How to get a government job in Nizhny Novgorod Region — real experience and job-hunting techniques.

In accounts from Nizhny Novgorod residents

Account by user kaper, 11.01.2012

— I'd gotten sick of retail a long time ago... the whole process was already sitting in my liver.

So I decided to change my line of work. Then, through an acquaintance, I suddenly learned that one of our The Kremlin had a supply-manager vacancy. At the time my job wasn't demanding, I had plenty of time, so I decided to swing by there and give it a shot.

The HR woman came out, and at my question about the vacancy she practically, literally bugged out her eyes — no, she just goggled them. "And how did you find out about it?" I decided not to rat out my friend, just in case, maybe it would still work out. "From sources," I say. For some reason that vague answer satisfied her))) And I started gathering the certificates and papers on the list they gave me)))

Everything had to be notarized, bound, numbered, and stamped. Well, understandable, it's a serious outfit))) In about 4 days, I sped up and got it all together, bound it, done. Handed it in.

"So when should I come in for the interview?" I ask. "Don't know...." "Here, sign that Corruption, or contribute what you can, verbally or in writing.")))) That's when I understood I needed to get out of this place, because whatever's hurting someone is what they talk about)) But of course curiosity got the better of me.

Anyway they checked these papers of mine for about two months))) Then I got a letter saying I'd successfully passed the first round for the position.

Then I waited another 2 months or so, calling in occasionally out of curiosity.... Like, so what, how's it going? Will the process itself happen on its own, do I need to study or read up on anything before the meeting? "No," she says, "no need for anything."

Then the second letter came, with the date and time for the second round. I didn't put on my dress harness, the suit-and-tie thing. Besides me there was another guy, in a suit, by the way)) And there was some girl, with bluish circles under her eyes and skinny little legs.

That girl was addressing the important uncles and aunties walking past, tenderly and reverently, by first name and patronymic)) even called someone "Auntie Valya," there...))) The guy was, like me, an outsider.

Then they invited us to testing, if you can believe it!!)) Not a word about this had been said to me. They handed out several sheets stapled together. The sheets had questions and several answers, like, underline the right one.

Trying to read even one question, I was vaguely visited by a feeling that I was being mocked, or something..)) Every word was understandable, in principle, but the meaning, damn it, of the overall phrase slipped away somewhere, to hell with it, by the end of the sentence, got lost somewhere around the third line, the meaning, completely lost)))

And why the hell does a supply manager need to know the substance of, say, Order No. 53 of March 4, 2009? Or some other deeply accounting-related subject matter? Anyway, I went up to the examiner lady, who was looking at me importantly and sternly, at the outsider, that is))) I say, I get it, in principle, that's what I figured, let's say goodbye, I'll head home.

But on the face of it, this would have amounted to disrupting an elective and democratic proceeding. There weren't many candidates as it was. And they stopped me, and said this was only the first episode, the important part was still ahead. The skinny-legged girl, coughing bashfully, was smartly putting crosses and checkmarks on the sheets. The guy was scribbling something there too. When our eyes met, I almost burst out laughing, he stayed serious, apparently he believed in democracy))))))

I understood what the hell they needed that second episode for when they gave me something like a protocol to sign, saying I'd taken part in the competition. Or rather, no, not that I'd taken part, but that they'd held it))

I sat down. "We don't even know what to ask you," they say. "Well, ask what I did, what I worked on, where I worked." "That's all written in the work record book, it's clear from that." "You'd better tell us how you found out about the vacancy."

"Found out from the internet," I say. Although, I should mention, on that outfit's website not every hacker would find the vacancies page on the second try))

And then the scariest question of all rang out, in my view!!! DO YOU KNOW HOW TO USE THE The Internet?)))))

They perked up a little. "Well, good, excellent even. Can you then briefly tell us what's said in some, damn it, paragraph or other of the civil servant's charter." "No, I can't," I say. "Why not? Well, hell if I know why? What are you supposed to answer to that? I've never once seen this charter, actually)) "Then how were you planning to work?" "I'm asking, do you need a supply manager, a normal one, or a walking civil-servant charter??"

They got offended, I think. Well, they say, we'll let you know our decision, in writing)))) And indeed they did)) An official letter with seal stamps and all))) Afterward, having poked around their site again for about 15 minutes, I managed to find out that the skinny-legged girl won the competition)))

Anyway, what elections for head of state, what are you even talking about??)) If even at the very lowest level of this building outsiders get filtered out right away. You can just imagine what goes on higher up and deeper in)) Same circus, just more serious and more expensive)))

as for the pay, it's total gibberish there)) the base salary as such doesn't really matter, I understood, there it's all sorts of bonuses, allowances, and so on and so on. This is done so that, starting from a base salary figure of, say, 4000 rubles, they can skillfully keep the employee obedient and on a short leash.

