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Topic: Working for the USPTO (Read 449574 times) |
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prufrock69
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Posts: 2
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Re: Working for the USPTO
« Reply #750 on: Nov 14th, 2006, 9:49am » |
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I'm compelled to respond to the previous post. I'm sure you will find many examiners that share the previous poster's POV; those that are disgruntled or disappointed with the position and feel their options now limited. I don't think I glossed over the fact that this is a significant departure from traditional engineering positions, be it computer, electrical or mechanical. Coming from a computer engineering background, I wasn't happy with what could easily be considered programming "drudgery".
Based on previous posts on this entire thread, it should be clear to those of you out there in the ether that this is not an engineering position. If you want to work with AJAX or develop your Python skills, you'd have to do so on your own time, which probably most do anyway. That said, I have never felt that the job entails mere paper-pushing nor have I ever felt unnerved from the persistent demands from a production schedule. Maybe I am in the minority, but those examiners that I know (they are in school too), have the same POV as me. We all have time in the day to get our work done, go to the gym, and go to class.
As for the superficial aspects that I talked about, this was in response to those posts that were curious as to benefits of the PTO. Having talked to older examiners who had left jobs (or had been laid off) from big tech like IBM or Microsoft [see AOL laying off 5k], these were some important factors to them. In addition to the job security, the other factors were important because many of them have families. The ability to schedule your job around your family and your life is a highly unusual perk, be it superficial or otherwise. There is no dispute that cost of living is less than ideal. And I can definitely understand that if career or physical mobility is a concern, the only practical option is to attend school. This is limiting no doubt. Hence, my advice to maintain the proper perspective in the previous post.
And finally, having gone through the interview process at many firms in the area, I find it difficult to believe that you'd be anymore a slave to your firm than you'd be to those tech companies where you could be forced to work overtime at salary. Indeed, many of the law firms had similar work at home programs, rewarding work opportunties and a rather relaxed atmosphere. Most patent attorneys are, after all, engineers at heart. Current attorneys could probably better address this issue.
It should be said that my goal has always been to be counsel to Google or Microsoft so my choice to enter this field makes sense. So I am biased. Like I said earlier, what matters is the perspective you have and the goals you have for your career. With that perspective, working at the PTO can be rewarding.
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| « Last Edit: Nov 14th, 2006, 11:25am by prufrock69 » |
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guest
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Re: Working for the USPTO
« Reply #751 on: Nov 14th, 2006, 5:14pm » |
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Wow, you sure made some assumptions about my being disgrunted or disappointed and feel my options are limited. Maybe you should come here doing a little less bragging about yourself and slamming others.
Just trying to point out some inconsistencies in your post and give another perspective, one that might help save some people time and frustration about the PTO as a job and DC as a city. I've seen too many people leave this job very disappointed in their choice.
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daven
Junior Member
Posts: 75
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Re: Working for the USPTO
« Reply #752 on: Nov 14th, 2006, 6:17pm » |
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on Nov 14th, 2006, 5:14pm, guest wrote:Wow, you sure made some assumptions about my being disgrunted or disappointed and feel my options are limited. Maybe you should come here doing a little less bragging about yourself and slamming others.
Just trying to point out some inconsistencies in your post and give another perspective, one that might help save some people time and frustration about the PTO as a job and DC as a city. I've seen too many people leave this job very disappointed in their choice.
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Thanks to both of you for the detailed information regarding working for the PTO. I don't think you were being slammed. It just appears to be two different opinions. Then again, your experience might be different due to working for two different supervisors. From what I understand, your supervisor can make or break you at the PTO, by controlling your training, time off, raises, counts(?), etc.
I've been lurking on here for awhile but I'm still not convinced I *want* to apply to the patent office. The DC area is expensive and dangerous (from what I see on the news). I'm studying for the LSAT and will wait and see how I do before applying. After all, if I don't score well enough to get accepted into one of the part time law school programs up there, the patent office job really could be a dead end job.
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MidwestPat
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Posts: 1
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Re: Working for the USPTO
« Reply #753 on: Nov 16th, 2006, 8:39am » |
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A friend of mine at the PTO passed this on about hiring there:
the PTO just a couple months ago, they moved to a blind hiring process in that all applications have no names attached to them so that the supervisor's evaluate candidates based on their credentials, and not whether they know the person. as you can see, that used to be pretty prevalent. so even if i gave his/her name to a supervisor, they'd have no way of pulling up the application.
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daven
Junior Member
Posts: 75
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Re: Working for the USPTO
« Reply #754 on: Nov 16th, 2006, 2:36pm » |
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Hmm.. If I had a friend that wanted to hire me at the patent office, couldn't I give him a copy of my resume so he could look for my specific credentials?
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