Thomas McAndrew

Thomas McAndrew

As a contractor supporting the National Archives and Records Administration in their effort to become Year 2000 (Y2K) compliant, I became interested in working here.

There were many factors in making the decision to work for the National Archives, some of which included the:

• beautiful building in College Park, MD
• renovated facilities in Washington, DC
• richness and diversity of the records

However, the most prevalent reason I chose to work for the National Archives was the staff.

The people at the National Archives are truly a dedicated and well-functioning team. Of all the other organizations I have observed during my career, the people at the National Archives were, by far, the most enjoyable to work alongside of, no matter how taxing the assignment was or the extra effort required, the sense of dedication to the records and the National Archives' mission was ever present.

My six years here at the National Archives have been the fastest and most pleasurable that I can remember working for any organization. The opportunities here are challenging, educational and endless.

I've had the privilege to work on many diverse and interesting projects, including the:

• Y2K time sensitive firm fixed deadline
• Clinton presidential electronic records project
• records lifecycle business process re-engineering (BPR) effort
• beginnings of the Electronic Records Archive (ERA) program

The design competition of the latter was the most interesting. It was very satisfying to be a part of the team that led to the successful selection of a design contractor to build the ERA system.

Day in and day out, the National Archives strives for excellence in performance and through my experiences I have been able to continue learning and advance my career.