VA job offer

[pacctexas]

Hello everyone,

I've researched any and all information I could find on the internet (and this forum) about working for the VA (pros/cons).  I wanted to know from anyone working in the VA if you feel things such as the somewhat lower pay (compared to the private sector) is worth the job security and benefits.  Also does anyone know if it is hard to transfer/relocate to another VA?  I've been offered a job as a GS 13 Step 5 (which sounds great) but there are 2 private sector job offers I have at the moment that are offering about 15K more.  Also this particular offer with the VA has more limited autonomy and responsibility than I've had in past jobs.  I applied to this job initially because of job security, benefits etc., but now I have to let them know if I'm taking it, and am having second thoughts.  I would have to move across the country to a more remote area and would have to pay for relocation out of pocket.  I tried every which way to negotiate for relocation, recruitment bonus, etc., but was told there would be no additional funds.  Also with it being a job with less responsibility, I'm not sure how I feel about that.  On the other hand, it is a VA job with job security that can't be matched anywhere else plus benefits that are hard to find elsewhere.  I would appreciate any advice/input from former or current PAs who work at a VAMC. 

[mlsiebe]

$15k is over $1000 per month, that can add up fast.  My advice is to go with what seems best to you.  How much time off is important to me and as a veteran i will get 26 days of vacation a year.  There are only 5 days in a work week at the VA so that is over a month of vacation time!  Throw in the 10 holidays and 12 sick days and I can almost be out more than I am at work for $98k/yr.  However, I am a veteran and I am drawn to serve my brethren even if the package wasn't so sweet.

[jsfelder0417]

I will echo the above. I have been working for the VA for about 6 months, as a new grad. I am also currently serving with the National Guard, and was active duty previously. Although I could make more in the civilian sector, the VA is far and away the most friendly towards my service, because I am pursuing lots of 'cool guy' schools as a new MED O, and will deploy sooner than later. Although no civilian employers outright said they wouldn't hire me because of my military commitments, I could read their facial expressions and body language like a book.

 

The time off is awesome (~7 wks/yr with PTO, SL, ML and holidays!) I have a wife and 2 kids, and the little time that I spend with them is incredibly precious, and worth far more to me than the small bump in pay I would get in the civilian sector vs the VA.

 

It is a large goobermint organization though, so there are plenty of headaches to deal with as well. CPRS (the EMR,) gets a bad rap, but I find it quite useable.

 

I believe that one of my biggest complaints is that my peds knowledge/skills are deteriorating, as I never treat them outside of the military, or the sniffles in my own crumbsnatchers. 

[Guest Paula]

I am not a VA clinician but was a previously a tribal employee that offered  the same benefits and days off similar to the VA.  It was sweet.  There are advantages to a federal job, that's for sure.  

 

Just yesterday the PA president of the VA society of PAs gave her testimony to the Senate regarding the recruitment and retention of PAs as well as the disparity in pay compared to NP counterparts.  I am hopeful the VA will be required to classify all PA employees under the same NP category as it will help your income and status.  

 

You can access the testimony via AAPA daily news blast and I watched it this morning.  

[GetMeOuttaThisMess]

Not all jobs are five days/week per complaining PAs at one of the largest facilities in a specialty clinic. Admin pushing for weekend clinic coverage.

[gbrothers98]

If they dont pay for relocation, you can deduct that from your taxes next April 15th.

Also consider the federal employee retirement system. That is deferred income you have to consider in the package as a whole.

Good luck.

GB PA-C

[SoCalPA]

I'm not familiar with Federal employment and their retirement options. Is it a pension based retirement system? How many yrs are required and at what% does one retire with? Just curious.

[Glorious_Ignoramus]

https://www.opm.gov/retirement-services/fers-information/computation

 

As a federal employee, you would also qualify for the TSP savings program, which has decent risk options and has had nice recovery from the recession.  Many agencies will give a monthly deposit + match that can easily rival the private sector.  It's basically a 401k with option for roth.

