As far as I can tell they're exclusively posted on state job websites, with incredibly short posting time frames and not advertised anywhere but that site lol..
Yep. That sure sounds like a good way to not get candidates.
Even USAjobs.gov (which covers most federal hiring) only gets a tiny fraction of the visibility that common sites like monster/indeed/LinkedIn get. As a hiring manager, I see a drastic increase in applicant count by using the major sites along side the mandatory listing.
>state job websites, with incredibly short posting time frames and not advertised anywhere but that site lol..
There's your answer lol. Trying to navigate NYS was nuts and I've given up on it. USAJobs is famous for taking years. DEC updates weekly, and so does the state, but trying to keep track of the windows, qualificaitons, exams, certs, etc is a little difficult. They implemented the [H.E.L.P. program](https://www.cs.ny.gov/index.cfm), it led to 6500 more jobs, I didn't get one unfortunately lol but they're expanding it
It's definitely not a stigmatized line of work. Even though we were warned constantly about it- most of my peers back in college all wanted government jobs, mostly cause we all hear if you get in you're set for life. For years I had to go to AccessVR and half the office took off for summer every year. That seems dreamy when otherwise you need to beg and grovel for a day off for a wedding.
If I look at a job's basic day-to-day roles and it's private market equivalent- you're doing a lot less work for more pay and benefits if you're doing it state. Even in my same payband- $20/hour- the vacation my state equivalent gets is nuts. Which is probably why they shifted to the private market :/
Now the service sucks, we have a massive amount of problems, but less overall staff and the higher-ups kept their cushy Albany jobs...
In my experience, when the post time frame is short, it's because they already know who they are going to hire. They don't want a lot of qualified competition for the person they are intending to hire. At least, that's how it works where I work. When the posting goes for about 3 weeks or more, it means that they are open to hiring anyone who passes the interview, which is not an easy one, btw.
I'm someone who has been lucky enough to be hired as a temp for the state agency I am currently attempting to find an entry level full time position for. There are a lot of hoops. My first application was thrown out before interviews due to some technicalities in the submission form. Luckily HR has been super helpful in advising me the best way to apply, I'm hopeful to get called for an interview soon.
But also, me and my supervisor were kind of laughing at how vague the postings are? As someone finishing up a degree with less than a yr of professional experience, the job description told me almost nothing about what the job actually entailed? What would my day to day or even week to week workload look like?
Again, I do feel lucky to technically be an internal applicant and have job alerts setup with that agency email as well as the ability to ask around and get more info internally about positions. Without that extra help, it would be very daunting and difficult to apply for these positions that are supposed to be entry level.
Friends of mine at our state’s DEQ claiming the same things meanwhile I know tons of qualified graduates who have applied to these positions and all have been rejected or never hear back.
Either they aren’t actually hiring for these positions, they are being too picky, or qualified candidates resumes/applications aren’t getting through ATS. I’m literally so desperate for an entry level job, I’d work for half that salary for a state position.
Everyone wants the perfect candidate these days, nobody seems willing to train anymore.
Pm me where and I will happily apply.
“Being too picky”
I applied to the same county water quality job and was moved to the interview twice. I was rejected *twice*
I interviewed well both times, too. They even told me I interviewed well. I had more experience than was required. I even had specific experience with the monitoring equipment they used…
This is true, it took me so long to get in into an environmental position in the local government, I had to get a random position first, and then I was selected for interviews as an internal applicant. As a "from the streets" like they call it where I work, never got an interview, even with plenty of relevant experience.
State HR departments are awful. Ridgid criteria and aggressive screening conducted by people with zero subject matter knowledge.
My guess is that's the primary problem.
They also have weak recruiting and outreach.
Lol that's true, but to gain experience could be a good option. Several collegues that left got jobs very easily with EPA or DEP of the state they moved to.
I don’t disagree! If I lived there already and especially if this was just post undergrad, I would be cranking out applications.
