For those of you with experience applying/working for US Census...

[Tinkerbelle99]

...I am looking for some direction, insight...

I applied and tested for the 2010 Census back in January; I applied for the office positions (thats my background & I scored well on the test - only 1 wrong). I will however work the numurator job if offered....


A few days back I get a vm mail from the local census office; no name given, just statement to call back X number and refer to the given requisition number. Fair enough. I call the number and it goes into a 'blank' vm box. by 'blank' i mean there was no identifying info in its intro (no name, business number) just 'is not available, leave a msg after the beep'. Fine, I leave my msg and contact info. I hear nothing the remainder of the day.

I call the next day, back into the vm box. I search out the local census office number, find it and call. i get the operator who routes me to a blank vm box. no call back from that msg either. I tried again that afternoon, got a live person and they couldnt find the 'notes/files' and would call me back. this back-and-forth went on for a couple of days. (i called daily, sometimes got the vm box and other times got alive person, who couldnt find the file and needed to call me back). weird, but oh well...i assume they are very busy and under staffed.

yesterday, i call again...get a live person and again they need to call me back. this time they do and state the position has been filled and that I need to call back immediately. huh?!? i have done that, called back repeatedly infact.

so, she assures me that i am still listed as available and could be called back when/if other positions open up....i guess i am just feeling miffed that i attempted to get back in contact with them for this interview and because they couldnt find whatever it is they needed and never called me back...i lost out a job opportunity.

as you can tell i really was looking forward to this; need the job, money and its super close to home...would have been really perfect.

thanks for listening...

 

[StuckInKS]

I can't offer advice for your particular situation, but can tell you that if your area is anything like ours, they will most likely need you for something. Although you applied in Jan, things are just now starting to kick off. I am a Crew Leader in my area (I manage a group of enumerators in my area) and we just finished training last week. The field supervisors (manages a group of crew leaders and all the enumerators under those crew leaders) finished their training two weeks before that. The first enumerator trainings in my area will begin next week (that's the part I am NOT looking forward to LOL,) BUT my mom said that she was told that they will continue hiring and training enumerators throughout May. She is also a crew leader in our area and she is several people short of what she should have received. I'm desperately trying to confirm 8 additional people from my list before Sunday, so I may come up short, too. Our area is definately lacking.

I will tell you that my mom had a bit of trouble before they contacted her, but it turned out OK. After she took the test, they ended up losing it. They finally found it and asked her to be an enumerator. The Friday before the Crew Leader trainings began, they called her back and upgraded her to Crew Leader. So, don't give up hope yet! My aunt had also applied and has been told that they will need her, but they haven't given her a training time/location or assigned her to a CLD yet. I think they want to see who shows up and who makes it through (if they miss a class or can't pass the test at the end of training, they can't enumerate) before hiring more people. But, as I said, my area (and my mom's) is already lacking and we haven't even started training yet.

IF you do get called to be an enumerator, you might be able to get out of enumerating if you are chosen by you Crew Leader as an assistant (we get to choose two.) It doesn't pay more, but you will likely interview less people, if any at all. Honestly though, the pay difference between enumerators and CLs in our area is $1.50/hr, so you wouldn't be missing out on much!

Good Luck! I hope it turns out well for you!

 

[mom2d&b]

Our area is also lacking enumerators. I am a CL who is anxious to begin training my crew next week. OK, I am not anxious to do the fingerprinting but.... My crew list started out at 22 ppl and is now down to 15. We begin class on Tuesday but there will be a night class and another day class to fill in the holes of those who did not accept or did not show up. The FOS (supervisor) I have is great and we have a great team of crew leads. We are lucky. I have heard not so great thngs about some of the other teams. That being said, the office also can be a bit crazy and unorganized. I would keep bein persistent and continue to call the local office.
Good Luck

 

[pintamino]

I just spent two weeks trying to get my file transferred... after being on hold for half an hour, I finally got "we sent it on the 14th". So tomorrow it's back to the recieving office to try and track it down... grr! I'm a college student and I could really use the work None of the PA census offices seem to know their heads from their tails.

I'm hopeful I could still get hired though! Sounds like good news reading this forum Too bad I didn't get picked as a crew leader though

 

[StuckInKS]

Our area is also lacking enumerators. I am a CL who is anxious to begin training my crew next week. OK, I am not anxious to do the fingerprinting but...

at the fingerprinting comment. If you look in the D-647 on page D-4, it says to allow 15 mins per person for fingerprinting. I had an inital group of 25, one said no and two are exp. employees, therefore no fingerprinting on them. Assuming the 6 I have left to confirm get squared away (confirmed 2 more since my last post!), that will be 22 people. 15 mins each is 5.5 hrs! At 10 mins each it is still over 3.5 hrs and they only allotted 2. IF I can get it down to 5 mins each, then we'll be alright. But when we did the practice prints, only one or two of mine were any good. I would be excited to train my crew, but I get all anxious in public speaking situations. Always have. As long as I don't stumble over the words while I'm reading, then I'll be alright. I AM anxious to get them in the field. I was an enumerator in 2000 and it was kinda fun. I have based our next trip according to the original 8 wk estimate, but now they are talking an additional 1-2 wks. I hope we don't have to push it back again...

