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Thank you. I would love to be an office secretary but where i currently am in ny, the jobs are nearly non existent and the pay is horrible!
Just about every office secretary in a NYS public school district is civil service. You need to take the exam first, when they offer it, then be placed on a hiring list and it can be years before you get called. Pay may be low but you get NYS civil service benefits including health insurance, pension, etc. Very much a coveted job. Same for any bookkeepers, payroll clerks, etc. It's all state civil service even though the exam may be through the county.
Just about every office secretary in a NYS public school district is civil service. You need to take the exam first, when they offer it, then be placed on a hiring list and it can be years before you get called. Pay may be low but you get NYS civil service benefits including health insurance, pension, etc. Very much a coveted job. Same for any bookkeepers, payroll clerks, etc. It's all state civil service even though the exam may be through the county.
I'm not saying you're wrong, but do you have a reference for that?
Thank you. I would love to be an office secretary but where i currently am in ny, the jobs are nearly non existent and the pay is horrible!
If you think the pay is horrible in NY, you will find it horrible most places. Actually to be honest, other than teaching, administrators and the school nurse, most of the other gigs won't pay so well.
And office staff nowadays still has to interact with kids quite a bit. Especially in many schools where the nurse only comes in like 3 days a week, and those schools where there is no deans office (elementary in particular) and those kids get placed on chairs in the office.
Do you have a degree?
Last edited by toobusytoday; 03-30-2017 at 10:35 AM..
Reason: fixed typo
I'm not saying you're wrong, but do you have a reference for that?
Give it a rest already. Google is your friend. I live HERE. I know how the New York School Districts operate. I don't feel like having to look up websites for you. If you want to find out, look up each New York County's examination announcements to find the ones for school secretary when they have them every 2-4 years. Sheesh. It's civil service. I took the test for accounting clerk when they offered it and I know they have offered the clerk/typist and secretarial ones too. Stop being so lazy if you want information. Go to the county civil service websites and look for examination announcements or go call a NY school district and ask. Are you planning to take the test and apply?
Give it a rest already. Google is your friend. I live HERE. I know how the New York School Districts operate. I don't feel like having to look up websites for you. If you want to find out, look up each New York County's examination announcements to find the ones for school secretary when they have them every 2-4 years. Sheesh. It's civil service. I took the test for accounting clerk when they offered it and I know they have offered the clerk/typist and secretarial ones too. Stop being so lazy if you want information. Go to the county civil service websites and look for examination announcements or go call a NY school district and ask. Are you planning to take the test and apply?
Why don't you relax.
I was just surprised because in the state where I spent most of my career, school secretary positions were not civil service.
I was just surprised because in the state where I spent most of my career, school secretary positions were not civil service.
I know that. But the OP is from New York, not somewhere else and in another post on this forum mentioned the difficulties of getting a school secretarial job in New York. I would never be so presumptuous to give advice to a poster asking about something from a region that I don't know or if I did, you'll notice that I always qualify that with a "In My Experience" or "In my my state/area/region." One thing that I enjoy very much about these forums is reading about the different cultures/styles/methods in various parts of the US. They are very variable and responders should be cautious that their experience in their local area may not be the same as the poster's area who is seeking advice.
What qualifies as 'decent money'? Most school positions do not pay well. Aides/Paraprofessionals usually make less than subs do.
People mentioned central office positions. I assume they do pay decently, but in my experience, those positions are promoted from within.
In the system where I was an administrator, pay for "secretaries" was pitiful. As a result, we couldn't get well qualified people, although I refused to accept personnel who lived in our community. I particularly felt sorry for my "finance secretary". Dealing with huge accounts with little training...huge responsibility.
The secretaries in the NYC DOE are very well-paid. They get a lot of training throughout the year and they have various specialized functions, e.g. ATS or payroll, etc. These are school secretaries as opposed to the 10,000+office support personnel throughout the district offices and the central office. The DOE has something like 100,000 full-time employees in addition to contract employees. If you can survive the DOE, school secretaries end up with 6 figure incomes after long-term service. There is also another class of employee called "teacher aide or referred to as DC something or other" which may or may not involve classroom work. It can be just working in the office making copies, answering the phones, etc or it can be supervising children on the playground or the lunchroom. They are not lunchroom personnel. Secretaries are steps above teacher aides and do not deal with the children. Teacher aides can do both. Employees - New York City Department of Education
Small suburban districts in New York are civil service jobs. Downstate districts, which tend to pay more, start between 35-40ish and each year there is an increase. If you get any of these jobs, no one leaves until they are just about to die. Turnover is extremely low. The OP mentioned in another post on this forum how impossible it is to get plucked off the civil service list into one of these jobs. They are highly desirable because they are very secure, backed by the union, offer family healthcare at little or in the case of the DOE, almost no cost, full pension, plus other benefits. The OP is correct that it would be easier to relocate and get this type of job outside of the NY tri-state area where school office personnel are not unionized.
NYC also has paraprofessional jobs that require no more than a high school diploma. They start at 36K with increases each year, but again, they get the same benefits as teachers. They are also part of the teacher's union and have their own union representative at each school location like the teachers. Again, very hard to get hired as a full time paraprofessional. You have to start as a subpara first and while this used to be easy to get, even subparas now have to be nominated by a principal. Suburban school districts scattered throughout New York State work very differently.
In our school district, non teaching personnel work year round and work daily longer hours than teachers. The pay is decent, but you don't get the teacher schedules.
I was going to say the same thing.
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