Woodworking job with Government Benefits

[Jesse Bushman]

Some of you may be aware that the Architect of the Capitol's office in Washington DC maintains a sizeable cabinet shop. They build all of the furnishings for the offices around Capitol Hill, including the Capitol, the Congressional offices and hearing rooms, the Supreme Court the Library of Congress and, I believe, the White House. Lots of movement in and out of those offices as we alternately throw the bums out and welcome the new guys in, so furniture tends to get moved up and banged around a fair bit and hence need repair and replacement. Some nice woodwork in some of the older hearing rooms needs to be maintained as well.

In any case, they're advertising an opening for a wood worker.

If you've never applied for a job with the federal government, be forewarned that the process is different than what typically takes place in the private market. Do some searching on-line about how to succeed in that endeavor before you apply.

You can't beat the job security or the benefits, and as I am not in the market for such a job myself, I thought I'd throw it out there for anyone who may be.

[Tony De Masi]

Interesting job opportunity there. Just one correction to your post. Although the Hill does have it's own cabinet shop so the the Whtie House, provided by GSA, General Services Administration. It's one heck of a shop too. Last time I was there, couple of years ago, they were setting up two new Sawstops.

Tony

[Aaron Frank]

FWIW, one of the guys who works at the Springfield, VA Woodcraft was once a craftsman at the Smithsonian. For anyone who is interested, you could give them a call and see if the guy's still around. He may have some insight into life as a gov't woodworker.

Aaron

[Mike Cruz]

Actually, a few years back, when the DOJ was being overhauled, the Attorney General's personal dining room (adjacent to his...Ashcroft at the time...office) was so far behind schedule, that the company (small) that I worked for got the job. We had only a few months to get it done, but did, ahead of schedule. Trust me, you don't want to know what they spent on having us come in to get the job done on short notice. We did all the molding, from floor to ceiling, in the entire room. I don't remember how high the ceiling in there is, but it is 16 - 20 feet. That was a blast.

His office, which we were not redoing, is all walnut, from floor to ceiling. Quite impressive.

[John Pratt]

Although not posted in Washington D.C., I am a Gov't Woodworker. I am at Fort Sill, OK. Most installations have one or two Woodworkers. The actual description of duties performed varies from installation to installation. Some tend to sway more towards carpentry while others are almost exclusively Fine Woodworking or trim out work. My job is a good mixture of both. If your interested in more info about the process or benefits, PM me.

[Dean Karavite]

John, I'm a little confused, I thought all Cabinet positions had to be approved by the Senate.



:)

[Jeff Monson]

John, I'm a little confused, I thought all Cabinet positions had to be approved by the Senate.



:)


:D Dean thats funny.

[Mike Cruz]

Oh, boy, now all the corny jokes are going to come out of the woodwork...

Speaking of the woodwork, after have yet another stink bug zoom around our heads last night, my wife looked at me and said, "Now I know what they mean by 'coming out of the woodwork' ". I guess I had never thought of its origins either, but hibernating stink bugs 'going toward the heat' sure would explain it!

[John Pratt]

John, I'm a little confused, I thought all Cabinet positions had to be approved by the Senate.



:)

I was directly appointed as the woodworking Czar for this region, So no Senate confirmation necessary.

[harry strasil]

OT somewhat, but years ago while rust hunting in Ok. I came across a fellow who told me of a museum in one of the Ok towns that was being made from some collectors collection and in the collection was an old Gray Tool Chest with some weird molding planes among other tools in it, while inventoring it, they discovered some papers in the bottom and the planes etc were special made to match the moldings in the White House to repair it after it had burned. No one would have been the wiser if it hadn't been for the papers discovered in the bottom of the old chest.
At that point in time I was looking for Smithing tools.

[John Townsend]

Some of you may be aware that the Architect of the Capitol's office in Washington DC maintains a sizeable cabinet shop. ...

In any case, they're advertising an opening for a wood worker.

FWIW
There's no such job listed under "Employment" at the Architect of the Capitol website,
as of Christmas Day 2009.

[Jesse Bushman]

The listing is still posted.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Jesse and others,

It is against the TOSs to advertise a job here at SMC.

If Jesse wants to respond by PM that's fine.