Because, if they want to, they can always find a reason to strip a person of a bonus or some allowance)))

.. and I don't stress about it much.

I probably wouldn't have lasted there long anyway, judging by the grimly focused faces of the would-be colleagues))))

Account by user Andrey_Ka, 11.01.2012.

— I also got to take part in a similar farce. Except the vacancy was really posted on the kremlin's website, and there were quite a lot of applicants. I never even got to the interview. Got tripped up on the... COMPUTER LITERACY test!

I was amazed by the questions on that test — such basic stuff, the kind you generally never pay attention to: what's the minimum font size MS Word offers, which button do you press to receive mail in MS Outlook, and so on. Apparently, to the kremlin people it mattered more to know the minimum font size in Word than my ability to work with macros, my typing speed, or my skills in Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Photoshop, and so on.....

Account by user tatigas 11.01.2012.

— Back in 2003 I found out completely by chance about a civil service vacancy... Back then there still weren't competitions for the lower-level positions, and somehow, by some miracle, they took me on... Everyone was very surprised for a long time and said I was the first person off the street... I worked there for 8 years, even moved up a bit on the career ladder...

Competitions for filling a vacant position happen fairly often, and it does happen that they want to take someone off the street, because they need a hard worker, but somehow no decent workers come along, since more often they take their own, connected people, and most people no longer believe it's realistic to get into a government office at all...

I wouldn't go work there again now, 2-3 years ago it was much simpler to work, but now there are so many decrees, laws, and instructions, your head spins... Just the law on government procurement alone is something else... So... maybe you don't even need it — this civil service job)))

Account by user Habir 11.01.2012.

— Entertaining reading.

Once, back around 1998, a buddy and I, both discharged from the Russian Armed Forces due to a unit reorganization, decided to try our luck getting into the militia — hell, why not, sounded interesting.

When we finished the tests, the psychologist says — with your mentality you two should get lost, honestly. "What's wrong with our mentality," we ask, "it was good enough to defend the Motherland." "To hell with that," she says, "your sense of collectivism is off the charts, and in the organs you don't need that."

So that's how my buddy and I never became policemen.

Account by user Max Brytva 11.01.2012.

— I also took part in a similar circus, specifically a competition for a position at one federal government office. Only unlike your story, in my case the farce was absurd through and through, because all the members of the selection committee and all the candidates for the vacancy knew for certain who would win — moreover, the fake candidates had been specially chosen to match the required qualification level.

The rightful candidate was a buddy of mine, who a month before the event had promised me a bottle of cognac for taking part in the 40-minute show) Otherwise it was the same story exactly) There were no other real candidates, but the committee members kept straight faces, which only added spice to the whole farce.

So it seems that's how it goes everywhere — except for hiring for the least desirable positions, where, I'll grant, you can get in even without "connections")

I decided a long time ago that I'd only go into a government structure out of extreme necessity)

Account by user Patriot-nn, 11.01.2012.

— I always dreamed of working as a supply manager, even without a salary :))) But seriously — getting in there is unreal, competitions get held, but just for show, and the good spots always go to their own people and ours. So once I stopped by an acquaintance's place, had some paperwork to sort out for a plot of land, and he tells me, now you'll go see my mom, then my uncle, then me, then you'll go to my brother, and there in the department they'll sign everything for you :)))

Account by user Irina24, 11.01.2012, at 13:52.

— That turned out to be instructive :):) That's exactly how it goes at any similar office.

The other day we were visiting friends. So a girl there had just fled one government office right before New Year's (which they're planning to turn into a joint-stock company within the coming year). So there, for instance, toilet paper that's actually bought for 5 rubles gets logged at 20 rubles:)

The boss brought in a whole bunch of relatives from the region, got them all set up, gave them insane salaries — they don't work anymore, they just swap their foreign cars for new ones:)

Everyone who's "not one of their own" gets quickly pushed out so their own people can be put in.

The interviews go exactly the way you described.

My friend got in there by chance, apparently because the previous boss, who was quietly forced out, wasn't the one running the interviews.

Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Employment Service

Government of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast vacancies

See also

  • PZhiV