Today was our graduation. Congressman Conyers was kind enough to attend and speak at our ceremony, as did Under Secretary Dudas and Deputy Under Secretary Peterlin.
Congressman Conyers was presented with an honorary certificate of completion of the Patent Training Academy. I may add some more details to this post later, but it isn’t as though there was new information conveyed.
~Relativity
So when will the congressman start examining?
They’re hoping “in his spare time.”
I wonder how good his legislation would be if he had to write 7 seven new bills every two weeks.
Is it possible to call in sick on the day of graduation??? What did you have to do on graduation day????
You’d need to call your supervisor. I can’t imagine they’d fire you because you were sick on graduation day. We just had the ceremony, there was no paperwork or anything.
yeah…I am not the ceramony type of guy
How many applictions have you completed so far? I have completed 9 so far at about the 4.25 month point…..
I guess this blog is dead. Now that the examiner actually has to examine, they must not have time to blog.
btw, e-red folders sux. could they have put more stupid buttons on my desktop.
I plan to post after the quarter is over. The primary purpose of this blog, however, was to give an insight into the academy. So I will be posting less often, now, but I still do plan to post.
I still have a lot of quetions to ask you but you are not here to answer them anymore…. I was told today that we need to be hitting like 107% production to get a 6-month promotion….that is like doing 4 office actions a biweek….that just seems crazy and outlandish….and there is no inbetween status…. you either get a promtion or NOT…
based on that 107% production only a few people in my class may get it…
I think that just sucks……
I’m still here, so you can ask questions if you have them.
107% is about right… halfway between your current GS-level requirement and the next one up. I’m not sure why that sucks, though… if you take a promotion before you can handle the workload, the promotion is going to be unpleasant for you. Better to earn overtime when you can, and take those hours, at first.
If the BP is 39, what does that mean? I thought that meant to do 1 count every 39 hours…
There are 2 counts for every balance disposal. So if you have a balance disposal expectancy of 39 hours, that means you should be doing 4.1 counts per biweek. I am having a brain-freeze right now, and so I’m not sure what BP stands for.
One thing your trainer should have shown you is how to check your production using the Examiner Reports in PALM, and how to look at your 3205, specifically. The 3205 lays out exactly how many counts you received for a given biweek, and what percentage of expectancy the system thinks you’ve hit. Sometimes there can be errors in the calculation, or you can be mistaken about your expectancy for a biweek, so it is a good idea to check that report every two weeks. The 3205 will also give you your percentages for the fiscal year and the quarters. You’ll want to take a look at the 3206 combined report once you transition to your art unit, because you’ll probably have biweeks in the same quarter that are in different art units.
The Award Calculator is also helpful for keeping track of production and making sure you can hit your goals.
Did you lose anyone from the start of your class??? Did anyone get fired???
I know of a couple people who either left for different jobs or were fired. As far as I know, the only people who were fired were slacking off *a lot*.
Well, I just had my 6 month interview and no mention of a raise….I am 2nd in my class in counts I have 25, the other guy has 26. I am so pissed off. It is not my fault that my teacher did not emphasise counts while in the early phases of the Academy.
We are probably the only class to not get a pay raise…it sucks
What percentage is that on the academy formula? Keep in mind that you are still eligible for the accelerated promotion. Just get your counts up over the next few biweeks, so that you have the requisite percentage.
The first problem is that is sounds like you EXPECTED a promotion just for being here for 6 months. Thats not how is works, you have to earn it with your production. Second, the percentage of people who get a promotion AT 6 months is low, its has always been this way, before and after the academy. Remember this, you become ELEDGIBLE at 6 months, so that means that if your production is where it needs to be, then you get it. If it is not, then your production is re-evaluated every bi-week after that until you meet the production requirement. I too went through the academy, and led in production compared to the rest of my lab. I DID NOT get my promotion at 6 months, I got it 2 bi-weeks later. That is the case for 95% of the people that do get their promotion near the 6 month mark.
Yes, usually when working at a Corperation, at the end of 6-months, or whenever, they give you some sort of raise. It does not make sense to be paying a person the same amoutn when they started and knew nothing, an to keep paying them the same amount 6 months later with all the acquired knowledge.
But I see your point…THat I become eledgibale at 6-months.
That is what makes the PTO a little different. Your raises are not based on how much you know, and the fact that you know much more now then you did 6 months ago. The PTO is a production enviroment, which is probably the biggest reason people leave. So your raises are based on how much you produce. The one really big upside to me is that working for the PTO, or the govt in general, is you are on a pay table. Therefore, you know exactly how much your raise will be. In a corp enviroment, its up to managment as to how much you raise is. In fact, look at the economy right now. Do you honestly think that the workers at the bottom of the ladder, which would be us if we were in corp america, are getting a raise right now? Heck no. Look at it this way. If you like the job, then think of these great advantages you have working here rather than in corp america. You control when you get your next raise, you know exactly how much it will be, and we get cost of living increases each year. Trust me, once you get used to the production system, your next raises will come much eaiser.
I think that you are missing the connection between knowledge and production. Generally, the more you know, the quicker you can move the cases. Further, with each grade increase, your supervisor must certify that you are performing that the level of independence associated with that grade. So, saying that your raise is solely based on how quick you most cases is not accurate.