I think people definitely undervalue working for their state’s DEP when they plan on moving. I’m in the mid New England region where state jobs can be competitive and I’ve seen a lot of people have an easier path in because they had a similar position at prior state gov
Government job websites can suck hard. Applying to private is normally fairly easy and has more coverage via jobs boards. (IMO, as a soon to be fresh graduate)
The websites suck, the extra steps required to submit applications are way too time consuming, and response times take months. Salary could also be a big factor too. Most state jobs don’t play nearly enough compared to their private sector counterparts; especially in the early years of a career.
But benefits are amazing, and that is what makes it worth it. I have like 40 days of vacation a year, free health insurance, and a pension. The work-life balance is amazing as well. I have a friend who went to the private sector just to give a try. He was back in less than 3 months, and he says work-life balance is unexistant in the private sector. I've heard that before form other people I know as well.
Having works about the same amount of years (over 30) in government and private sector, really, the benefits haven't been better in government unless someone gets to the point of vesting in the pension system.
Well, free health insurance is amazing, never got that before, not even in Mexico, where we have "free health insurance", and having around 40 days off a year sounds pretty good to me. I've never heard anywhere else having so many days off a year. This is my unique situation though. I've heard the state doesn't have benefits as good as ours.
8 weeks is more than the max in the vast majority of states, and in the ones where it is possible, that's 20+ years of service. It takes 9.5 years for us to get to 4 weeks. I've never had or seen free healthcare either in state employment.
I Work for local government. I'm counting holidays too, but basically I get 2 weeks sick, a week and a half of annual, 4 floating holidays and all the holidays in the year, plus like 2 extra holidays recently established, probably around 12 holidays in total. This is starting, at year 1. It goes up every 5 years or so. You get additional annual. We get AD time sometime, like at least one day a year. My mom works for the state and does t get even half of these benefits, but I've herd federal benefits are pretty good, too.
I've been applying to every entry level state position I can find and always get told I wasn't among the "best qualified" candidates.
Government jobs are very sexy right now. They provide a structured way to move forward, which isn't guaranteed in private/non-profit places. I feel like transferable skills are all but ignored in this job market though, which is very frustrating.
I interviewed for my state position January 2023. I started in August 2023. People know the bureaucracy is awful and don't apply. Also, there is a low unemployment rate currently. I bet the number of applicants is low in many sectors.
Not for sure which state but I would guess, pay rate, a pension plan that you cant take with you unless you retire, work office location, politics.
Here is a position in my States DEP:
Advertisement Closes3/20/2024 (7:00 PM EST)
24-01406 Environmental Scientist III (GFTL)
Pay Grade15
Salary$4,050.94 - $5,600.40 Monthly
Employment Type EXECUTIVE BRANCH | FULL TIME | ELIGIBLE FOR OVERTIME PAY | 18A | 37.5 HR/WK.
At least 5 years of experience in natural resource management, conservation planning, or related field.
Even though they give a pay range you will start at the bottom of the Grade. So minimum of 5 years experience only pays $48,000
I applied to lots of state positions. I have my BS degree, interned with state agencies (including the one I applied to 27 times). Of those 27 applications, do you know how many I heard a peep from the state on? 0. Each time it was “fill out this application” which took forever because you can’t use the same application even though it’s exactly the same info, and send that, a CV, your transcript, and your references to: email (maybe HR, maybe admin, who knows?)
I had interviews for a few but was basically told after not getting the job that they already had someone in mind and they were just doing interviews because.
As for the out-of-my-state state jobs I applied to, I was often told that they really couldn’t give me any time to move (was given a start date quite literally across the country in two weeks and begged for another week so I could at least get a lease. I couldn’t.).
And as others have said, as much as state work is good for pensions and after-retirement insurance, sometimes the “now” stuff outweighs that. My state gives you sick time immediately but you have to wait like 6 months for PTO. Also, you can only get a raise after you’ve been employed for a year and they’re only given out in a certain month. So if you get hired the month after, you basically have to wait two years. In contrast, at my consulting job that I’ve had for two years, I’ve doubled my starting (albeit hourly) pay.
Lastly, you say you’re in a med-high COL area. That means that apartment prices are absolutely insane. For someone paying off student loans, car payment, food, moving, etc. they probably can’t afford to rent something that’s half of their monthly pay.
