Ok, kids are back under control... =)
Arrival was 7:30am. Everyone I saw going in was very formally dressed, most women in pantsuits, some skirts; men in suits with jackets. Check in with security at the front desk, then went to a waiting room that they were in and out of throughout the day. Waited and chatted among themselves until someone did a brief welcome and explained how things would work. There are quite a few different rooms and offices in the building so a map was provided along with individual schedules for each applicant. He said at some point in the day, his schedule changed, but it was just a room shift or something, because one of his interviews was by phone (she would have been there, but had a family emergency, luckily it's someone he'd met at the April Conference, so they could picture each other...tried for a video chat, but the tech guys couldn't get it to work). Then they had a few minutes to find all their rooms and whatever before interviews.
Interviews started around 9, I think. They were each 30 minutes and there was a 15 minute buffer in between, so noone ran late and you always have time to use the restroom, find your next room, etc. There were 4 blocks before lunch. No interviews were on top of lunch, so everyone could have the time to eat and whatever. The next building over had a cafe with all the usual things. There was also at least one other restaurant within walking, but I think everyone just stuck to the cafe. Then there were slots after lunch, and again, they all had a buffer. My husband ended up being done at 2:45 and he thought there was only 1 or 2 done before him. Lucky, since as it was we didn't get home until nearly midnight and had 3 very cranky kiddos. So, definitely plan on being there the whole time, especially if you need time to get through Atlanta traffic to the airport for a flight.
Each interview had slightly different questions. The interview everyone has with one of the 6 on the decision committee are the same, we think. Then there are variations on the theme from each of the specific areas you've requested. In one case, he was asked to explain why he was interested in that group. The other 2 were self-explanatory. Everyone was really nice. He said the toughest question for him was one about describing a stressful or conflict situation he'd been in and how he handled it. He's not a conflict type, so he didn't have anything much to say except just that he was really mellow and so hadn't had any situations like that. Apparently one officer at some point recently had a conflict with a local he was working with and ended up being reassigned to a different detail where having a temper wasn't an issue.
One thing I found surprising was that some of the interviews were set up at tables in a large room, so you had other interviews going on around you. He said there was plenty of space between and he didn't even notice the other interviews or noise. He also said that all the interviewers were taking notes, either typing or writing, nearly the entire time. In one case, he wasn't sure it was going very well until at one point near the end when the interviewer stopped typing and looked up intently. Then he told my husband that what he'd said was exactly right, and what he needed to hear from him as an applicant. (It was something related to an experience he's had with realizing that the public knows something is wrong, but can't do the science to prove it. He said something about knowing that he can do the science and how exciting that is to know he can provide what this member of the public needed.)
What else...?...Oh, things about the details. The way it works is, let's say there's a salmonella outbreak in Illinois. The Illinois health department EIS Officer will get first dibs on taking the detail. You can always say no to any detail, so maybe that officer says no because it's the 7th salmonella he's done. So then it goes out to the larger group and whoever wants it can take it. Sometimes there's another tier in there, like: local, others in that region, everyone. They get emails nearly every day with some kind of opportunity. Some will be jumped on immediately, some will be resent until someone can finally take it. I think there are definitely priority projects that come out with a lot more pressure to be immediately filled. Some are drop everything and head to the airport, some are planned weeks in advance. Of course, it depends on the kind of outbreak. An outbreak of swimming pool drownings in Seattle over several years isn't going to be a drop everything kind of investigation.
So, there are some assignments that tend to be very heavy on travel, even outside of the details, and then there are others where you really don't have much travel time unless you're on detail. With the latter, you get done with the learning tasks (I forget what they're called, but you know, like every officer has to do xyz specific things during their 2 years) and then you can basically do whatever research or such you want the rest of your time. The travel heavy ones might be a little more challenging when it comes to balancing the long-term list of things and the in-your-face day to day work.
In all cases, however, the current officers said that when you're not on detail, it's very much a 40/week take your weekends off kind of appointment. But on detail, it's 16 hour days for as long as you're there...although he wasn't clear on if that's when it's the drop everything ebola-type investigations, or if your run-of-the-mill outbreak is still done that intensely. I suppose it saves $$ to spend as little time in travel as possible, so long days make sense. As an EIS officer, you're not eligible for overtime. It's salary appointment. But you do have annual and sick leave (depending on if you're Commissioned Corps, it's about 2-4 weeks/year annual).