 

It's hard to weigh in on working for the VA...the mantra goes "if you've seen one VA....you've seen one VA."  The VA does use PA/NPs extensively in all aspects of healthcare, but the extent to which they are used varies.  Some give full patient panels to PAs with full control within federal guidelines (they do not follow state guidelines since the property is federal), others only use PAs for things like ER fast track and evals for derm or whatever other specialty.  It sounds like you are already aware of this.

 

The two things I can say for sure are:

 

1) Only work for the VA if you have a genuine passion for helping veterans.  You will deal with all of the VA and veteran stereotypes with are commonly heard about (not the scheduling stuff that happened last year...most people don't even know what the issues were with that and the media still has it wrong) on a daily basis, and those who aren't prepared for it or have a life goal of treating veterans are always the first to jump ship when the VA does what the VA always does, ie is painfully bureaucratic.

 

2) Lat moving within the government is not difficult at all, especially if you are willing to move out of the area.  Some people like the idea of being able to move frequently, whether inter- or intra-facility.

[pacctexas]

Thanks everyone for your input!  I thought a lot about it and decided to take the job.  I definitely have always had much more job satisfaction working in a place where I've felt the most needed by the patients.  I can't think of many places better for that than the VA.  I also decided that money is very important, but being satisfied in my work with a slight cut in pay is worth even more.  I always appreciate everyone's advice on this forum.  It's helped me a lot over the years. 

[mlsiebe]

Please make sure to keep us posted on how your VA experience has gone.  I am very interested in working at the VA when I graduate so I have a great deal of interest in your story.

[Contrarian]

I joined the Illinois Army National Guard at age 17 and was trained as an Airborne Combat Medic/Medical Specialist (91A/91B2p). I eventually went active duty by age 19 and discharged from the Army at age 25. The U.S. Army was my first exposure to the Physician Assistant profession. After discharging from the Army, I then worked in various emergency departments as a medic/patient care technician and then went on to nursing school and eventually began working in critical care/open-heart units as a nurse.

I was later provided an opportunity to attend the dual Physician Assistant/Family Nurse Practitioner program located at Foothill College/Stanford University School of Medicine. After completing this program, I worked as a cardiology Physician Assistant for a few years then opened a private Internal Medicine practice serving as a primary care provider for homebound patients (modern day house-calls).

Later, I then spent some time, serving as a medical officer on overseas State Department contracted projects. I really enjoyed practicing medicine in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Uganda and Kenya.

Shortly after returning to the states, I completed a Master’s degree concentrated in Adult Psychiatry with a specific focus on Addiction Medicine. I then began working in various voluntary and involuntary, inpatient/outpatient behavioral medicine clinics and facilities. During this time, I Co-founded a large addiction medicine clinic on the Lummi Nation Native American reservation.

At my last job, I was specifically recruited to design and staff a Primary Care/Addiction Medicine clinic located inside of a large community based mental health clinic. The mission here was to integrate Primary Care, Addiction Medicine and Psychiatry. During this time, I also staffed the community crisis respite/social detox center and served as a state licensed Geriatric Mental Health Specialist. As such, I would travel our entire county and go into various homes and skilled nursing facilities collaborating with 2 therapists, with the express goal of maintaining housing placement for elderly patients at risk of losing housing due to behavioral disturbances secondary to their dementia.

So how did I end up at the VA?

In early 2013, a private Facebook page was constructed for the combat medic’s that were in the unit that I was in while in the Army. At its peak, there were approximately 18 middle-aged former airborne combat medics on this page. We all posted pictures of families and caught up on old times. Many of us visited each other across the nation during our travels. We had the old brotherhood  again.

There were a few of us who had obvious mental health issues secondary to our military service but like most veterans, the impact was often and easily minimized and/or brushed off.

