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[liddel]

I think I'm going to accept the firm job. However, I had already accepted the PTO job. I will now have to renege on their offer. I know this is not looked well upon. Will this be a big issue. My reasoning to them is that I can still go to school full time and graduate on time with minimal debt and that I am very sorry to have to renege on their offer.

[word2bigbird]

Just tell them going to school full-time is your priority and you weren't able to go part-time. It won't look bad at all.

[Isaac]

Look bad to whom? 

[liddel]

look bad to the PTO, I've heard that reneging on an offer iis not a good thing to do and will ruin any future relations with the company or organization.

[horsechute]

Oh come on, this kind of thing happens all the time, and I would guess it happens even more often at the PTO when people get a sniff of what the job is going to be like. How many people who work there can even remember the names of the last 3 commissioners?

[PatentJunkie]

I was busy lately at the firm so therefore I haven't been able to check in on this thread:

For those who have been considering working for the USPTO or is considering a position at a patent firm, I would greatly consider working for the USPTO just to get an understanding of how the internals of the USPTO works.  Since the USPTO is hiring and willing to train new employees within their 8 months Patent Training Academy, you will get a better understanding of 35 U.S.C. 102, 103, 112, 101, and other prosecution procedures on the USPTO side. 
I would strongly advise anyone considering working as a Patent Examiner at the USPTO to JUST work there to get Patent Examiner training and learn the internals of the USPTO.  I believe anything over 1-2 years is not valuable to private firms. 
The work of a Patent Examiner is extremely repetitive and does not give anyone a sense of accomplishment.  The normal procedures of a Patent Examiner is to repetitively search, reject using the basic title 35 statutes, and give improper argument as to why the application is not allowable.
On the other hand, working at a patent firm will allow you to create a patent application which will be the source of someones corporation.  Furthermore, you are able to support in litgation work if you work at a patent firm.
Regardless, the USPTO has a reason for its low retention rate.  It is because the stress of searching and the enormous voluntary overtime a Patent Examiner has to do in order to meet his/her bi-weekly quota.
Additionally, any agency that is willing to handcuff a pregnant lady for improper timesheet of clocking in and out of work at the USPTO is just ridiculous.  Although it might be essentially stealing for improper time in and time out, most private or governmental agencies will simpy fire the person, instead of bringing the individual to a grand jury for prosecution as a felony. 
This kind of environment does not promote good moral for employees at the USPTO.  Many prior colleagues at the USPTO have frowned on this topic and has eventually left the Office to persue a career as a Patent Agent or Patent Attorney.  NO ONE WANTS TO WORK FOR AN AGENCY SUCH AS THE ONE AT USPTO.

[horsechute]

I agree, but please let me ask a few questions:

1) Is it worth it for someone to relocate to the PTO to work there 1 or 2 years for that kind of experience?

2) If you go through the patent academy, are you going to learn anything there that you won't learn just studying for the patent bar which you are going to eventually have to take anyway?

3) Are there not a lot of people who tend to stay in 1 job for more than 2 years who will probably take that job, stay there for 4 - 6 years, and then leave in lots worse shape than if they had never taken the job at all? In other words, since many people are "loyalists" and unable to hop from job to job, is it not better for them to avoid going there and getting stuck altogether?

5) Are you aware that the pregnant lady you mentioned never got a registration number? If not, do you think it is worth working at the PTO for any length of time in consideration of the fact that someone else might also not get a registration number, or have a really, really hard time getting one, because they did not get along with their former SPE, who subsequently tried to set them up? Believe me, I have seen it happen. I know at least one SPE who thinks it is an unfair hassle to have to go through all the government red tape to terminate someone he either does not get along with or who cannot do the job, so he looks for little things to fire them - buying things on their computer, improper use of the copier, very, very minor time code infractions, etc. I am told you always knew when the hammer was about to fall, because he would send everyone an email about misuse of government property, just to show the employee had been warned, and with the hope the person would just leave on their own. And if you think something like this isn't a concern, then just look at all the posts people have recently made because they are tied up in knots, applying to get their registration numbers, and worried about whether they have to report traffic tickets over 100 dollars to the PTO. I am not saying people should buy things on their computer, etc. at work, but you have to ask yourself: is it worth working there for any length of time, even two years, for that measly experience, to risk the chance of being denied the possiblity of having a lucrative career as a patent attorney? If I had known what goes on there before I started, I wouldn't have touched that job with a twenty foot pole.

6) With the organization as decentralized as it is, and 30 - 40 percent of the examiners working at home, is there really an "internal" PTO to get to know by working there? 

7) If the job is repetitive and you spend most of your time searching and you don't learn anything in the patent academy you would studying
for the patent bar, are there any good reasons at all to go work there?


Regards,

HC