Field Service Engineer

Southeast
US Navy, E-6

I was an FC1 (E-6) in the United States Navy for 10 years and two months at the time of my separation. I was a Radar Technician for the first five years of my enlistment and followed up with five years of instructor duty before I decided to start testing the waters of civilian life.

I began searching for job opportunities closely related with Radar in fear of the total leap outside of my comfort zone, but soon realized it was not as easy as sailors made it sound. The easy job with the huge pay was not just waiting at the door. I had accumulated 88 days of terminal leave, enough time to search for that perfect job. I started my leave in June 2006 and tried various job search techniques. I was offered two jobs simply from networking with people I had worked with in the military, but the jobs did not fit my new goals. I posted my resume on monster.com and talked with two recruiting organizations and a private recruiter before I even stumbled upon Orion on the Internet at the end of June. I got nowhere with the recruiting firms until Orion invited me to a conference in Atlanta, Georgia, where I was staying at the time.

My recruiter set me up with a few interviews to get me comfortable before the job I was actually trying to land. I had a total of four interviews scheduled before the first day at the conference was over. I was skeptical, but she assured me the jobs would be in my comfort zone we had discussed. She urged me to just keep an open mind and things would be fine. I was a bit nervous with the set up going from one room to the next in a hotel interviewing, but Orion made the adjustment smooth and relaxing with the preparation and questionnaire forms we filled out after the interviews.

The Orion team onsite were outstanding, down to earth people who truly seemed to care about what they were doing, which shows tremendously. By the end of the first day of four interviews I had three job offers that were all appealing to me. I was even invited to dinner with LAM Research for a job that I thought was well out of my league without having a degree under my belt.

My recruiters took me aside before the dinner and coached me on the events they had heard of in the past, which was a big help. They were right, and LAM offered me a job before we even made it to dessert. I was even offered a Field Service Engineer 2 position because of my military training. The job came out of left field, I had no intentions of getting into this type of job, but I couldn't pass on the opportunity. The pay is great and the training is outstanding. I have only been working with LAM four weeks, but I have zero regrets and everyday that goes by I feel more confident about my decision.

The Orion team was by far the best way to go for me, I have even referred six friends to use their services and save the time, unlike my first month of headaches without them. I could not have asked for a more comfortable environment or straight-shooting team of people to work with in my job search. I completely believe Orion did their job above and beyond what I expected.