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Im 53 and unemployed. When I was a teenager my dad always said "work for the city, take the civil service exam, be a sanitation worker, a fireman, subway worker or whatever. Good benefits and steady work"
I wish I listened to him then. I would be retired now
You're too old to be a fireman, but not too old for civil service. In fact, the government is about the only employer following the non-age-discrimination laws. I've known people over 60 who got hired with reasonable starting salaries ($50k). I took the civil service exam myself, but got billions of canvass letters and no interviews. Some of the jobs are crap salaries, too, but you can review the open positions online and go take the test. Take a lot of tests; there's a fee attached to each one and they love to get your money.
You can take a test for transit but you normally don't get called right away even if you do well on the test but I worked as a Motorman for 28 years. I worked mostly on Work Trains and in the Yards . I liked the job. Good luck.
Don't give up, you still have your chance. Have the right set of mind with expectation. Understand that the civil service exam is a process, so you need to give yourself another 2 years to get in the field. If I was you, and I really want to get into the civil service exam and work for the city, here is what I would do. I would constantly check on DCAS website for monthly open competitive exam and apply for the one that I am interested and qualified for. Meanwhile, I'll make sure I have a job to keep the paycheck coming to my bank. Other than getting prepare and doing what you can on your part, there's nothing else you can do.
If you really want to get started working for the city without the exam, you can simply by applying for job on nyc.gov just like how you apply for any other job. The downside of this would be, you will not be a permanent civil servant, instead, you are consider as provisional (meaning that at some point in your career, you either have to be on the civil service exam list to be pull off or get lay off).
If you give up on yourself, then you definitely don't have a chance. If you start doing what is necessary to get a job with the city, then at least you tried.
50K is not a reasonable starting salary for people over 60 unless they have a retirement package from a previous job.
It beats the $9/hr my husband took to re-enter the workforce.
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