Everyone got some information about the choices available for Corps vs. Civilian, with specifics on salary and other benefits. They also talked to the current officers about the pros and cons of that choice. At present, only MDs (I think maybe nurses, too?) can do CC after EIS, so PhDs would basically be kicked out after EIS unless they change their priorities. 2 years ago, PhDs could do it, but I guess some big revisions happened recently.
Also, they said that the EIS Selection Committee will meet in early December to select the Class of 2015. "If you are selected, you will be contacted by telephone by a member of the EIS Selection Committee. You will then be given some time (typically 1 week) to make your decision to accept or decline the offer. If you choose to accept the offer you will also need to make the often difficult decision of selecting a personnel system for the 2-years." Which is why they provided the information on CC vs Civ and encouraged everyone to do the research necessary to make that decision now so they don't feel rushed in December.
There was also a page handed out with information about the Prematch EIS Assignments. Those are usually the state health department appointments. We thought it was interesting that if a PhD candidate hasn't defended, they can't participate in prematch unless they have another qualifying degree (MD, DVM). These matches begin in December and end in February, so it's the only wat to know before a couple weeks after the April conference where you'll be assigned. Also interesting is that any prematch positions that aren't filled by a certain time are offered to the applicants on the wait list. So if you're waitlisted and willing to do a prematch position, then you might get bumped up ahead of those who were accepted outright. I thought that was pretty cool.
I think that's all the general stuff I can think of. Obviously, a lot of it was specific to him. As we've talked about it, we've had a few questions that we wish he'd asked. Mostly related to the amount of travel for those not in Atlanta, which seems like it would be quite a bit larger because of the July training and such. Does anyone know if that first July instruction is at Emory like, apparently, future education weeks are?
If anyone has questions that I can answer, I'll keep an eye on the forum. Good luck to us all!!! If nothing else, I know that having this forum has helped us feel connected, and that it will help future applicants have a better feel for the process. It seems like they keep information about the program so close-to-the-chest that sometimes it's hard to evaluate whether or not it really is a good fit...although what's not to love about being on the front lines of public health digging deeply into the immediate needs of the population?!
Arrival was 7:30am. Everyone I saw going in was very formally dressed, most women in pantsuits, some skirts; men in suits with jackets. Check in with security at the front desk, then went to a waiting room that they were in and out of throughout the day. Waited and chatted among themselves until someone did a brief welcome and explained how things would work. There are quite a few different rooms and offices in the building so a map was provided along with individual schedules for each applicant. He said at some point in the day, his schedule changed, but it was just a room shift or something, because one of his interviews was by phone (she would have been there, but had a family emergency, luckily it's someone he'd met at the April Conference, so they could picture each other...tried for a video chat, but the tech guys couldn't get it to work). Then they had a few minutes to find all their rooms and whatever before interviews.
Interviews started around 9, I think. They were each 30 minutes and there was a 15 minute buffer in between, so noone ran late and you always have time to use the restroom, find your next room, etc. There were 4 blocks before lunch. No interviews were on top of lunch, so everyone could have the time to eat and whatever. The next building over had a cafe with all the usual things. There was also at least one other restaurant within walking, but I think everyone just stuck to the cafe. Then there were slots after lunch, and again, they all had a buffer. My husband ended up being done at 2:45 and he thought there was only 1 or 2 done before him. Lucky, since as it was we didn't get home until nearly midnight and had 3 very cranky kiddos. So, definitely plan on being there the whole time, especially if you need time to get through Atlanta traffic to the airport for a flight.
Each interview had slightly different questions. The interview everyone has with one of the 6 on the decision committee are the same, we think. Then there are variations on the theme from each of the specific areas you've requested. In one case, he was asked to explain why he was interested in that group. The other 2 were self-explanatory. Everyone was really nice. He said the toughest question for him was one about describing a stressful or conflict situation he'd been in and how he handled it. He's not a conflict type, so he didn't have anything much to say except just that he was really mellow and so hadn't had any situations like that. Apparently one officer at some point recently had a conflict with a local he was working with and ended up being reassigned to a different detail where having a temper wasn't an issue.