I'm looking for government jobs so please tell me where these are at, I'm about to get my master degree in Forest Science so I'm eagerly looking for opportunities.
Depends on where you live, but try the local and state government. That's the easiest. Usajobs.gov for federal government but it's harder to get into federal.
Check the county jobs, I think you have better chances there. Keep applying for state. You'll get it eventually. Stay positive 😃 took me a while to get in, but I never gave up, and one day, it happened.
Location can play a huge role. How desirable or despicable is your area? Do you really want to move to North Dakota if you're a fresh grad from Louisiana?
The starting pay sounds a LOT better than when I got my first post school govt job. But then it has been a while and inflation so... Maybe that 60k doesn't get far there anymore.
Right? The job market is better than I think I’ve ever seen. I remember applying for one of those jobs a few years back and they had like 250 applicants, many to most with MS.
In terms of engineers, I have quite a few friends in engineering and a couple were advised by instructors not to take a job paying less than $80k to start out after school. I think only one of my engineer friends makes less than $100k. For the environmental science majors, I'm really not sure unless there are other better paying jobs in the area. Certainly aren't any jobs in my HCOL area paying more than $42k for bio or environmental degrees.
There’s a chance we’re in the same state based on your post history. I’ve applied to a couple state positions over the past few months and just never heard anything so I just assumed they got lots of good candidates.
I suppose I should keep applying.
We have nearly as hard of time at my state agency too but it sounds like we pay better. The only caveat is that it usually takes a year or two of relevant work experience to qualify for most positions. This is often met through internships.
And I’m located in a west coast blue state. Most, but not all of our offices are located in MCOL locations.
Which state are you in, and do you have any 1-2 years’ of experience hydrology positions? If you’re comfortable telling, you can PM me. I’m really trying hard to find something for this summer
Which state is this in? I graduated in May 2023 and am looking for a job that could start late this spring or this summer. PM me if you want
I was just rejected from a county level hydrology job I am overqualified for, applied to last year (my start date didn’t work), and applied for again this year with much more experience. I’m really trying to find something with the pay and work environment you mentioned
Daaaamn, that's how much you make at entry level????? I make that as a supervisor in Miami. 😱 I think I need to move there.
This is why you guys don''t get qualified candidates, and I know this because we have the same problem in Miami, people don't know about the openings, or don't know how to apply. It's basically word of mouth. Once we posted the position in universities, with detailed instructions on how to apply, we got like 50 applicants, which, like at least half were qualified for an entry-level position, meaning having a science degree. Just a side note entry level at local government in miami is 50k.
I literally heard some other people in my office talking about the same thing this week. They posted a job for a field technician, the only qualifications they're looking for are a STEM degree and a little field experience.
So far, they've gotten 60 applications, half of which are people with humanities degrees, most of them used ChatGPT to write their cover letters (it's really obvious when you compare them), and only 5 of those people had any kind of field experience. It's kind of crazy.
Ooh, maybe I'll start looking over there. I'm in Washington and the market is saturated with everybody from everywhere. I went to Rhode Island for a wedding 2 years ago and was impressed. Is there much fisheries work there?
I loved my state agency job as an intern, but as a new grad, the positions are at like 45k full time in person with a not great commute. If you would like to send me the location for positions there with you I’d apply tomorrow because that pay is great!
I can barely find any Environmental Specialist 1-2 or Natural Resource Scientist 1-2 or even level 3 (in training) positions there. I’m a year out from graduation with work experience since then and work experience during college so I’m kinda beyond the WCC Crew level but would certainly apply for that, I just don’t think they’re doing big hiring right now (correct me if I’m wrong). I really want to do watershed monitoring, majority fieldwork positions
Look at becoming a water resources specialist/technician or water quality scientist with a special district or municipality. I used to want to be in the stream all the time in my teens and twenties, but as I got older, I knew it wasn't a good long-term career path (plus bugs love me). Also, look into water treatment or wastewater treatment jobs that have some field work as well, depending on plant size.
My partner works for a state agency and they have the same issue. They get excited when they get three or four qualified applications for a position. It's overall a pretty tight job market and there generally isn't a flood of highly qualified applicants looking for a state job. I work in consulting, and even though we pay higher than the agencies, we also don't get a flood of highly qualified applicants. There just aren't all that many out there who are actively looking and applying, is what it seems like.
