Tell me about Civil Service Exams

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hi there. I hate my job. I am having zero luck finding another decent-paying place to work around my area, and one of my friends suggested that I consider the possibility of a state or local government job, which would be accomplished by taking a state Civil Service Exam. So I’ve been looking at things on the PA State Civil Service Commission website but I thought I’d like to get a little info from other people as well.

Here’s the background: I’m 23, I live in north-central PA, and in 2004 I earned a rather useless B.A. Music degree. After college I worked for an ambulance-billing company doing data entry for about six months (because I was a dumbass – that place was horrible), but since December of '04 I’ve been working in the call center of a nationwide mail-order company that sells woodworking and metalworking machinery (you may have heard of it… think large angry bears). I started out as a temp taking orders on the phones, then got hired full-time and since October of '05 I’ve been in the correspondence department, basically handling the emails, letters, and faxing between the company and customers (mainly emails). I type like a demon and I’m very good with computers, and my writing skills appear to be far above average (average seems to suck around here, frankly). So I’m not averse to working in an office environment and I have experience in communications.

However, it appears that liquor-store clerks make more per hour than I do. And I figure the politics and idiocy of state and local government can’t be any worse than the politics and idiocy I put up with every single day from my co-workers (“I’ve never heard of these ‘Mary-anna’ islands. Must be some foreign place.”) and our customers (“Do you sell any woodcutting bandsaws?” Somehow they managed to go to our website and find our email address but missed the big banner on the main page saying “14 Models of Woodcutting Bandsaws!”).

So - enough babbling from me. Has anyone ever applied for jobs requiring Civil Service Exams? What was the testing process like? Did you get the job? How is it? Anything and everything you can tell me about the process of getting and/or having a civil service job, I would love to hear. Thanks in advance.

2

Yes, I took a few back when I was in college.

Unless you’re looking for a job in a specialized field, the entry level tests are usually going to be a bunch of multiple choice questions indicating you have some general intelligence and ability to do the job.

Yes, I passed the tests I took and ended up taking one of the jobs after I dropped out of college. I’m still working that job twenty five years later.

There is a company called Arco (a subsidiary of Peterson’s) that publishes civil service exam guides. You should check out the ones you’re interested in. They’ll have sample tests so you can see what they’re like.