For thirty-three years I worked for the Social Security Administration. First, as a summer student assistant in Reno, Nevada, where, after completing my last year of college, (UC Berkeley, A.B., Pol. Sci., '61) I began work as a Claims Representative the following June. I transferred to the San Jose, CA office a couple years later, then took a promotion to move to Baltimore, MD SSA headquarters as a Claims Authorizer in the Disability Special Claims Unit.

I was selected as a Management Intern in 1966, and moved up the ladder in the Bureau of District Office Operations. I had various job titles, but they all boiled down to training specialist. When I left Baltimore to return to the West, I was director of the Headquarters Training Center.

I opened the personnel office at the Salinas Data Operations Center, as its first Personnel Manager. Later I was deputy chief of the Management Branch.

SSA was "downsizing," so I opted for a reassignment at retained pay to a Claims Rep position in Provo, Utah, which put me much closer to my aging parents. My last assignment in SSA was to open a new office in St. George, Utah, relocating it from Cedar City. In the process of gradually moving staff to St. George, we managed to go through three office remodelings and relocations within as many years. In January, 1995, I took an early retirement opportunity that was available.

Return to Doug Paulson's Homepage