Things were going quite well in my life. I owned a small/manageable, growing private addiction medicine/pain management clinic and was quite comfortable with my life and lifestyle.

Suddenly, between January 2014 and April 2014, no less than 3 of these buddies took their own lives by suicide. At the same time, the news went public with the perceived problems that veterans nationwide were reporting concerning access to care.

I was livid and also started having a resurgence of my own "sleep and mood disturbances" that were directly related to my military experiences.

I began digging deeper and found that the problems at the VA were, for the most part, due to poor planning, antiquated hiring systems and budgetary in nature.

I learned and realized a few things:

The patients/Veterans:

 The VA appears to have been set up to care for WWI, Korean, Vietnam vets. 

Some, not ALL of these veterans, for the most part, had spent anywhere from 2 yrs-4 yrs in the military.Most were conscripts, spent 13-36 months in a combat theatre then got out as soon as they could. If one contrasts this to today's veteran, you may find that our entire force volunteered (for various patriotic and NON patriotic reasons) and deployed for repeated in theatre tours totaling 36-90 months. (PTSD is high now because its hard to be purposely "hypervigilent" for that long without that becoming your default/baseline).

This mess has been feeding service members into the grinder for over 14 yrs. This is loooooooger than any active conflict this nation has ever been engaged in.This results in a exponential increase in veterans that were exposed to traumatic experiences. 

Sure... these current service members could discharge... but the indoctrination doesn't allow one to easily "abandon" their buddies.

It also doesn't make any sense to leave after reaching certain time in and rank milestones without throwing away retirement benefits.

The VA was never set up to handle the work load and was caught behind the power curve.

The Facilities:

The buildings/facilities and infrastructures are dated/old and lacking many of the modern things we expect. many are established in "Land Locked" areas due to residential encroachment.

The parking lots:

In 2001, parking was simple and straight forward.

Today... EVERY VA and most CBOCs have parking issues. The average patient is 15 mins late to appointments because they couldn't find parking. The valet parking doesn't even mitigate this.

The employees can't even park on site at most VAs and are NOT allowed to park in patient's parking lots without getting pricey federal parking tickets.

Its hard to employ enough people who will show up to work ready to care for veterans when they have to get to work 45-60 mins before their "Tour of Duty" just to find a spot to park then brave the elements during their half mile to one mile trek to the facility.

The facility I work at just lost 160 parking spots due to subsidence (land slides secondary to rain).

The sister facility has 85 employee parking spots and 175 employees. This doesn't come into consideration for the administration hacks that stand outside at 0805 with a clipboard taking down names of those that are late.

They rent a parking lot about 4 miles away and run a shuttle bus. But the bus only holds 8 or nine people... so getting to and from your vehicle could take 40 mins based upon where you are in line waiting for it at the start of the day or at COB.

There are no "special lots" for providers. Its a government job, all are equal unless you are the medical center CEO, COO, COS.

Human Resources/Hiring Process:

It takes between 6-18 months to get hired and start working. The red-tape is daunting. Jobs are posted on a particular date... and may not "close" to new applicants for a couple of months unless they are "internal" postings.The "internal" postings are usually just a formality/hoop to jump through because they are generally hiring someone already employed in another VA position.So these are generally "promotions" or lateral moves.

NO interviews are conducted until close. No one is contacted until close.

I personally applied on 3 separate occasions before moving forward. Each time I applied.... I was eventually contacted for interview. Thing was... I didn't sit around for months on end waiting for the VA to contact me. So each time they called... I was freshly/newly employed/committed and refused to abandon new employers that I had negotiated and agreed to work for/with. Who the hell sits around waiting for a single potential employer with 3-5 others offering you a job...???

 

Its a "Union" culture"

The only REAL difference in employees is the pay. There is NO deference for providers versus cooks and cleaning staff. 

The HR staff isn't in a hurry getting people in the door. From where I sit, there are a myriad of reasons, but they all seem to be lazy, entitled and indifferent to the notion that veterans are denied access to care because the HR crew isn't motivated to get new/fresh blood in the door and working.

