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thenewtbaron t1_j6j7ifq wrote

Reply to comment by the_real_xuth in Pennsylvania latest to eliminate college degree requirements for most state jobs by Created-being

That's fair. I will say that depending on which jobs you wanted to get into, there were options previously available.

I got in with the state about 15 years ago with only an unrelated bachelor's but you could have gotten in at the same time as me at that job with X amount of experience rather than a bachelor's degree.

Many jobs allow you to ignore the educational requirements if you have the previous level experience, so you could have started as a lower level and worked your way up.

There have also been a ton of trainee/intern positions that turn into full time positions or allow you to move up.

Like, I was an income maintance caseworker. I got in with a bachelor's but you could have had four years of interview/benefits experience, you could have been a medical assistance technican .

So, someone without college could have been a cleric typist, eventually became a supervisor, eventually became a mapt, eventually a caseworker, and eventually to where I am now. ... and you could have started that with a ged or highschool diploma. it might take a bit more time but it also pays the bills, gets you the benefits and doesn't cost an arm or a leg.

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H4l3x t1_j6jvmil wrote

yea this was my scenario. got into the state 7 years ago as a clerk 2. no degree, just experience. then i was working for penndot now im an income maintenance caseworker.

literally just moved up the salary ladder by experience alone even though the income maintenance caseworker job lists wanting a degree and/or experience. plan to just keep moving up as much as i can really..

EDIT: also just want to add that I am thankful for the state employment opportunities. I am 32, with no dependents or astronomically priced bills, it fits my life style currently and i am sure there are plenty other people like me who would be happy to get in. also there are a lot of people who work for the state and actually work hard, we are limited a lot of the time due to policies, restrictions and budgets that are strictly set in place and are not as free as the private sector.

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thenewtbaron t1_j6l0z2d wrote

I will give you a heads up, it gets pretty hard to move up to and past a 7.

If you have the ability to get an income caseworker supervisor, do it. a lot of jobs up the chain want you to already have supervisor experience even though it is damned impossible to get as a regular non-sup worker.

I have worked like a devil in a lot of jobs in the state, not all but a lot. I was doing SNAP/MA/GA intake in dauphin county a decade ago, and the amount of work I was doing was amazing. Although, they tried to penalize me for having overdue work. Which was hilarious during that meeting. They told me "everyone else could do the work"... and I asked, "how many cases have they gotten in the last month?" and they said, "it didn't matter", the union steward said that "it did matter, and do you know the amount of cases he has received in the last month?" and the supervisor said "no"... and the manager couldn't believe that came out of the supervisor's mouth in a meeting with the union there. I pointed out that I had processed 230-300 cases in the last month, and still have 80 overdue, which meant I was gettting assigned 300-400 cases a month.

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the_real_xuth t1_j6jasa9 wrote

But that sounds like an awful long time being underemployed while you get the "experience". not quite 30 years ago I did some of that in the private sector (I spent maybe a year with the title of "programmer's assistant" while being the principal architect of a decent size system that a multi-billion dollar corporation depended on and could not function without) but very quickly was promoted out of that. For the past 20 years or so, most of my jobs in the private sector have on paper had the requirements of a master's level education and nobody bats an eye at the fact that my highest degree is a high school diploma.

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thenewtbaron t1_j6jit1t wrote

If someone doesn't have a degree, experience or skills... then it really isn't underemployment.

a person getting out of high school with no experience with good benefits and getting paid like 17$/hr isn't under employment

You need one year at that level to be able to apply for supervisor which is about 20$/hr.

you need one year of that to be able to apply for administration officer at about 24$/hr

and you need one year of that to be able to apply for administration officer 2 and make as much as I do.

but good news, even with the "update" you still need years of experience to get into these jobs. Removing college degree requirements do not remove experience requirements

but for IT, let's look at what a generalist's requirements are currently. They start at 55k. three years of general IT experience support, one year at a trainee or technician, one year at IT specific.... plus an associate's degree, one year at help desk one year at ticketing.

So, even with the changes, you would still not be qualified for the job based on what you said. But if someone has an associates, did a couple years of help desky work and one year working at IT directly.... 55k .

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