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Stimulus Job Hunt Success Stories

Stimulus Job Hunt Success Stories | GovCentral.com

Wondering who’s getting those jobs created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)? We talked to some workers with economic stimulus success stories and tapped them for tips to help you in your job search.

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When his contract at the Savannah River Site (SRS), a Department of Energy nuclear storage and processing facility in Aiken, South Carolina, ran out in 2007, Jim Flora took a contract at another DOE facility in Carlsbad, New Mexico. “That was two years of travel for work because of no funding for work here in South Carolina,” he says.

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His 1,400-mile commute ended in June, when Flora landed a technical training job at SRS, one of 3,000 positions expected to be saved or created by more than $1.6 billion in ARRA funding to accelerate decommissioning of nuclear facilities and clean up contaminated areas of the site. “I’m on a team that develops and provides technical training for operations personnel, from the use of a fork truck to preparing licensing agreements to handling waste,” he says. More than 1,600 jobs are now open at SRS. Search for SRS jobs on Monster or visit the Department of Energy Web site for more information.

While working in New Mexico, Flora made sure SRS knew of his desire to return and actively looked for opportunities. “People have a tendency to think others will do the legwork, but you have to be willing to go to any lengths, to make phone calls, submit your own resume and follow up,” he says.

Finding a Job on the Road Again

Bob Petrak had a good career supervising projects and paving crews until the economy began flagging, and heavy construction projects like road- and bridge-building dried up. He was unemployed for two months before landing a gig as a paving superintendent for Laskey-Clifton in Reedsport, Oregon.