Lots of employees KNOW they work for .gov... and behave accordingly.

I often remind them that while this IS a Gov job... this is NOT the post office. These patients ARE NOT letters or packages...!!!! They are the sole purpos for the job, have already paid their co-pays. SERVE THEM... as they have already served.

Few Advanced clinical employees are veterans.Many are immigrants on waivers, seeking citizenship..

This is often "problematic" if they are Asian or Middle eastern with thick accents...but have been assigned to serve veterans suffering from PTSD ... due to serving in areas to fight against folks that look and sound like the enemy in the patient's mind. This "triggers" veterans daily... and few if any of these providers can relate to the veteran in front of them.

Making changes is a constant battle and as slow as the forming of the grand canyon, but I push forward for my veteran peers.

The Pay:

Personally... I took a 32k per year pay cut to work for the VA even though I came in as a GS13-10.

NO... the nurses DO NOT make more than PAs. Looks at the ranges,  The NPs range starts about $10k less than PAs and top out at about $3k more. It equals out.

The benefits are OK and standard .gov stuff. NOT REALLY good... but NOT bad.

Regular raises with little to no effort.

Lateral mobility even before probationary period ends

Want to move from Maine to California, Colorado, Germany , Guam, Alabama or Florida... easy if there is a job opening.

 

The EMR:

I really enjoy the simplicity of CPRS. Its very easy to use, works well with Dragon and gets it done with little frills.

The paper work is  PITA...!!!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So after figuring these things out... and as a veteran with PTSD, who is licensed to practice medicine and who has extensive experience providing primary care, adult and geriatric psychiatry and addiction medicine, it was easy to know what I had to do after my research.

I spent that entire weekend searching USA jobs and applying to/for Behavioral Medicine positions within the VA system. The following Monday morning, I began casually informing all places of employment and the patients in my private practice that within a year I would be working for the VA.

At 2:45 AM on March 18, 2015, I pulled the 26 foot moving truck with attached car trailer out of the driveway of my last home and arrived at the VA of my choice at 5:45 AM on March 23^rd, 2015. I pulled into the a truck stop on the main strip near the hospital, took a suit out of my luggage, went inside and paid for a $12 shower. I drove down the street several blocks had breakfast at IHOP and then reported for duty at the VA on 8 AM on Monday, March 23, 2015.

I decided to Serve my fellow veterans who also SERVED...!!!

The pay is ... Meh... but the personal and job  satisfaction I enjoy and job security I have in daily practice can't be beat. 

 

More Later.

[ventana]

 

I joined the Illinois Army National Guard at age 17 and was trained as an Airborne Combat Medic/Medical Specialist (91A/91B2p). I eventually went active duty by age 19 and discharged from the Army at age 25. The U.S. Army was my first exposure to the Physician Assistant profession. After discharging from the Army, I then worked in various emergency departments as a medic/patient care technician and then went on to nursing school and eventually began working in critical care/open-heart units as a nurse.

I was later provided an opportunity to attend the dual Physician Assistant/Family Nurse Practitioner program located at Foothill College/Stanford University School of Medicine. After completing this program, I worked as a cardiology Physician Assistant for a few years then opened a private Internal Medicine practice serving as a primary care provider for homebound patients (modern day house-calls).

Later, I then spent some time, serving as a medical officer on overseas State Department contracted projects. I really enjoyed practicing medicine in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Uganda and Kenya.

Shortly after returning to the states, I completed a Master’s degree concentrated in Adult Psychiatry with a specific focus on Addiction Medicine. I then began working in various voluntary and involuntary, inpatient/outpatient behavioral medicine clinics and facilities. During this time, I Co-founded a large addiction medicine clinic on the Lummi Nation Native American reservation.

