placement week earlier this month. For myself and the other executive branch fellows, the week was spent figuring out where we might fit among the dozens of positions that were being offered. It's not easy, given the range of great opportunities in host offices in a variety of federal agencies, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Navy.

At the end of the week, all of the fellows had been placed in host offices; one of the great aspects of the Knauss fellowship program is there are more positions than fellows, so you are really in demand. I was thrilled to accept a position in the Office of Marine Conservation in the U.S. Department of State. It'll be an incredibly exciting opportunity to see how the office helps coordinate and sort out positions among its domestic stakeholders -- including various NOAA offices, industry groups and environmental NGOs -- and then engages in bilateral and multilateral negotiations with foreign counterparts on a range of issues involving living marine resources.

Heading into placement week, I was a little worried that my nontraditional background as a former newspaper reporter might create a disadvantage compared to fellows who have extensive natural science experiences. But the host offices really appreciated the interdisciplinary focus of the program at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, including the chance to participate in research and a team-based master's project.

My time at Michigan made me comfortable in talking with a wide variety of hosts and tailoring my experience to their offices. After we spent Sunday night at an orientation dinner and Monday receiving presentations on the fellowship positions, we signed up to interview for the positions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We were encouraged to interview for at least a dozen positions. I signed up for 16 and spent those days traveling among NOAA offices as well as to hosts in the Department of State, Department of the Interior, Department of Energy and U.S. Navy.

The interviews were an amazing chance to talk with people who are doing incredible work and are excited and passionate to talk with you about what they are doing. Although the interviews could be exhausting by the end of the day, they provided a unique window into the ocean policy community in the DC area. It was also exciting to find many former Knauss fellows working in the host offices. In the evening, fellows had an opportunity to talk further with host offices in an informal, happy hour setting.

On Friday morning, we faced some tough decisions when the host offices' rankings of the fellows for each position were unveiled. But the Sea Grant staff who led the placement week process had created a really positive, friendly and supportive environment. I'm looking forward to getting to know my fellow fellows over the next year.

Dave

Knauss Marine Policy Fellow
(2/2013 – 2/2014)
GershmanDJ@state.gov

NOAA Coastal Management Fellow Placement

Wondering where fellows go on to work after their fellowship?

Want to know if Michigan Sea Grant has nominated a candidate that has gone on to be a fellow?

Wondering which states have hosted fellows in the past?

Check out this helpful infographic put together by NOAA to give a little insight on where fellows have been placed.

Where have the NOAA Coastal Management fellows gone after their fellowship?

Wacky Week! Receiving a Knauss placement in DC.

As mentioned in the previous post, Eric MacMillan and I participated in placement week for the 2012 class of Knauss Marine Policy fellows back in November. It was a hectic but exciting experience and we met tons of great folks associated with the program including past and current fellows. We were so busy that Eric and I only spoke for about 15 minutes the whole time we were in DC!

Being a legislative fellow, the week started Monday with workshops by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) at the Library of Congress. The workshops covered the process of developing legislation, how bills are introduced and voted on, and how the CRS could help us research important topics for our positions. We also had the opportunity to meet with the current class of legislative fellows to learn about their offices and experiences. On Tuesday, each host office gave a presentation to help us better understand the role fellows would have in their office and what we could expect to gain from our experience there. Several of the members of Congress even came and met with us themselves! Positions were available in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, with either member offices or committees within Congress, and varied geographically from Florida to Washington and from Maine to Guam.

On Wednesday the interviews began, and with 14 positions available in 13 offices there were tons of interviews to cram into two days. Some offices also invited fellows back after the initial interview to meet the Congressman or Congresswoman from that office or to attend events with the office staff. By Friday morning I’d been to 22 interview related activities and had the opportunity to chat with a handful of members of Congress! There were many fantastic offices with a lot to offer so making a choice was difficult for almost everyone. There was much discussion at the social event the last night about the impressions everyone had felt from each office.

Friday afternoon the legislative placement process ended with everyone being placed in an office. I was very pleased to receive a placement in the office of Congresswoman Chellie Pingree from the 1^st district of Maine. Future updates are in the works!

Kyle, 2012 Knauss Marine Policy Fellow

A Whirlwind of a Week

This past November, I along with the rest of the 2012 class of Knauss Marine Policy fellows, traveled to Washington DC for a week of interviews, happy hours, and tough decisions. The goal of placement week was for each fellow to be matched with a host office, an office in either the executive or legislative branch of the federal government, which he or she would work for during the fellowship year. At the end of placement week, everyone was matched with a host office and we all left with a better idea of how we would be spending the next year.

As an executive fellow, my week began Monday morning with a series of presentations by representatives of each potential executive branch host office (44 to be exact…). The presentations described each office’s responsibilities and gave us an idea of what it would be like to work with them. A broad range of offices were represented ranging from various positions within NOAA, the US Coast Guard, the Navy, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of State. The day was a bit draining but it was very exciting to consider the potential experiences each office could offer.

The next three days consisted of interviews (I signed up for 14, but others signed up for as many as 18!), happy hours, and getting to know the DC area. Interviews were a chance for the fellows to understand what it would be like to work in an office and for the representatives of the host office to get to know the fellows beyond a paper application. In the evening, we were off to happy hour which allowed a bit of relaxation but also presented an opportunity to interact with staff from the host offices on a more personal level. Days were jam-packed but it was a great opportunity to improve interview skills, begin to understand the diverse group of federal agencies responsible for managing our marine and Great Lakes resources, and figure out where each of us might fit in as a fellow. It was also nice to see that many former Knauss fellows have become permanent employees in these offices. Most of my interviews were in Silver Spring, Maryland at NOAA and it seemed the “NOAA Mafia” (Knauss alumni) was well represented in each office.

For the executive fellows, the placement process concluded Friday morning when we all found out where we would be working over the next year. I accepted a position with NOAA Fisheries Service in the Office of Habitat Conservation. Though I will be based in the DC area, much of my work will bring me back to Michigan where I will be working on Great Lakes habitat restoration issues. More to come later!

-Eric, 2012 Knauss Fellow