About me: 1 year as legislator assistant for state House of Representatives. 3 years in "local government" at a joint action agency of municipal utilities (I am on the local government pension but get my healthcare through rural cooperatives - it's weird, but technically we're a political subdivision of the state). My job is mostly administrative but with increasing communications duties. I am finishing our new website and I do tons of publications - magazines, e-newsletters, and brochures. Husband also worked as legislator assistant and has now worked nearly 2 years for a state-level department.
1. Websites I can leverage? (Calopps.org is my go-to) (USAjobs??)http://www.counties.org/public-sector-job-opportunitieshttp://www.mmasc.org/jobs.aspxhttps://www.jobs.ca.gov/http://abag.ca.gov/jobs.htmlhttp://www.westerncity.com/Western-City/Job-Opportunities/http://caljobsource.com/caljobs.html2. Are there government recruiters or recruiting agencies that can help me get a foot in the door?Not that I know of. Seems like you'd need to be in a highly specialized position for that.
3. Advice on how to land any sort of government job? As referenced by links above, look for the association of counties, municipal associations, etc for casting a wider local net. Get on the state of California potential employee rolls and look for merit-based positions. That's what they are called in MO, but they may be called something else for you - just look for jobs that wouldn't get taken away to give out campaign favors later.
4. Things you like about your govt job?I loved working for the state legislator because he worked really hard for his district and I got to be involved/organize several important meetings as we drafted new legislation. The coolest was working with the American Bar Association and Innocence Project to try and revise criminal procedures for murder investigations.
In my current job, I love working with our members who are all municipal employees or utility employees (city administrators or electric superintendents, etc) and helping them communicate better with the public. I enjoy bringing my unique skills at design and web development to raise the bar on the materials we produce. I love the health insurance which is 100% covered for myself AND my husband with a $600 deductible and $2000 OOP max. I love that I don't have to travel and that I have a pretty predictable work schedule. It's not the same each day, but each calendar year is similar to the last. I like that it's not super high-stakes. Messing something up means issuing a correction or adding an extra fail-safe to the process.
5. Things you dislike about it?Working for the state was rough financially. MO has the lowest paid state workers in the country. I grossed $25,400 the year I worked there. The insurance was pretty decent, but even $180/month premium feels high on that pay. It was stressful working in the legislature and I was on-call all the time. My husband makes $37,000 and he's salaried, so he's frequently staying late or working weekends this summer. Governments are usually exempt from employment laws, so the new overtime laws won't even apply to him!
With my current position, the CYA (cover your ass) syndrome is rampant. I think that's pretty common in government positions at all levels. Sh*t rolls downhill, so if you get in higher up, that would be eased a bit. I've really only worked non-profit or government, so I don't know if this is just an across the board mentality among middle and senior managers, but in govt it's the norm. You have to find a balance between sticking up for yourself and accepting the role to make the boss look good.
The biggest drawback for me with government work is that you typically cannot negotiate your raises/salary. My current position allows for this, but most local, state, and federal positions are decided in a budget process far outside your control. The more local you get the more flexibility you have here.
6. Your position & if it relates at all to Data Analytics?As explained above, my position is not in data analytics, but we have a lot of that where I work. I would actually encourage you to look into electric utility work either at the regional level or municipal or the state utility commission. We have an economist, two energy analysts, and 5 energy schedulers (SCADA system). Data analysis experience is something we have looked for when hiring these roles in the past. It's an interesting field and it's never going away.
Resources for those jobs:
http://cmua.org/jobs/https://www.caiso.com/about/Pages/Careers/CurrentJobs.aspxhttp://www.cpuc.ca.gov/jobs/7. How long did it take from 1st interview to 1st day at work? I hear it can take months.For my husband in state govt, it took about 8 weeks for a state job. My current job was about 8 weeks as well. I think the key in government jobs is to look regularly and apply to anything you might qualify for. The husband is applying right now to a bunch of positions with the hopes to hear back by the end of the year. He has a good chance of losing his current job because of the election.