At my last job, I was specifically recruited to design and staff a Primary Care/Addiction Medicine clinic located inside of a large community based mental health clinic. The mission here was to integrate Primary Care, Addiction Medicine and Psychiatry. During this time, I also staffed the community crisis respite/social detox center and served as a state licensed Geriatric Mental Health Specialist. As such, I would travel our entire county and go into various homes and skilled nursing facilities collaborating with 2 therapists, with the express goal of maintaining housing placement for elderly patients at risk of losing housing due to behavioral disturbances secondary to their dementia.

So how did I end up at the VA?

In early 2013, a private Facebook page was constructed for the combat medic’s that were in the unit that I was in while in the Army. At its peak, there were approximately 18 middle-aged former airborne combat medics on this page. We all posted pictures of families and caught up on old times. Many of us visited each other across the nation during our travels. We had the old brotherhood  again.

There were a few of us who had obvious mental health issues secondary to our military service but like most veterans, the impact was often and easily minimized and/or brushed off.

Things were going quite well in my life. I owned a small/manageable, growing private addiction medicine/pain management clinic and was quite comfortable with my life and lifestyle.

Suddenly, between January 2014 and April 2014, no less than 3 of these buddies took their own lives by suicide. At the same time, the news went public with the perceived problems that veterans nationwide were reporting concerning access to care.

I was livid and also started having a resurgence of my own "sleep and mood disturbances" that were directly related to my military experiences.

I began digging deeper and found that the problems at the VA were, for the most part, due to poor planning, antiquated hiring systems and budgetary in nature.

I learned and realized a few things:

The patients/Veterans:

 The VA appears to have been set up to care for WWI, Korean, Vietnam vets. 

Some, not ALL of these veterans, for the most part, had spent anywhere from 2 yrs-4 yrs in the military.Most were conscripts, spent 13-36 months in a combat theatre then got out as soon as they could. If one contrasts this to today's veteran, you may find that our entire force volunteered (for various patriotic and NON patriotic reasons) and deployed for repeated in theatre tours totaling 36-90 months. (PTSD is high now because its hard to be purposely "hypervigilent" for that long without that becoming your default/baseline).

This mess has been feeding service members into the grinder for over 14 yrs. This is loooooooger than any active conflict this nation has ever been engaged in.This results in a exponential increase in veterans that were exposed to traumatic experiences. 

Sure... these current service members could discharge... but the indoctrination doesn't allow one to easily "abandon" their buddies.

It also doesn't make any sense to leave after reaching certain time in and rank milestones without throwing away retirement benefits.

The VA was never set up to handle the work load and was caught behind the power curve.

The Facilities:

The buildings/facilities and infrastructures are dated/old and lacking many of the modern things we expect. many are established in "Land Locked" areas due to residential encroachment.

The parking lots:

In 2001, parking was simple and straight forward.

Today... EVERY VA and most CBOCs have parking issues. The average patient is 15 mins late to appointments because they couldn't find parking. The valet parking doesn't even mitigate this.

The employees can't even park on site at most VAs and are NOT allowed to park in patient's parking lots without getting pricey federal parking tickets.

Its hard to employ enough people who will show up to work ready to care for veterans when they have to get to work 45-60 mins before their "Tour of Duty" just to find a spot to park then brave the elements during their half mile to one mile trek to the facility.

The facility I work at just lost 160 parking spots due to subsidence (land slides secondary to rain).

The sister facility has 85 employee parking spots and 175 employees. This doesn't come into consideration for the administration hacks that stand outside at 0805 with a clipboard taking down names of those that are late.

They rent a parking lot about 4 miles away and run a shuttle bus. But the bus only holds 8 or nine people... so getting to and from your vehicle could take 40 mins based upon where you are in line waiting for it at the start of the day or at COB.

There are no "special lots" for providers. Its a government job, all are equal unless you are the medical center CEO, COO, COS.

