Shutdown Effects on People Waiting

[shutdown]

Does anyone know how the current shutdown affects those of us still waiting to see if we’ll be hired or not? I assume it just means the entire process is slowed down, but I haven’t heard any information from SMART or my facility.

[möwen]

Wait, just clarifying a question, but is this for people who have already been through the program and are waiting for a job? Or those who applied this year and are waiting for acceptance back...?

[phase1phd]

I think they mean people who graduated through SMART and are waiting on the job offer. I would assume whoever was working on your hiring is furloughed and the whole process came to a screeching halt. It’s probably not their top priority to catch up on when they get back, either.

[möwen]

yeah, that part I'm worried about. from what I've seen on layoffs so far, treasury and education department got gutted, and CDC, disease control,, etc... had some weird stuff going on. FDC also lost people. plus the national parks, overall its just not looking good.

[andrew]

After graduating in May 2025 from Carnegie Mellon University with a professional master’s degree in Robotic Systems Development, I moved to San Diego to begin working at NIWC. A hiring freeze initially delayed my start date, and I was later told that I was in the process of being onboarded. During this time, SMART notified me that my service commitment would be waived if I was not hired within six months of graduation. When that six-month mark arrived, I was officially released from my service obligation. Overall, the SMART scholarship worked out extremely well for me—I had an excellent internship at NIWC, and the scholarship provided roughly $240,000 in support. While the past six months of waiting were frustrating, I was able to travel, get married, work an online job training an AI, and begin interviewing for permanent positions all while receive my $40K/year stipend. I would have loved the opportunity to work at NIWC and fulfill my service commitment, but now that I’ve been released, I’m receiving job offers in the $150–180K range.