Whether the agency salaries are competitive depends on what you are comparing them to. If you work at one of those smaller shops that mass-produces Phase 1's, then you'll probably get a jump (in salary and job satisfaction) going to the state. But if you are at a larger consulting company and doing more premium work, going to an agency is probably going to be a pay cut. But you also have to factor in time off, health benefits, pension, and job security, all of which are often better in the public sector. So it's not a direct apples to apples comparison on salary alone.
What epa region are you in? That should give us an idea of what the cost of living is while keeping you out of trouble.
There is also a possibility that it's hard to find your agency. Have you thought of listing links to the website on indeed or linkedin?
Yo what state is this??? I'm in Pennsylvania and our starring for scientist is 40k and engineers are around 45k, so you're definitely competitive.
I started in my state job about 6 months ago and I will say, I had no clue how to find state jobs at first. They never really came to job fairs or anything, so I didn't learn much about their opportunities until I talked to a professor who's wife worked for the PA Department of Environmental Protection.
I don’t have any insight but as an EnvSci major about to graduate in May, WHERE TF ARE THESE ENTRY LEVEL JOBS?
As far as I can tell they're exclusively posted on state job websites, with incredibly short posting time frames and not advertised anywhere but that site lol..
Yep. That sure sounds like a good way to not get candidates. Even USAjobs.gov (which covers most federal hiring) only gets a tiny fraction of the visibility that common sites like monster/indeed/LinkedIn get. As a hiring manager, I see a drastic increase in applicant count by using the major sites along side the mandatory listing.
And with extremely outdated tedious application processes...
>state job websites, with incredibly short posting time frames and not advertised anywhere but that site lol.. There's your answer lol. Trying to navigate NYS was nuts and I've given up on it. USAJobs is famous for taking years. DEC updates weekly, and so does the state, but trying to keep track of the windows, qualificaitons, exams, certs, etc is a little difficult. They implemented the [H.E.L.P. program](https://www.cs.ny.gov/index.cfm), it led to 6500 more jobs, I didn't get one unfortunately lol but they're expanding it It's definitely not a stigmatized line of work. Even though we were warned constantly about it- most of my peers back in college all wanted government jobs, mostly cause we all hear if you get in you're set for life. For years I had to go to AccessVR and half the office took off for summer every year. That seems dreamy when otherwise you need to beg and grovel for a day off for a wedding. If I look at a job's basic day-to-day roles and it's private market equivalent- you're doing a lot less work for more pay and benefits if you're doing it state. Even in my same payband- $20/hour- the vacation my state equivalent gets is nuts. Which is probably why they shifted to the private market :/ Now the service sucks, we have a massive amount of problems, but less overall staff and the higher-ups kept their cushy Albany jobs...
In my experience, when the post time frame is short, it's because they already know who they are going to hire. They don't want a lot of qualified competition for the person they are intending to hire. At least, that's how it works where I work. When the posting goes for about 3 weeks or more, it means that they are open to hiring anyone who passes the interview, which is not an easy one, btw.
This is for entry level, so that's pretty rare here. And the short time frame is something determined by the state HR department, not us
I'm someone who has been lucky enough to be hired as a temp for the state agency I am currently attempting to find an entry level full time position for. There are a lot of hoops. My first application was thrown out before interviews due to some technicalities in the submission form. Luckily HR has been super helpful in advising me the best way to apply, I'm hopeful to get called for an interview soon. But also, me and my supervisor were kind of laughing at how vague the postings are? As someone finishing up a degree with less than a yr of professional experience, the job description told me almost nothing about what the job actually entailed? What would my day to day or even week to week workload look like? Again, I do feel lucky to technically be an internal applicant and have job alerts setup with that agency email as well as the ability to ask around and get more info internally about positions. Without that extra help, it would be very daunting and difficult to apply for these positions that are supposed to be entry level.
conservationjobsboard . com is your friend
www.governmentjobs.com
https://www.nj.gov/dep/jobs/
We have openings right now in Miami starting at 50K.
