So, I had my fourth interview since taking the last round of promotion exams. Data entry is boring me to death, I have a prick for a supervisor, and I want out.
Unfortunately, I am coming to the realization that it is MUCH harder to get promoted in the State than in private industry. The position I interviewed for yesterday was in the Drawings unit. The job? The short edition: I'd be working as an A/V geek, and also Program Manager with regard to televising live drawings. Excellent money at stake ($20/hr), and I'd have a 4-day workweek.
So I interviewed, and felt really, really strong about this one--more so than the other 3 interviews. However, I did not get the position. The Lottery does this really stupid thing in which not only do they give you the rejection letter, but they also tell you WHO GOT THE POSITION. Lottery solidarity, my ass--it just makes you want to hunt down who beat you and kill him/her. As it turns out, they gave this position to someone ALREADY WORKING IN THE DRAWINGS UNIT.
Which means simply this: the supervisor of said unit already knew he was going to promote one of his staff anyway, but State law forces him to put out a job posting, interview everyone who shows interest in the job, and then after the State makes him go through all that red tape, the supervisor will go ahead and do what he intended to do in the first place and promote one of his staff, thus showing the people who interviewed that their interviews were meaningless. The supervisor already KNEW he was going to promote one of his own, but he had to go through the formality of interviewing all interested candidates, because State civil service law requires him to do it.
The State does NOT allow promotions based on merit. Instead, they make employers have to go through all this red tape, wasting the time of everyone involved. If the employer knows he's going to promote his staff, he should do it without having to go through all the formality of interviewing people he's not going to hire anyway. After it's all said and done, he's going to do what he originally planned to do anyway.
Once again, a classic example of State stupidity at work. The reasoning for this? Because the State doesn't want to have a lawsuit on their hands--someone crying foul about not having a fair shot for an opening if an employer promotes someone by merit, and others want that position.
The trouble is this, though: for all 4 interviews I've had, they ended up hiring someone from their own unit anyway. I'm really starting to think that interviewing for a position outside of your own office or agency is absolutely useless, and job postings for such shouldn't even be posted outside of the office or agency. What's the sense of seeing a job opening for a position outside of your office, if they're going to give it to someone who already works in that outside office? Why go through the motions, the formality of being interviewed if the employer is going to promote one of their own anyway?
Civil service law says that the employer in Office A seeking to fill a job opening must put out a job posting and interview everyone who shows interest--but then that same civil service law says that you MUST first seek out potential hires who show interest in your own office (Office A) before moving on--which means that by default, anyone in Office A who shows interest in a promotion IMMEDIATELY has an advantage over EVERYONE ELSE who comes in and gets interviewed outside Office A. And in almost every situation, the candidate from Office A will get the promotion, regardless of how many other great candidates interviewed.
So why put out job postings if the employer's gonna hire from their own office anyway? Why give people outside of that particular office false hope, when the employer's going to hire one of his own anyway?
It CAN be done. It does happen that someone from an outside office gets the promotion in the new office, but it's SOOOOO RARE. I've had 4 interviews in the last 4 or 5 months, and I've lost out to candidates that were already part of that office of which the position in question was located.
Get rid of the damn red tape. Stop giving people false hope--if an employer wants to promote one of his own to fill a position, he should do it right then and not be forced to interview people he's never going to choose.
Me? I'm gonna be the idiot and keep trying for promotions in other offices because data entry is boring me to tears (and despite the severe understaffing of our own office, there is NO job postings for any position in it--funny how that works). Doesn't that fit the definition of insanity, or something like that? I'm not supposed to come home exhausted after sitting on my ass for 8 hours mindlessly plugging away data.
But now I'm gonna go eat and hope that the Red Sox demolish the Yankees--that, at least, will make me feel better going into the weekend. watch the Sox blow a big lead, allowing the Yankees to win, further adding to the downward spiral of the day.
Maybe, just maybe, 12 hours of sleep will do me good. Maybe.
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