If you're used to Corporate America, it's a completely different atmosphere and culture.

Government work isn't going to make you rich, but you'll be in the middle class with a stable job with good benefits and vacation time. If someone on your team annoys you, don't worry they'll get promoted soon enough. Don't tell anyone your salary or benefits - no matter what they are, people will get mad at you for earning a salary from tax dollars.

It’s a stable job. You are guaranteed a paycheck. I work in a totally different field…so I can’t comment on what it will be like for you.

If you do get the job, find out if there’s an option to forgo the 401k program and pay a little more for the full pension. I am under the old Pension plan, so I never really looked into it. I have heard that you can do this, but then I also heard otherwise. But trust me…a 401k only lasts as long as your money(and the state’s matching dollars) lasts. A full pension lasts until you die and you have the option of designating your wife or kid(s) to get your pension till the day they die.

If you’re a young person, you probably don’t think much about retirement, but trust me…once you get into career mode as opposed to just another job mode, those years go by fast. Source. I am 57 and retiring in August

I’m 25 and I’m sure it’s important anyway, so thanks for the help.

In what ways is it different specifically (if you don’t mind writing paragraphs lol)?

You can find government salaries on line

For the interview: (is this in person or virtual?)

Each candidate will be asked the same set of questions. You should be given a sheet of paper with the questions written on it a few minutes before the interview starts. Bring a pen, and jot down any notes for things you want to be sure to highlight.

You’ll be before an interview panel of usually 3 people. Sometimes one person asks all of the questions, sometimes they rotate. You will see your panel members taking notes. The panel really won’t be able to deviate from the set question list(such as asking you to expand on your answers) so you want to be sure to answer as fully and completely as you are able.

If you do just a touch above bare minimum required for your job, and don’t complain, you’ll do more than most.

The pay is same for everyone, but opportunity for advancement goes to those who do extra, so if you do above and beyond, it will almost certainly be recognized and rewarded.

Some people are insufferable but most from top to bottom are good people. I started my career in private, spent 22 years in public and am happy where I’m at with the state.

I’m a Commonwealth employee and here are some pros/cons in my opinion:

Pros: Union representation (some are better than others), benefits are decent, after a few years you start to accumulate a lot of time off, tuition perks/scholarship opportunities (also for dependents) at state schools, holidays off (if not holiday pay), cheap add on insurance (life, short and long term disability plans), most positions you can retire earlier than the in private sector and there is a pension/401K hybrid plan for new employees (I’m grandfathers into the older straight pension) 6 weeks paid parental (either parent or both if they are both COPA employees) leave for birth/adoption, ability to transfer to other state positions and locations, and an assistance program for employees that covers some financial planning/legal consult and counseling services

Cons: Hiring process, pay is decent for some areas of PA but higher COL areas it isn’t competitive, normal bureaucracy stuff

Edit: Also most positions qualify for PSLF if you have loans.

Congrats on the impending retirement!!

Thanks…my wife is actually semi-retired right now. Her last day was Christmas Day. She is on PTO until February(she had a lot of accumulated time) when her retirement kicks in. I would’ve left earlier, but it takes 8-12 weeks before you get your first check, so we decided for me to wait until August so that we are safely getting her checks before I go.

I'm not going to go into detail, but let's just say Politics is a 4 letter word times 2. Also you have to take a lot of flack from the public "because taxpayer." They know it, and you deal with it with a smile on your face. Throw in Unions on top of it, and FFS don't cross that line, or ask anyone to do anything beyond their job description. On the other hand I went to vacuum up a mess in our supply room and was told I wasn't allowed to because I'm not a union worker. No, but it would have taken me less than a minute to do it, but then it became a whole thing.

I make the best of it, but I still look for a private sector job, because that's where I feel I belong.

It is nearly impossible to be fired for incompetence. People in a position to improve tools and processes can stonewall those improvements until they retire because they like what they know. A friend of mine works for the state and certain communications must be delivered by fax. Even basic services can be unavailable for months and no one will be replaced. One department had no network connection for 2 months which forced other departments to hand-deliver memos.