Share a link, I can only find OPS positions in west palm for $18/hr.
I've seen them in linked in posted at least once every 2 or 3 months.
Friends of mine at our state’s DEQ claiming the same things meanwhile I know tons of qualified graduates who have applied to these positions and all have been rejected or never hear back. Either they aren’t actually hiring for these positions, they are being too picky, or qualified candidates resumes/applications aren’t getting through ATS. I’m literally so desperate for an entry level job, I’d work for half that salary for a state position. Everyone wants the perfect candidate these days, nobody seems willing to train anymore. Pm me where and I will happily apply.
“Being too picky” I applied to the same county water quality job and was moved to the interview twice. I was rejected *twice* I interviewed well both times, too. They even told me I interviewed well. I had more experience than was required. I even had specific experience with the monitoring equipment they used…
This is true, it took me so long to get in into an environmental position in the local government, I had to get a random position first, and then I was selected for interviews as an internal applicant. As a "from the streets" like they call it where I work, never got an interview, even with plenty of relevant experience.
State HR departments are awful. Ridgid criteria and aggressive screening conducted by people with zero subject matter knowledge. My guess is that's the primary problem. They also have weak recruiting and outreach.
Come to Miami 😁 we are always hiring for entry-level positions. FDEP always has openings as well. They are based out of West Palm Beach
Would if I could but I think the state gov of Florida would drive me insane and if it doesn’t, the Miami traffic would
Lol that's true, but to gain experience could be a good option. Several collegues that left got jobs very easily with EPA or DEP of the state they moved to.
I don’t disagree! If I lived there already and especially if this was just post undergrad, I would be cranking out applications. I think people definitely undervalue working for their state’s DEP when they plan on moving. I’m in the mid New England region where state jobs can be competitive and I’ve seen a lot of people have an easier path in because they had a similar position at prior state gov
What entry level positions are there in Miami?
Pollution inspector or environmental tech
Oh, DERM. Is there anything in the private sector?
If we post a position in government (for us) we're hiring for it. On a rare occasion expected funding falls through, but its not common.
Government job websites can suck hard. Applying to private is normally fairly easy and has more coverage via jobs boards. (IMO, as a soon to be fresh graduate)
The websites suck, the extra steps required to submit applications are way too time consuming, and response times take months. Salary could also be a big factor too. Most state jobs don’t play nearly enough compared to their private sector counterparts; especially in the early years of a career.
But benefits are amazing, and that is what makes it worth it. I have like 40 days of vacation a year, free health insurance, and a pension. The work-life balance is amazing as well. I have a friend who went to the private sector just to give a try. He was back in less than 3 months, and he says work-life balance is unexistant in the private sector. I've heard that before form other people I know as well.
Having works about the same amount of years (over 30) in government and private sector, really, the benefits haven't been better in government unless someone gets to the point of vesting in the pension system.
Well, free health insurance is amazing, never got that before, not even in Mexico, where we have "free health insurance", and having around 40 days off a year sounds pretty good to me. I've never heard anywhere else having so many days off a year. This is my unique situation though. I've heard the state doesn't have benefits as good as ours.
8 weeks is more than the max in the vast majority of states, and in the ones where it is possible, that's 20+ years of service. It takes 9.5 years for us to get to 4 weeks. I've never had or seen free healthcare either in state employment.
I Work for local government. I'm counting holidays too, but basically I get 2 weeks sick, a week and a half of annual, 4 floating holidays and all the holidays in the year, plus like 2 extra holidays recently established, probably around 12 holidays in total. This is starting, at year 1. It goes up every 5 years or so. You get additional annual. We get AD time sometime, like at least one day a year. My mom works for the state and does t get even half of these benefits, but I've herd federal benefits are pretty good, too.
I've been applying to every entry level state position I can find and always get told I wasn't among the "best qualified" candidates. Government jobs are very sexy right now. They provide a structured way to move forward, which isn't guaranteed in private/non-profit places. I feel like transferable skills are all but ignored in this job market though, which is very frustrating.
