A great benefit of state job is the defined benefit (DB) pension plan, that’s rare nowadays. You may have heard in news that many corporate pension plans have been converted to defined contribution (DC) plan, not good. However, even the DB pension in public sectors may not stay forever. CalPers, the California state’s DB pension plan may not be available for new state employees after 2008. If you want the take the last chance to get into the last a few DB pension plans in human history, then go ahead to get a state job.

Working for the public sector, you don’t get big, fat bonus, but base salary is not bad, and you get about 5% increase guaranteed. Since there is not much to do often on the job, many people find that the work time is well used for their own business to get second income, very sweet.

If you are a mid-aged IT pro, tired of working hard, want to have more time with family, like to have a secured income, consider starting a business, then a state job is perfect for you.

The following are the links of state government job website for all 50 states:

No wonder during dot-com booming years the state had hard time recruiting qualified people. With big bonus and hype future prospects, nobody wanted to work for the state. During that time the state often provided job fair in hotels and offered jobs on site. It was so easy to server the public.

But now things changed completely. Still in Sacramento, California, an opening of Associate Programmer Analyst position (the lowest level) attracted over 1000 applicants. People have to take exams to get their names on the list, and then hope to see their names move up to be reachable. Only those whose names on top 3 ranks may be selected for interview.

Why state jobs become so hot? Job security, that’s the answer. After all of the lay-offs, outsourcing, offshores, people get scared and start to look for the safe heaven.

Are state jobs really secure? That’s true. It’s no doubt that any government job, federal, state, local, is more secure than public sectors. As for the state, like California, state workers job security is ensured by two major factors, –

First, union protection. State workers have strong unions. That really make a difference.

Second, state jobs cannot be outsourced to offshore countries like India and China, at least not now. So state IT workers don’t have to worry about jobs been taken by foreign workers.

However, not all state jobs are equally secured. The secret is, it depends how the agency, department, and position are funded. Agencies funded by special funds and federal funds offer more secured jobs than those by general funds.

For example in California, agencies like Franchise Tax Board (FTB) is funded by special funds, Department of Community Service gets a lot of federal funds, therefore their IT positions are very secure. Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is funded by both special fund and special funds, thus the jobs there are OK, although not as high as top level secured. On the other hand, departments like Parks and Recreations is funded mainly by general fund, therefore jobs there are less secured. But still, if it is a state job, you get job security at certain level.

Thus, when you are in an interview for a state position, ask how this agency and this position are funded. By knowing this, I get an idea how strong your job security could be.