A few months back I posted an Ask HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16885344) trying to get general input on what people knew or thought about Oak Ridge National Lab, where I work as a data scientist and realized that the "if you post it they will come" approach wasn't really working well for our positions we were hiring for. There were a lot of great, brutally honest comments.
To summarize, there were 3 main categories of responses
- I’ve never heard of ORNL
- I’ve heard of ORNL and the national labs, but aren’t they just low paying government jobs?
- I’ve heard of ORNL, but I don’t really know about living in Tennessee
Based on this feedback, I tossed the existing job posting and rewrote this one to try and address, or at least acknowledge, the main points that were mentioned in the Ask HN.
If you are interested, let me know. The position is a part of my team so I should be able to answer any questions you might have. Also, general feedback on the posting itself would be great.
Very good point. I may wait a view days and try again with your title suggestion. I originally had "Ask HN: Software Engineers..." but I ran out of room.
In my experience that is probably a true statement. Typically the application process is a little verbose, but I think ORNL isn't the worst of them. Combine that with the inhumane SAP interface and I can see where a lot of people wouldn't even bother.
The salaries are actually pretty comparable (that's why I mentioned that NLs aren't on the GS scale) no stock options of course but you are correct that PhD researchers run the lab from mid level management on up and traditionally a PhD is expected for upward mobility. I can see where that would potentially be a concern from your perspective.
Also I was ran out of room in the original post, but wanted to add even just commenting, "I've never heard of ORNL" is probably the most insightful of all :)
Probably not clear from the pictures, but the Tiny Titan sits on the observation deck directly in front of the actual Titan supercomputer at ORNL. It's used as a hands on demonstration when tours are being given about how supercomputers work.
A useful tool for explaining the basic concepts in a tangible way.