To the PP above me, like I said before, they switched my mom from enumerator to CL before training started. They had all they needed before CL training (even had 2-3 overhires per FOSD,) but I have heard our office is now short two CLs, even after using up those 15-20 overhires. If training has not started in your area or if some drop out, maybe you'll have better luck in that area? I do think they choose CLs based upon their inital application test scores, though that hasn't been confirmed (all of the CLs I have talked to missed 3 or less.) I hope you get your situation resolved. Good Luck!

 

[Singleminnie]

I start my enumerator training on Tuesday, my crew leader has yet to call me. They have my cell phone number, which is always at my side. Luckily I called the local office last Thursday to find out where the training is taking place, so I could make school drop off arraingments, they initially said they would have evening training, but in the end they dropped it. Oh, well took a couple days of vacation from work. I hope I can make some decent money.

 

[mom2d&b]

Last crunch day for CL's before training begins. I am still waiting to hear bck from 1 enumerator. I have left 2 messages and not yer heard back from her. Today I need to finish the name tags and finish organizing my materials for tomorrow. I also ned to meet with my FOS to pick up the rest of my supplies. Once Tuesday is over I think it will be much easier.

 

[Tinkerbelle99]

Thanks everyone for your insight...

...funny turn of events...I got another call from the local census office today! I called them back, got a live person and was offered an office clerk position. Training...starts tomorrow! (paid, 9am-5pm) Nothing like short notice, but I will take it with bells on...means some crazy juggling...but I feel it will be worth it.

I hope to get some clearer direction tomorrow, I was asked to commit to a 35-40 hour work week; but then my initial hours are to be 1230-5pm? Even the gentleman on the phone didn't get it.

Anyway, I am sure I will get it all straigtened out...wish me luck and thanks again for the support!

 

[HHSTigerFan]

For those training, anyone get their binders yet?? I have completed everything but the field work and field work review, even had them take the exam today (day 3).. If I don't get them by tomorrow by 9:00, have NO IDEA what we will do, will have 21 people staring at me with a blank face..

 

[yoopermom]

TigerFan,
Just a lowly enumerator here but our trainer got maybe half the manuals today, and the guy above him said that they're "almost" done. What's odd is that they have CL's training outside of the areas they're going to be leading, so lots of shuffling will go on. Not only do you have to get your binders, but you will have to check them, assign them (in a rural area like ours, the CLs try to assign us at least somewhat close to home), etc, so it's not like they'll hand them to you and you'll hand them to us. Don't forget that "home study" counts towards training time, so you can always send your bunch home with instructions to read their manuals for a few hours! (We haven't had a whole 8:30-5 day of training all week.)

Fun, huh?
Terri

 

[mom2d&b]

I am a CL and I do have about half of my binders. This is more than enough for 1 per person. I recieved mine on Tuesday night. I was the first in my FOS to receive binders. The others received theirs on Wednesday night.

We went out and did field training today. All went pretty well. We had a few completed EQ's, and some NV's. SOme of the compelted EQ's were proxy's as the house was vacant and in foreclousure. My team is itching to get back out on Saturday.

I do know that many in my LCO worked many many hours over last weekend to complete binders. CL's were also offered OT if we wanted to work in the LCO on Monday putting binders together. I picked up 4 hours on Monday. It was a loosley organized circus.

 

[HHSTigerFan]

I did get 18 binders today, have 21 enumerators... browsed thru a few and it seemed like they had 25ish NRFU ops per binder, not sure how many more I will get.. With 21 people, seems like a lot of people (including myself) will be disappointed how long this takes.. I was hoping it lasts until at least June 7, the date my badge expires, looks a little iffy... though some CLD's around here have less than 10 people, so maybe they will shuffle some around..

 

[dzaharchuk]

Hello!
Just finished my training yesterday, we do not have our binders yet... hopefully they will have enough work for us all - in my area return rate was about 85%, and they trained a ton of us...

Cross your fingers! I'd like to earn a little Dis money!!

 

[Purseval]

I'm doing my part to keep you all employed. All I answered was number of people in the house and their ages. If one of you come knocking on my door I will politely tell you to get lost, which will give one or two more of you a chance for repeat refusals. Just doing my share to keep the number of jobs saved or created on the upswing.

 

[yoopermom]

Well, our CL got 8 binders, and has 23 on her team, so bet most of us won't be going out yet this weekend. I was really hoping to put in a long day on Sunday since next weekend is Mom's Day and I won't be working then. I'm betting if we get two weeks in, we'll be lucky. We have lots of camps up here (seasonals) so may have to do the three visits, which will drag it out a little at least.

Here's a gross out for you: one of my fellow enumerators came in today throwing up/white as a ghost/could hardly stand. Despite her spending most of the first 2 hrs running back and forth to the bathroom, our blankety blank trainer would NOT send her home. Two of us finally spoke up, and THEN he called his boss (who didn't answer), so he "let" her go sit in her truck for ANOTHER hour until the boss called him back and allowed him to release her. Puh-lease....

Terri

 

[disney1990]

Thanks everyone for your insight...

