Q&A With National Education Association Employees

Democratic Party members, especially activists.

Uncomfortable and stilted. Sometimes you can get co-workers alone and have a natural conversation.

Besides the obvious bureaucratic skills, the most important is the ability to interview. Drawing information out of people in casual conversation is critical in an organization where knowledge is spread among many people and little of it appears in formal documentation.

There is no stated policy, but if anyone ever brought in a pet I am sure they would make one. I will test this once my service skunk is trained.

Business casual, generally, with managers often dressier. Technical staff generally wears pants and shoes.

Java, .Net, C##. PL/SQL, Javascript, Ember, Salesforce Apex and Lightning, Mulesoft, and every scripting language,

Find out what your co-workers know. Doing your job well entails constant networking to fill in gaps in your knowledge of the business. If you rely primarily on management to tell you what to do, you will never finish a task.

Networking ability, first and foremost; there is essentially no management, so you have to find out on your own who knows about which systems and what technologies. Technically, the NEA tends to invest early in new technology, so a talent for picking them up quickly is very useful. Very few of the new technologies stick - the NEA is technologically in the 1990s, but the new skills you acquire will help you in your next job.

Generally very good - you can pretty much manage yourself. If you're more into "life" than "work", there is no great penalty to missing assignments, so you could fill up your day with long lunches and gym visits.

Early retirement packages are the norm - layoffs would leave management open to discrimination lawsuits.

Poorly, if it is a labor-management issue. HR has a history of sweeping complaints and grievances under the carpet, and has recently hired some well-known corporate hatchetmen, so don't expect it to get better.

In Washington DC, you'll probably end up working at a government contractor or a non-profit. The non-profits tend to be less soul-destroying than the government contractors, and the NEA is above average for a non-profit, at least if you agree with its political lobbying mission. The NEA pays better than most non-profits, and it has an astounding benefit for old people - cheap health insurance. As long as the government keeps jacking up insurance premiums, the compensation is great.

Unpredictable. Some managers use a preset list of questions about object-oriented programming, pretty tough if you're a DBA or helpdesk person. The interviewers won't usually understand a highly technical answer, though, so the important thing is to say something intelligent.

How to solve a particular production problem they had at the time. Most of the questions were so general that any articulate answer was good enough,

The NEA sees its primary role as political lobbying, funded by union dues from teachers. After recent Supreme Court cases, the union dues could drastically decline if the NEA does not offer more value to teachers. It's an open question whether the NEA can adapt to change, but it won't change quickly. Therefore the immediate future is likely to be bleak and chaotic.

They don't - those concepts don't exist with management.

No drug test; there may be a criminal background check, but definitely no investigation into financial or lifestyle matters.

A telework policy was negotiated between labor and management, but management does its best to subvert. Typically, staff can get a day of telework per week, but only in exchange for working under factory conditions - punching in, punching out, etc.

There have been no promotions for many years; upward mobility only happens through applying for a new internal job.

Completely inflexible, officially. Poor labor-management relations leads to many managers enforcing the letter of the union contract, using enforcement to punish some and reward others.

The NEA is business casual, although many managers dress up. Therefore, a good suit is best. A tip: practice wearing your suit at home until it feels natural - looking like a programmer in a suit does not impress anyone.

Few companies know how to interview, and the NEA is no different. Unless you have a niche skill they want, it will be fairly haphazard. Focus on the basics - make eye contact, ask good questions, don't show up drunk, etc.

1) Gut middle management - almost all of them are nephews and drinking buddies. Not having to work around them would make everyone's life easier. 2) Hire lots of young people. There are very few people in an "apprentice" role, so grumpy old people have to do the work of entry level people, and as the old people retire, those who remain are increasingly overloaded.

Techies get a combination of softball questions and real trivia. The trivia looks like it is picked off a vendor website by HR people, so there is no way to prepare. A tip, though: know the basics of software reference architecture.

The hiring manager, a middle manager, and a couple techies. Once I demonstrated competence and volunteered for the toughest project, the verbal offer was immediate.