Current gripe: Every blessed company requires you to upload your entire work history, educational history and references to their proprietary system to apply for any job.
State agencies each have their own system. Which can only be accessed once you fill out all that info at the main state job site, called the ‘standard state application’ but then takes you to the department site where you start all over!
It should not take four hours to apply for an entry level position with the Parks Department!
You have my sincere sympathy, applying for government work can be rather complicated. Things were often much easier back before computers made all better. As a retired government worker, I would suggest that you treat the application process as a test. Government workers are required to have high levels of tolerance for unnecessary bullshit. Many people realize that government work isn’t for them when they are first exposed to the process, which is probably a good thing for them.
You think 4 hours to apply is a bother? Try spending 3 hours trying to set up your password on your work computer. Oh, and that is just one password, you will need 6 or 7 different ones with different security requirements to be able to actually use the system.
From what I understand however, the Census is begging for new blood even this late in the game. Look them up online and see if that might help you for a month while you are waiting to hear from the Parks Department.
I’m working in a hospital right now. When I applied, a couple years ago, my application was held up until I could get my high-school records. High school was in the 1970s. I gave them all my bachelor’s degree info and records as well as my master’s degree info and records. I long ago thought my high school simply would not matter anymore. Man, I was wrong, especially in this day and age.
Hear, hear - you have my complete sympathy, O.P. Entering the same damn bits of data, over and over again, but through sliiiiiiightly different UI’s so no copy-paste, and every website has their own password requirements so you have to log every damn one even if you’ll never hear back from that company or use their site again, can’t just use “worksearch2020” on all of 'em to simplify life a bit.
And then everyone acts all surprised that you only applied to two jobs that day. TWO?!?! Slacker.
But you’re not! And it’s really hard to explain that.