Human Resources/Hiring Process:

It takes between 6-18 months to get hired and start working. The red-tape is daunting. Jobs are posted on a particular date... and may not "close" to new applicants for a couple of months unless they are "internal" postings.The "internal" postings are usually just a formality/hoop to jump through because they are generally hiring someone already employed in another VA position.So these are generally "promotions" or lateral moves.

NO interviews are conducted until close. No one is contacted until close.

I personally applied on 3 separate occasions before moving forward. Each time I applied.... I was eventually contacted for interview. Thing was... I didn't sit around for months on end waiting for the VA to contact me. So each time they called... I was freshly/newly employed/committed and refused to abandon new employers that I had negotiated and agreed to work for/with. Who the hell sits around waiting for a single potential employer with 3-5 others offering you a job...???

 

Its a "Union" culture"

The only REAL difference in employees is the pay. There is NO deference for providers versus cooks and cleaning staff. 

The HR staff in't in a hurry getting people in the door. From where I sit, there are a myriad of reasons, but they all seem to be lazy, entitled and indifferent to the notion that veterand are denied access t care because the HR crew isn't motivated to get new/fresh blood in the door and working.

Lots of employees KNOW they work for .gov... and behave accordingly.

I often remind them that while this IS a Gov job... this is NOT the post office. These patients ARE NOT letters or packages...!!!! They are the sole purpos for the job, have already paid their co-pays. SERVE THEM... as they have already served.

Few Advanced clinical employees are veterans.Many are immigrants on waivers, seeking citizenship..

This is often "problematic" if they are Asian or Middle eastern with thick accents...but have been assigned to serve veterans suffering from PTSD ... due to serving in areas to fight against folks that look and sound like the enemy in the patient's mind. This "triggers" veterans daily... and few if any of these providers can relate to the veteran in front of them.

Making changes is a constant battle and as slow as the forming of the grand canyon, but I push forward for my veteran peers.

The Pay:

Personally... I took a 32k per year pay cut to work for the VA even though I came in as a GS13-10.

NO... the nurses DO NOT make more than PAs. Looks at the ranges,  The NPs range starts about $10k less than PAs and top out at about $3k more. It equals out.

The benefits are OK and standard .gov stuff. NOT REALLY good... but NOT bad.

Regular raises with little to no effort.

Lateral mobility even before probationary period ends

Want to move from Maine to California, Colorado, Germany , Guam, Alabama or Florida... easy if there is a job opening.

 

The EMR:

I really enjoy the simplicity of CPRS. Its very easy to use, works well with Dragon and gets it done with little frills.

The paper work is  PITA...!!!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So after figuring these things out... and as a veteran with PTSD, who is licensed to practice medicine and who has extensive experience providing primary care, adult and geriatric psychiatry and addiction medicine, it was easy to know what I had to do after my research.

I spent that entire weekend searching USA jobs and applying to/for Behavioral Medicine positions within the VA system. The following Monday morning, I began casually informing all places of employment and the patients in my private practice that within a year I would be working for the VA.

At 2:45 AM on March 18, 2015, I pulled the 26 foot moving truck with attached car trailer out of the driveway of my last home and arrived at the VA of my choice at 5:45 AM on March 23^rd, 2015. I pulled into the a truck stop on the main strip near the hospital, took a suit out of my luggage, went inside and paid for a $12 shower. I drove down the street several blocks had breakfast at IHOP and then reported for duty at the VA on 8 AM on Monday, March 23, 2015.

I decided to Serve my fellow veterans who also SERVED...!!!

The pay is ... Meh... but the personal and job  satisfaction I enjoy and job security I have in daily practice can't be beat. 

 

More Later.

 

 

good for you!

 

VA is a better place to have you

 

We need more people to do this.

[delco714]

Would be nice to have.op update us!

[andohert]

Contrarian- what unit were you with in the ILARNG? Small world- I'm currently the unit commander of the Med Det. The Guard sent me to IPAP, and I've deployed to Iraq with them. Lots of good people here.