...funny turn of events...I got another call from the local census office today! I called them back, got a live person and was offered an office clerk position. Training...starts tomorrow! (paid, 9am-5pm) Nothing like short notice, but I will take it with bells on...means some crazy juggling...but I feel it will be worth it.

I hope to get some clearer direction tomorrow, I was asked to commit to a 35-40 hour work week; but then my initial hours are to be 1230-5pm? Even the gentleman on the phone didn't get it.

Anyway, I am sure I will get it all straigtened out...wish me luck and thanks again for the support!

I hope your hours stay 9 to 5. My LCO (Local Census Office) is now open 24x7. People in the office are "required" to work whatever schedule they are assigned. They might work 7 am to 4 pm today and tomorrow they might be assigned to work 12 midnight to 8 am -- THEY HAVE NO CHOICE in this matter. I was an enumerator in the previous phase. When that phase ended, a lot of those enumerators were assigned to work (around the clock) at the LCO assembling the binders. They have assembled about 1/2 of the binders that needed to be assembled by today -- there are just not enough hours in the day to get the job done and the rules change virtually everyday. First this page in the first one in the binder -- tomorrow another page is the first one in the binder. All the binders include a series of maps to go with the jobs. One of the binders I assembled yesterday has 4 envelopes of 38 maps included. Now maps are not one page long, some of of the maps include up to 49 pages of details. Thankfully, I have maxed out my hours for this week, so I won't be working today assembling binders.

Don't get me wrong, I love the actual work for the Census, but it comes with a bunch of headaches.

Two interesting articles. One explains why the binders are so far behind in getting ready -- software computer problems.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36880159...h_and_gadgets/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36883884/ns/us_news/

 

[Linda in sunny SC]

The operation is so disorganized! I trained to be a CL but I had to resign before I got to train Enumerators because I couldn't be as flexible as they wanted me to be. Near the end of last week I finally got the training location and list of names. They only gave me the name of a church at first, no address. I Googled it and couldn't find it in my city. Then they gave me an address in a town about 15 miles away. Then they changed that to a town 25 miles away and not even in our district, and I would have to do the training over 4 evenings which would mean only half of the time necessary according to the training manual but they didn't tell me how I was to accomplish that, nor how I was to fingerprint 15 people that first night with only a 4 hour period to get everything done. I had put on the original application that I didn't want to work until 9pm. I can't see very well to drive after dark. I probably could have made it around my area, but to drive 25 miles on mostly 2 lane roads in the dark would have been risky. Also, they told me that my Enumerators had day jobs and that is why they needed to be trained at night. OK so that meant I would also have to work nights just to meet them daily during the operation, yet I would be expected to meet my FOS at 8:30 am every morning. That meant that my 40 hours would be scattered around. I would have to work and hour then be off a couple of hours then work another hour, and so on. I hated to have to resign but I just didn't think I could handle that schedule.

 

[jessandtwo]

I was hired to work for the census and my training was supposed to start first thing tomorrow morning. They had first told me I could do training in the evening, which is what I stated when I was hired, but then that was changed to daytime training. I rearranged things, and have a friend that can watch my boys after school until I would be able to get home from training. I just got a call (at 10:45 on a Sunday night) that my training has been moved to a town over an hour away. They were completely shocked when I politely declined the offer. There is no way I can swing a change like that with such short notice. If they had at least called early afternoon it would have been one thing, maybe I could have found someone to get my boys to school, but at 10:45 on a Sunday night, I think it's a little ridiculous! And the person who called, was mad at me for telling them I couldn't do it.

So much for a little extra money. I'm glad I was just doing it for some extra money, not because I needed the job. I feel for everyone that has to deal with things like this because they need the job/money!

 

[mom2d&b]

I was hired to work for the census and my training was supposed to start first thing tomorrow morning. They had first told me I could do training in the evening, which is what I stated when I was hired, but then that was changed to daytime training. I rearranged things, and have a friend that can watch my boys after school until I would be able to get home from training. I just got a call (at 10:45 on a Sunday night) that my training has been moved to a town over an hour away. They were completely shocked when I politely declined the offer. There is no way I can swing a change like that with such short notice. If they had at least called early afternoon it would have been one thing, maybe I could have found someone to get my boys to school, but at 10:45 on a Sunday night, I think it's a little ridiculous! And the person who called, was mad at me for telling them I couldn't do it.

So much for a little extra money. I'm glad I was just doing it for some extra money, not because I needed the job. I feel for everyone that has to deal with things like this because they need the job/money!

One thing I have learned over the past few weeks working for te Census is that "change is the only constant" My training locs did not changed but my team meetings with my FOS keep changing locations, days and times. I am going to try to stay consistent with my daily meetings with the enumerators.

 

[disney1990]

Working in the LCO (Local Census Office) is worse. You can be scheduled to work 7 am to 4 pm today and then tomorrow be scheduled to work 11 pm to 8 am. You usually don't get your schedule until a day or two before.

I know a lot of the place that we had training scheduled had to be changed because the facilities changed their minds about us being there -- nothing that the Census could do about that.

Yes, if you work for the Census, be prepared for New Rules, they come virtually every day.