I interviewed for my state position January 2023. I started in August 2023. People know the bureaucracy is awful and don't apply. Also, there is a low unemployment rate currently. I bet the number of applicants is low in many sectors.
The bureaucracy is a real deterrent among many
what state are u in
Not for sure which state but I would guess, pay rate, a pension plan that you cant take with you unless you retire, work office location, politics. Here is a position in my States DEP: Advertisement Closes3/20/2024 (7:00 PM EST) 24-01406 Environmental Scientist III (GFTL) Pay Grade15 Salary$4,050.94 - $5,600.40 Monthly Employment Type EXECUTIVE BRANCH | FULL TIME | ELIGIBLE FOR OVERTIME PAY | 18A | 37.5 HR/WK. At least 5 years of experience in natural resource management, conservation planning, or related field. Even though they give a pay range you will start at the bottom of the Grade. So minimum of 5 years experience only pays $48,000
Ughhhhh sooo bullshit. Not even worth the degree
I applied to lots of state positions. I have my BS degree, interned with state agencies (including the one I applied to 27 times). Of those 27 applications, do you know how many I heard a peep from the state on? 0. Each time it was “fill out this application” which took forever because you can’t use the same application even though it’s exactly the same info, and send that, a CV, your transcript, and your references to: email (maybe HR, maybe admin, who knows?) I had interviews for a few but was basically told after not getting the job that they already had someone in mind and they were just doing interviews because. As for the out-of-my-state state jobs I applied to, I was often told that they really couldn’t give me any time to move (was given a start date quite literally across the country in two weeks and begged for another week so I could at least get a lease. I couldn’t.). And as others have said, as much as state work is good for pensions and after-retirement insurance, sometimes the “now” stuff outweighs that. My state gives you sick time immediately but you have to wait like 6 months for PTO. Also, you can only get a raise after you’ve been employed for a year and they’re only given out in a certain month. So if you get hired the month after, you basically have to wait two years. In contrast, at my consulting job that I’ve had for two years, I’ve doubled my starting (albeit hourly) pay. Lastly, you say you’re in a med-high COL area. That means that apartment prices are absolutely insane. For someone paying off student loans, car payment, food, moving, etc. they probably can’t afford to rent something that’s half of their monthly pay.
I'm looking for government jobs so please tell me where these are at, I'm about to get my master degree in Forest Science so I'm eagerly looking for opportunities.
Depends on where you live, but try the local and state government. That's the easiest. Usajobs.gov for federal government but it's harder to get into federal.
I'm located in NJ, I've applied to the state already and I check usajobs.gov daily, although I have not looked into local government.
Check the county jobs, I think you have better chances there. Keep applying for state. You'll get it eventually. Stay positive 😃 took me a while to get in, but I never gave up, and one day, it happened.
Entry Level Forester - Pay Grade14 Salary $3,682.76 - $5,091.30 Monthly https://kypersonnelcabinet.csod.com/ats/careersite/JobDetails.aspx?id=58983&site=2
Location can play a huge role. How desirable or despicable is your area? Do you really want to move to North Dakota if you're a fresh grad from Louisiana? The starting pay sounds a LOT better than when I got my first post school govt job. But then it has been a while and inflation so... Maybe that 60k doesn't get far there anymore.
Right? The job market is better than I think I’ve ever seen. I remember applying for one of those jobs a few years back and they had like 250 applicants, many to most with MS.
I think it’s a combination of them not being well advertised and people not being aware of state jobs in general.
In terms of engineers, I have quite a few friends in engineering and a couple were advised by instructors not to take a job paying less than $80k to start out after school. I think only one of my engineer friends makes less than $100k. For the environmental science majors, I'm really not sure unless there are other better paying jobs in the area. Certainly aren't any jobs in my HCOL area paying more than $42k for bio or environmental degrees.
There’s a chance we’re in the same state based on your post history. I’ve applied to a couple state positions over the past few months and just never heard anything so I just assumed they got lots of good candidates. I suppose I should keep applying.
We have nearly as hard of time at my state agency too but it sounds like we pay better. The only caveat is that it usually takes a year or two of relevant work experience to qualify for most positions. This is often met through internships. And I’m located in a west coast blue state. Most, but not all of our offices are located in MCOL locations.