One thing I found surprising was that some of the interviews were set up at tables in a large room, so you had other interviews going on around you. He said there was plenty of space between and he didn't even notice the other interviews or noise. He also said that all the interviewers were taking notes, either typing or writing, nearly the entire time. In one case, he wasn't sure it was going very well until at one point near the end when the interviewer stopped typing and looked up intently. Then he told my husband that what he'd said was exactly right, and what he needed to hear from him as an applicant. (It was something related to an experience he's had with realizing that the public knows something is wrong, but can't do the science to prove it. He said something about knowing that he can do the science and how exciting that is to know he can provide what this member of the public needed.)
What else...?...Oh, things about the details. The way it works is, let's say there's a salmonella outbreak in Illinois. The Illinois health department EIS Officer will get first dibs on taking the detail. You can always say no to any detail, so maybe that officer says no because it's the 7th salmonella he's done. So then it goes out to the larger group and whoever wants it can take it. Sometimes there's another tier in there, like: local, others in that region, everyone. They get emails nearly every day with some kind of opportunity. Some will be jumped on immediately, some will be resent until someone can finally take it. I think there are definitely priority projects that come out with a lot more pressure to be immediately filled. Some are drop everything and head to the airport, some are planned weeks in advance. Of course, it depends on the kind of outbreak. An outbreak of swimming pool drownings in Seattle over several years isn't going to be a drop everything kind of investigation.
So, there are some assignments that tend to be very heavy on travel, even outside of the details, and then there are others where you really don't have much travel time unless you're on detail. With the latter, you get done with the learning tasks (I forget what they're called, but you know, like every officer has to do xyz specific things during their 2 years) and then you can basically do whatever research or such you want the rest of your time. The travel heavy ones might be a little more challenging when it comes to balancing the long-term list of things and the in-your-face day to day work.
In all cases, however, the current officers said that when you're not on detail, it's very much a 40/week take your weekends off kind of appointment. But on detail, it's 16 hour days for as long as you're there...although he wasn't clear on if that's when it's the drop everything ebola-type investigations, or if your run-of-the-mill outbreak is still done that intensely. I suppose it saves $$ to spend as little time in travel as possible, so long days make sense. As an EIS officer, you're not eligible for overtime. It's salary appointment. But you do have annual and sick leave (depending on if you're Commissioned Corps, it's about 2-4 weeks/year annual).
Everyone got some information about the choices available for Corps vs. Civilian, with specifics on salary and other benefits. They also talked to the current officers about the pros and cons of that choice. At present, only MDs (I think maybe nurses, too?) can do CC after EIS, so PhDs would basically be kicked out after EIS unless they change their priorities. 2 years ago, PhDs could do it, but I guess some big revisions happened recently.
Also, they said that the EIS Selection Committee will meet in early December to select the Class of 2015. "If you are selected, you will be contacted by telephone by a member of the EIS Selection Committee. You will then be given some time (typically 1 week) to make your decision to accept or decline the offer. If you choose to accept the offer you will also need to make the often difficult decision of selecting a personnel system for the 2-years." Which is why they provided the information on CC vs Civ and encouraged everyone to do the research necessary to make that decision now so they don't feel rushed in December.
There was also a page handed out with information about the Prematch EIS Assignments. Those are usually the state health department appointments. We thought it was interesting that if a PhD candidate hasn't defended, they can't participate in prematch unless they have another qualifying degree (MD, DVM). These matches begin in December and end in February, so it's the only wat to know before a couple weeks after the April conference where you'll be assigned. Also interesting is that any prematch positions that aren't filled by a certain time are offered to the applicants on the wait list. So if you're waitlisted and willing to do a prematch position, then you might get bumped up ahead of those who were accepted outright. I thought that was pretty cool.
I think that's all the general stuff I can think of. Obviously, a lot of it was specific to him. As we've talked about it, we've had a few questions that we wish he'd asked. Mostly related to the amount of travel for those not in Atlanta, which seems like it would be quite a bit larger because of the July training and such. Does anyone know if that first July instruction is at Emory like, apparently, future education weeks are?
If anyone has questions that I can answer, I'll keep an eye on the forum. Good luck to us all!!! If nothing else, I know that having this forum has helped us feel connected, and that it will help future applicants have a better feel for the process. It seems like they keep information about the program so close-to-the-chest that sometimes it's hard to evaluate whether or not it really is a good fit...although what's not to love about being on the front lines of public health digging deeply into the immediate needs of the population?!
I'll try to get him to write something around Thanksgiving when things calm down...theoretically! 
