It can be terribly frustrating when waiting to hear on a test result, status of a job offer, or even if you’re being considered for a position after an interview.
It’s not uncommon in private industry either – although private industry may be more nimble and flexible in handling their internal procedures.
It may seem that there is “no rush”, or there is a lack of interest, or apathy on the part of an agency or the city to move forward in the hiring process. But this is far from true.
Contrary to popular belief, fiscal responsibility is very important to the city as is increasing, decreasing, or maintaining “headcount” within the city overall and at individual agencies. This is taxpayer money that is being used to fund these positions and somebody – if not everybody – in the process needs to be able to justify the need to fill a position or positions.
In order to do that, an agency, group within the agency, and/or workgroups within an agency needs to determine what task needs to be handled. Then an appropriate DCAS title needs to be found, a Personnel Action Request (PAR) needs to be generated, and a funding source needs to be secured. The unit head will work with the Human Resources (HR) people, the Personnel Services budget teams, generate related paperwork like organizational charts, justifications for need, and expected benefits and performance of the hire, and then get executive approval from the agency. Then the Office of Management and Budget office needs to review and approve (I’m probably leaving several other actions out in-between). This is to just get the job posted. A lot of work. So posting a job is not a casual task. Much of this work has to be done even to backfill a position (such as filling a position due to retirement or resignation).
Once authorization for posting has been given, then finally the agency can advertise and conduct interviews.
So a lot of work went into just getting the job posted, so to think there’s no real interest or rush to fill it would not be accurate.
Now “rush” is a relative term. “To move with haste” or “to move swiftly” are some definitions found on the internet. But, for those who know Long Island, rush hour on the LIE has very little “to move swiftly” on it. Ditto for the BQE, FDR, and Cross Bronx to name a few others within the city confines.
>
As a friend of mine would say “The wheels of the city turn slowly, but they do turn…”
And turn slowly they do. There’s a report from someone who was hired and still waiting six months for a start date. Sometimes candidates think that they’ve been forgotten . If you need some reassurance you can probably contact the HR department or the manager with whom you interviewed with. As a hiring manager myself, I had no trouble speaking with candidates to give them updates.
But don’t expect a lot of details. Even the hiring manager may have limited information. Many times I would only get reports that the paperwork is still in progress.
If you’re waiting on test results and list numbers, that, too, is a bit of a wait. When you take a written civil service exam, you are usually allowed to make a note of your answers at the time of the exam. DCAS is supposed to post the answer key within 5 weeks of the test. However, I guess they’re a bit behind as of this writing and have no particular obligation to do so because the keys haven’t been updated in years. I took an exam in mid-May and no results as of July.
NYC is not unique in slow hiring processes. A blog from Heather Krasna does a good job at discussing the civil service process. And what she writes is pretty relevant to all of the local NY governments such as Nassau County, Suffolk County, Westchester, City of Yonkers, etc.
So, the stability and long term benefits that are provided by NYC and other municipalities are great – if you can afford to wait.
Questions and Comments welcomed below.