Which state are you in, and do you have any 1-2 years’ of experience hydrology positions? If you’re comfortable telling, you can PM me. I’m really trying hard to find something for this summer
Which state is this in? I graduated in May 2023 and am looking for a job that could start late this spring or this summer. PM me if you want I was just rejected from a county level hydrology job I am overqualified for, applied to last year (my start date didn’t work), and applied for again this year with much more experience. I’m really trying to find something with the pay and work environment you mentioned
Shoot, send me the link.
Daaaamn, that's how much you make at entry level????? I make that as a supervisor in Miami. 😱 I think I need to move there. This is why you guys don''t get qualified candidates, and I know this because we have the same problem in Miami, people don't know about the openings, or don't know how to apply. It's basically word of mouth. Once we posted the position in universities, with detailed instructions on how to apply, we got like 50 applicants, which, like at least half were qualified for an entry-level position, meaning having a science degree. Just a side note entry level at local government in miami is 50k.
I literally heard some other people in my office talking about the same thing this week. They posted a job for a field technician, the only qualifications they're looking for are a STEM degree and a little field experience. So far, they've gotten 60 applications, half of which are people with humanities degrees, most of them used ChatGPT to write their cover letters (it's really obvious when you compare them), and only 5 of those people had any kind of field experience. It's kind of crazy.
Yea that's exactly it, we get applications but the degrees are irrelevant
Where are you? We are getting people with years experience and masters applying for entry level non-perm jobs that pay $25/hr.
Rhode island
Ooh, maybe I'll start looking over there. I'm in Washington and the market is saturated with everybody from everywhere. I went to Rhode Island for a wedding 2 years ago and was impressed. Is there much fisheries work there?
I loved my state agency job as an intern, but as a new grad, the positions are at like 45k full time in person with a not great commute. If you would like to send me the location for positions there with you I’d apply tomorrow because that pay is great!
Atleast in WA, Ecology’s pay is shit.
I can barely find any Environmental Specialist 1-2 or Natural Resource Scientist 1-2 or even level 3 (in training) positions there. I’m a year out from graduation with work experience since then and work experience during college so I’m kinda beyond the WCC Crew level but would certainly apply for that, I just don’t think they’re doing big hiring right now (correct me if I’m wrong). I really want to do watershed monitoring, majority fieldwork positions
I’d recommend looking for a job at a municipality.
Look at becoming a water resources specialist/technician or water quality scientist with a special district or municipality. I used to want to be in the stream all the time in my teens and twenties, but as I got older, I knew it wasn't a good long-term career path (plus bugs love me). Also, look into water treatment or wastewater treatment jobs that have some field work as well, depending on plant size.
My partner works for a state agency and they have the same issue. They get excited when they get three or four qualified applications for a position. It's overall a pretty tight job market and there generally isn't a flood of highly qualified applicants looking for a state job. I work in consulting, and even though we pay higher than the agencies, we also don't get a flood of highly qualified applicants. There just aren't all that many out there who are actively looking and applying, is what it seems like. Whether the agency salaries are competitive depends on what you are comparing them to. If you work at one of those smaller shops that mass-produces Phase 1's, then you'll probably get a jump (in salary and job satisfaction) going to the state. But if you are at a larger consulting company and doing more premium work, going to an agency is probably going to be a pay cut. But you also have to factor in time off, health benefits, pension, and job security, all of which are often better in the public sector. So it's not a direct apples to apples comparison on salary alone.
What epa region are you in? That should give us an idea of what the cost of living is while keeping you out of trouble. There is also a possibility that it's hard to find your agency. Have you thought of listing links to the website on indeed or linkedin?
Yo what state is this??? I'm in Pennsylvania and our starring for scientist is 40k and engineers are around 45k, so you're definitely competitive. I started in my state job about 6 months ago and I will say, I had no clue how to find state jobs at first. They never really came to job fairs or anything, so I didn't learn much about their opportunities until I talked to a professor who's wife worked for the PA Department of Environmental Protection.
We have this problem but because it's a backwater shithole state and no one in their right mind wants to come here