When you are looking at job postings in the City of New York, you may notice two titles for the same job. Take a look at this:
Notice how the Civil Service Title and Office Title are different? That’s because the agency (here for the Fire Department) prefers to have a worker or group of workers recognized internally as something more appropriate, or titled as something that is more recognizable, or that may be in line with a particular industry or industry standard.
For this particular job, the employees in this group are generally known as Field Inspectors. But the title the employee needs to be aware of is the Civil Service Title and its related Title Code #. If tests are given, this would be the name of the test on the Notice of Examination (NOE).
How about another:
Here, similar information can be found at the DoITT job page: Civil Service Title and its DCAS Title Code, and what you would be referred to in your “in-house” title – in this case “Radio System Support Specialist”. The incumbent would have to watch annually for exams for “Radio and Television Operator”.
You may be surprised to know that many administrative and managerial positions with titles of “Director”, “Manager”, and even “Commissioner” have a different Civil Service Title. An “Assistant Commissioner” may be in a title such as “Computer Systems Manager”, or “Administrative Staff Analyst”, or perhaps “Administrative Manager”. Even persons working in these titles need to be aware that their position may require the taking of (and passing) a DCAS exam.
Some titles are pretty straightforward where their DCAS title is the same as their civil service title. Auto Mechanics, Radio Repair Mechanics, Communications Electricians, among others, fall into this category. However, even these can have in-house titles that support a particular agency need. I know of several Supervisors in the Radio Mechanic’s title as well as Deputy Directors with Supervisor of Auto Mechanic titles.
NYC DCAS administers an annual list that begins and ends during the city’s fiscal year – July 1 through June 30th. Generally, if you need to take an exam, and it is not listed on this list, you may survive another year without concern regarding losing your job due to failure to take or pass a test. You still have all your other risks associated as a provisional – less security than a permanent and the risk of layoffs if the city decides to cut back on provisionals – the latter is usually dependent on the number of provisionals working in the city and/or the philosophy of the people in office at the time. The present philosophy as of today’s writing seems to be to make as many provisionals permanent by providing tests and only keeping permanents.
If you are presently working as a provisional , then I recommend keeping an eye out for the annual list and look for the test. In many cases, if a test is not given you will probably keep your job for at least another year – the city still needs the job you’re doing done and it can’t fill it with a permanent if there is no list…
And, if you’re in need of a job, then working as a provisional gets money in your pocket, gets you somewhat up to speed in the testing game and improves your knowledge of the actual job. Maybe that’s the edge you’ll need when the test comes up.
Questions and Comments welcomed below.