On the plus side, job security is almost guaranteed. On the down-side, this is true for every idiot you work with.

Doesn't mean it isn't true.

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Oh shit I forgot about the PSLF since I’m waiting on the “cancel student loan” relief lol.

I disagree with this. Also the idea that you can't get fired if you work the state is garbage. I have seen plenty of people get terminated for poor performance. It does take awhile, and your supervisors have to follow through with paperwork. But it absolutely happens.

I have seen a lot of people fired for doing a shit job. Depends on the agency. If you have a good boss/ supervision stuff they will absolutely stay on top of bad employees. It takes a while but once you have a paper trail set up it's not that difficult to fire people.

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I never said you can’t get fired, I said if you work you won’t have a problem.

IMO an underrated perk is that if you are in commonwealth employment and you don’t like where you are it’s not too challenging to move around to another agency.

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I’ve sat on over 100 panel interviews for the state and one thing I will tell you is that interview panels have no real way to fact check what you tell us. If one of the questions is “Tell us about a time” and you say you can’t think of one, we can’t rate you on the factors that question was designed to evaluate (and they are all tied to a specific factor like technology skills, problem solving, customer service, interpersonal skills, etc).

If you can’t think of something, make it up. Make up a simple and believable story that shows you at least understand the theory of what we’re asking for. Tell us how you used technology to solve a problem by identifying a duplicated process that could be eliminated by a shared excel spreadsheet. Or how you dealt with a difficult customer and used your interpersonal skills to empathize and under their actual deeper problem and redirected the conversation to what you COULD do to help them and they left satisfied with the interaction.

And similar to what another commenter said, take advantage of the pension plan. Don’t just do the 401k. Also jump onto the supplemental 457b deferred compensation plan. Start small, maybe $20 each pay. And then every time you get a raise, increase the amount by at least 25% of what your raise was. In no time at all, you’ll be saving an additional several thousand a year for retirement. You’ll never miss it if you never see it, and it really adds up. I wish I was more aggressive with adding to mine when I first started.

All PA state govt salaries are posted online and updated. They are for everyone to see.

Yes, but people are incredible lazy, fickle and distractible. Most people won't look it up. Most people will complain about how much you are getting paid though.

Which means the original advice not to tell people your salary hds true.

Don’t disagree with that; however they don’t get paid a lot and still do decent amount of work. Don’t think we can say they are just using up tax dollars. Most of those jobs are reqd to keep things running and they do it for less.

Now the contractors working for the state - that’s a totally different story.

Again, the original statement is that regular people will complain. Keep in mind, a good chunk of regular people vote for the GOP, so you know many of them are morons. And probably assholes. And likely racists.

There are times that I worry that a certain political party will drive this state into the ground so my pension won't be there when I retire. My coworkers tell me that it guaranteed in the state constitution and that I am a worry-wart but then I see the bills and constitutional amendments some of these semiconscious rectal polyps propose and I start to worrying again.

I've seen one person get fired and it was an eight-month process.

The pay is enough to live on. When I leave work I do not think about it until my start time next day. If you don't like you job or manager, there are many opportunities to move around. (Not just in your agency either.) Decent benefits and pension. If deferred compensation is available, take it. Even $20 per pay can really add up if you stick around for awhile. Job security.

Yeah, the way I understand it..it is guaranteed by way of the PA constitution.

Yea. I have seen people get fired. But usually what happens is that close to the end of the process the employee leaves without actually getting terminated. But a few times they have stayed on thinking the union would save them.

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I was a state worker from late 2013 until January 1, 2021, as a Public Health Assistant with a county health department. As others have said, it's a stable job with decent pay and benefits. Our office team was very good, with excellent nurses and support staff. My hours were fixed and no weekends. I don't miss the actual job, but I do miss my co-workers. As always, YMMV. Good luck if you go for it.

