OVERVIEW:

Students in majors who enroll in PA 301 (i.e. public administration, criminal justice, urban studies, public health) are generally planning for a career in public service. However, given the breadth of public administration, it’s often difficult for students to focus on potential jobs of interest, which is why we spent some time on this is in week twelve (and, as the School of Public Affairs’ Careers Advisor – – unapologetically – I’ll never you let you escape a class with me without at least one lecture on careers in public service and promotion of my fabulous internship courses).

To assist you in exploring career options, links are provided below that describe examples of government positions at the federal, state, county and a city (which reflect similar positions available in most city governments).

ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS:

Using information from a job description of your choice (preferably an entry-level position), present a minimum of a two double-spaced page essay with the following information:

1) Identify and provide a brief overview of one government position and the agency you chose for this assignment (based on information you obtained from the *position description from one of the links below) and why this particular position is consistent with your career goals;

2) In your own words, provide a summary of the minimum requirements according to the position description and examples of skills, knowledge and abilities required of successful applicants;

3) Summarize the statements regarding the physical demands of the job and disclosure statements about the work environment; and

4) Discuss what you can do during the remainder of your journey at SDSU to sharpen your competitive edge to prepare for a career in your chosen field.

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*Note: Assignments that are done without researching the actually position description will result in a loss of points…you can’t “Google” your way through this one or just use basic knowledge of a position, i.e. “police officer”.

If you’re interested in a particular type of job and need some assistance finding it, please contact me at least a week before the due date and I’ll be happy to help you.

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Examples of websites with position descriptions:

USA Jobs (Federal Occupations by College Major):

https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/working-in-government/unique-hiring-paths/students/federal-occupations-by-college-major/ (Links to an external site.)

State of California (Job Descriptions and Pay Scales:

https://www.jobs.ca.gov/CalHRPublic/Tools/ClassSal… (Links to an external site.)

County of San Diego (Job Descriptions and Salaries): https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/sdcounty/classspecs (Links to an external site.)

City of Chula Vista (Class Specifications and Salary Table):

http://agency.governmentjobs.com/chulavista/default.cfm?action=agencyspecs