The Massive Apple needs YOU for its civil service workforce.
With greater than 10,000 job openings inside the municipal workforce, the Division of Citywide Administrative Providers (DCAS), the town company tasked with —amongst different issues— recruiting, hiring and coaching metropolis staff, instructed New York News Friday that it was seeking to elevate consciousness about working for the town together with encouraging New Yorkers to affix its ranks.
Yume Kitasei, the town’s commissioner at DCAS, who started her profession in civil service proper after she graduated from faculty mentioned that working for the town is a “great feeling.”
“ I know it sounds really corny, but you do have the satisfaction going to work and not only feeling like you’re making a difference and you’re having a positive impact on the city that you love, but also that everyone around you is motivated to do the same,” Kitasei mentioned in an interview with New York News.
The very first thing that potential staff want to know about jobs with New York Metropolis, Kitasei mentioned, is that the range of careers provided by the town is as broad as its residents.
However the paths to a profession in metropolis authorities have a number of totally different beginning factors for potential job seekers to think about.
Search On-line
The town’s de facto job board or labeled advert is the Metropolis Jobs web site, cityjobs.nyc.gov. There, New Yorkers can seek for jobs, filter job postings by metropolis company, or just view all of the obtainable openings inside the metropolis workforce.
The Metropolis Jobs touchdown web page additionally directs potential staff to sources and workforce coaching applications run by the town, in addition to internships and fellowships obtainable for highschool, faculty college students and up to date grads.
Kitasei mentioned that recruiting and coaching the town’s workforce was not only a precedence for DCAS, however a broader effort throughout the town.
“ This is a multi-agency effort, but one of the best ways to do it [job training] is if you become an apprentice, or you go through one of our fellowship programs— we’ve got a number of different pathways,” she mentioned.
In reality, looking on-line is how DCAS Commissioner Kitasei mentioned she bought her first civil service job as a neighborhood liaison for Group Board 1 in Manhattan.
Go to an occasion
One of many lesser-known facets of DCAS is its position in recruiting staff for the town. The workforce administration company lists recruitment occasions on the Metropolis Jobs web site a few month upfront.
Commissioner Kitasei instructed New York News that the town was particularly involved in recruiting for STEM jobs.
“All of the technical jobs that are associated with a lot of those STEM areas are definitely areas where we are trying to staff up and always trying to find,” Kitasei mentioned. “Electricians—we love electricians. We’re constantly looking for mechanics.”
She mentioned that DCAS collaborates with metropolis companies like Small Enterprise Providers to supply hiring occasions that not solely expose job seekers to public sector jobs, but in addition these within the non-public sector. She even hinted at an upcoming popup jobs occasion that DCAS isn’t able to announce but.
Take a Civil Service Examination
Jobs in NYC fall into 4 classes, or “classes,” every with its personal necessities and hiring course of.
Most jobs inside NYC’s civil service are classed as “competitive” which signifies that job seekers vying for these positions are required to take an examination to show their {qualifications}. Over 80% of the positions provided within the civil service are labeled as “competitive.”
Jobs thought-about “competitive” can vary from civil engineers to corrections officers to morticians to parks horticulturalists, DCAS officers mentioned.
However practically 20% of the remainder of the municipal workforce jobs are thought-about “non-competitive,” “exempt,” and “labor class” positions. These positions don’t require job candidates to finish a civil service examination for varied causes, similar to: needing no particular ability necessities for labor class jobs, or requiring expertise that can not be simply measured in a check format for non-competitive jobs or jobs of a delicate nature that are thought-about “exempt.”
Regardless, any place posted on the NYCJobs web site ought to listing all necessities, DCAS officers mentioned. The civil service examination is just one solution to measure an applicant’s {qualifications}.
“The civil service exam was created to make sure that everybody has equal access to jobs and that jobs are being based on merit,” Kitasei mentioned.
The Way forward for NYC Job Functions
However the course of to get a job via the civil service examination is prolonged and convoluted. It’s one thing that DCAS and Council Member Shirley Aldebol each recognized as a bottleneck within the hiring course of at a council oversight listening to on municipal vacancies in April.
Kitasei mentioned the complicated nature of gaining employment is one in every of her pet peeves and one thing she goals to streamline.
Through the oversight listening to DCAS officers recognized the infrequency of civil service exams as an space to be improved, however Kitasei additionally instructed New York News that the company would prioritize consumer expertise and pace of functions.
“Is this actually easy to understand?” she mentioned. “If you look at our information, which is based on the website, how do we make it easier? Are there systems that we can build out that would make the process smoother for our job applicants?”