 

For general consumption- after 10 years in IL, 6 as a practicing PA, we're moving to NC. I've taken a job with the VA. It was a surprisingly quick/smooth process- The interview was done about 1030, and I was called with a job offer about 5 hours later. The head admin guy there is a retired vet; the credentialing specialist is a retired personnel NCO (she immediately knew I'm an Army guy- said no worries, she'd take care of a fellow Soldier); the section/specialty chief is a vet- within 20 minutes of meeting him, he was showing me the OR. They're doing something right down there, and I'm looking forward to being a part of that.

 

I hired in as a 13 step 8. Not GS, but the 0603/special pay scale. My final rate was $20k higher than the initial offer. They wanted me there (I'm not anything special, but they seemed to want a veteran who, at age 39, was looking for his last job).

 

First and foremost, the job is about taking care of fellow veterans. Second, it's not getting blasted with 4-5+ patients per hour. Finally, the time off and ability to be a dad to my 3 kids is worth gold. Buying back 8 years of active service in retirement is nice, as is having an employer that supports continued Army service- I'm switching to the Reserve, and plan to keep it up until 30 years in, then evaluate.

 

So, it seems that the VA culture is different in some places. We'll see. It's still the same slow moving monolith as anyplace else in government, but I'll do what I can with my little part of it.

[delco714]

Contrarian- what unit were you with in the ILARNG? Small world- I'm currently the unit commander of the Med Det. The Guard sent me to IPAP, and I've deployed to Iraq with them. Lots of good people here.

 

For general consumption- after 10 years in IL, 6 as a practicing PA, we're moving to NC. I've taken a job with the VA. It was a surprisingly quick/smooth process- The interview was done about 1030, and I was called with a job offer about 5 hours later. The head admin guy there is a retired vet; the credentialing specialist is a retired personnel NCO (she immediately knew I'm an Army guy- said no worries, she'd take care of a fellow Soldier); the section/specialty chief is a vet- within 20 minutes of meeting him, he was showing me the OR. They're doing something right down there, and I'm looking forward to being a part of that.

 

I hired in as a 13 step 8. Not GS, but the 0603/special pay scale. My final rate was $20k higher than the initial offer. They wanted me there (I'm not anything special, but they seemed to want a veteran who, at age 39, was looking for his last job).

 

First and foremost, the job is about taking care of fellow veterans. Second, it's not getting blasted with 4-5+ patients per hour. Finally, the time off and ability to be a dad to my 3 kids is worth gold. Buying back 8 years of active service in retirement is nice, as is having an employer that supports continued Army service- I'm switching to the Reserve, and plan to keep it up until 30 years in, then evaluate.

 

So, it seems that the VA culture is different in some places. We'll see. It's still the same slow moving monolith as anyplace else in government, but I'll do what I can with my little part of it.

Do they have more openings?! Anywhere near Charlotte? My wife and I come from 4 grandparents of vets and our favorite patients are vets. Would like to work with them full time

[Maverick87]

Contrarian- what unit were you with in the ILARNG? Small world- I'm currently the unit commander of the Med Det. The Guard sent me to IPAP, and I've deployed to Iraq with them. Lots of good people here.

 

For general consumption- after 10 years in IL, 6 as a practicing PA, we're moving to NC. I've taken a job with the VA. It was a surprisingly quick/smooth process- The interview was done about 1030, and I was called with a job offer about 5 hours later. The head admin guy there is a retired vet; the credentialing specialist is a retired personnel NCO (she immediately knew I'm an Army guy- said no worries, she'd take care of a fellow Soldier); the section/specialty chief is a vet- within 20 minutes of meeting him, he was showing me the OR. They're doing something right down there, and I'm looking forward to being a part of that.

 

I hired in as a 13 step 8. Not GS, but the 0603/special pay scale. My final rate was $20k higher than the initial offer. They wanted me there (I'm not anything special, but they seemed to want a veteran who, at age 39, was looking for his last job).