This is horrible advice. I started working for the federal government when I was 24, and my father gave me advice about investing. I am now 51, and my 401k is over 600k, (it was more a year ago). The compound interest calculators have been spot on, and when I retire it should be worth 1.5 million. If I withdraw 4% per year in retirement, with a good mix of investments that should not reduce the balance and give me 6000 per month in addition to my SS and pension. Put it in a good stock index fund AND DON'T TOUCH IT. Use cost averaging and downturns will actually be profitable for you. During the last recession, I lost 40% of the value of my 401k, but because I didn't touch it and kept investing in it, when the market came back to where it started, I had double what I had before the recession. Talk to a financial advisor, now. What makes this work is TIME. I wouldn't have what I have if I'd waited until I was I my 30s. The key is starting young, I can't stress this enough. When you get a raise, put half toward your investments to grow it over time without hurting your wallet.

Or the market tanks & you have nothing & spend your retirement scrubbing toilets at McDonalds. Pensions are a million times better.

Nah republicans won’t do anything to the pension cause the lawmakers are getting it too and we all know they ain’t gonna hurt themselves!

If you invest in individual stocks, yes you can lose it all. If you invest in an index fund (mine is the same companies as the S&P), it will fluctuate, but it won't disappear. Pension funds are invested in stocks, so if the whole market crashed, pensions would disappear too, along with the world economy.

Recessions scare people, but they are the best time to buy because stock prices are low. Most people are idiots who buy when the market is high and then get scared and sell when it's low, but if you put in consistently, like with every paycheck, you average out the price of the stocks you buy.

A little education goes a long way. I recommend Clark Howard for financial tips, he's brilliant.

I dont have a lot to add, I worked for PA gov for a short time but my Dad retired from it. He had to work until 70 for full medical, but my goodness, what a lifesaver full pension with medical was. He got very sick later, but his PA pension allowed him to live out his final time in a very nice situation. I am truly grateful for that. As others have said, feed your pension, feed it often!

The interview/hiring process takes forever. Be prepared to wait at least a month.

Yeah I heard about that. what’s going to be a crazy situation is that I have an interview tomorrow for a non-federal company, but my parents really want me to get the federal job. So I don’t know what to do at that point if on Friday (the day of my federal job interview), I don’t here back from them on time.

Good luck!

Thank you! But I still don’t know what to do after the interview. Do you know if getting a decision from them will take one month or is it the entire process overall? 😰

It took a month for me to hear back and another month to start. I’m not saying that will be your experience but I would count on it in your planning

Yeah this isn't accurate.

The PA pension fund isn't invested just in "stocks" there are a wide mix of investments (bonds, real estate, various hedge funds) designed to be profitable even in a market downturn. Not that profitability matters because it's a defined benefit program meaning your payout does not change no matter how much money is actually in the fund.

The way the pension works is also MUCH different than your 401k because the pension cannot be exhausted no matter how old you live to be. Your 401k is only worth what's in there and drawing down the principal (say, for a significant health incident, or needing to make withdrawals in a down market year) will deplete it.

The state pension system allows the recipient not only to receive a yearly tax exempt salary (which was the average of your three highest years when I was still there) for the rest of their lives, but also has the option to pass that yearly payment on to a dependent, though with a slight reduction in payout. So you could retire at 65, receive payouts until 90, then your child would ALSO begin receiving that payout until they die of old age.

Is that possible with your 401k? Not really. You'd have to get phenomenally lucky with your investment to guarantee that kind of draw for 100 years straight.

And for what it's worth, states are sovereign entities (unlike municipalities or territories) and cannot declare bankruptcy ever, per the US Constitution. No matter how bad the state's finances are, they are legally bound to pay that pension out as agreed to, because discharging the debt in bankruptcy isn't legally possible.

The US would have to dissolve as an entity or rewrite the constitution before that happened. Market crashes can and do happen. Total collapse of the United States not so much.

No one in their right mind would take a 401k over a defined benefit program like a state pension for that reason. Though for what it's worth state employees have access to a "hybrid" 401k program that mixes features of the legacy pension program, not a true 401k. The only advantage is that it's cheaper for the state to administer because a 401k style program pays out way less money than a pension does.

Source: former state HR manager for the Commonwealth, current private sector HR executive.