 

First and foremost, the job is about taking care of fellow veterans. Second, it's not getting blasted with 4-5+ patients per hour. Finally, the time off and ability to be a dad to my 3 kids is worth gold. Buying back 8 years of active service in retirement is nice, as is having an employer that supports continued Army service- I'm switching to the Reserve, and plan to keep it up until 30 years in, then evaluate.

 

So, it seems that the VA culture is different in some places. We'll see. It's still the same slow moving monolith as anyplace else in government, but I'll do what I can with my little part of it.

 

Congrats!

 

I've been applying to different VA systems and I've found things to be quite the opposite so far. I've been getting a lot of love from most other places, but not much from the VA (despite being a veteran myself that served active duty time as a PA).

 

I didn't think much of it until someone posted this link on a veteran FB page that I'm in:

 

http://dailycaller.com/2016/04/13/va-manager-says-thank-god-they-dont-have-to-hire-veterans/

 

 

Kind of makes you wonder....

[Maverick87]

Do they have more openings?! Anywhere near Charlotte? My wife and I come from 4 grandparents of vets and our favorite patients are vets. Would like to work with them full time

 

Would you be interested in working at a military base? About a month ago, I got an email from a contracting company about an opening on a base near Greensboro. Not sure if it's still open.

 

If you're interested, PM me.

[delco714]

Would you be interested in working at a military base? About a month ago, I got an email from a contracting company about an opening on a base near Greensboro. Not sure if it's still open.

 

If you're interested, PM me.

Greensboro not entirely out of the question. I'm sure a base would be decent. The wife and I both looking to be employed by same employer.. Open to specialties including primary care.. Currently looking to move from Maine in September/October to towns west/northwest of Charlotte

[delco714]

Would you be interested in working at a military base? About a month ago, I got an email from a contracting company about an opening on a base near Greensboro. Not sure if it's still open.

 

If you're interested, PM me.

Don't think you accept pms? Not working. Thx!

[Cideous]

Hi everyone,

 

I know I am coming into this thread late, but I have just applied for a VA job after 22 years in private practice.  I am a USAF vet of the first gulf war which I suppose gave me "5 points" towards the hiring process, although I have no idea what that means lol.  Someone above said it would like 12-18 months to go through the hiring process?  Mercy, I hope that is not true.  Unfortunately, the job is in another state so I will have to hop on a plane and fly there if I do get an interview.

 

My question though specifically relates to the retirement pension.  I read that you can retire after 10 years with a pension (reduced), but still is this true?  I'm in my mid 40's, but still have a good 15 years left in me.  Retirement, however long away, is something that is beginning to pop to the forefront of my thinking.  Thanks for any replies!  

[GetMeOuttaThisMess]

https://www.tsp.gov/index.html

[Maverick87]

Don't think you accept pms? Not working. Thx!

 

Sorry. Didn't see this until now. I cleared out my inbox!

 

Hi everyone,

 

I know I am coming into this thread late, but I have just applied for a VA job after 22 years in private practice.  I am a USAF vet of the first gulf war which I suppose gave me "5 points" towards the hiring process, although I have no idea what that means lol.  Someone above said it would like 12-18 months to go through the hiring process?  Mercy, I hope that is not true.  Unfortunately, the job is in another state so I will have to hop on a plane and fly there if I do get an interview.

 

My question though specifically relates to the retirement pension.  I read that you can retire after 10 years with a pension (reduced), but still is this true?  I'm in my mid 40's, but still have a good 15 years left in me.  Retirement, however long away, is something that is beginning to pop to the forefront of my thinking.  Thanks for any replies!  

 

It depends on the specific facility. My experiences have varied significantly. Some responded immediately with extreme interest. Others responded 6 months after I applied. Others turned me down almost instantly and then reposted the job (even though I was qualified). Still others never responded at all.

 

I'm also a 5 point vet.