By KAY SUSAN
A freelance writer residing in Springfield, she has a B.A. in journalism from the University of Illinois.

Seven hints on how to go about getting a job under Personnel Code

Use job listings bulletin.
Decide what jobs are
worth applying for. Go to
the people in charge. Get
to know your legislator.
Join a professional group.
Be listed on referral system.
If all else fails, work
in the right campaign

AL AND JOE are at the starting gate, waiting for the job race to begin. Both are seasoned professionals, hard workers.

By noon, Al is off and running, furiously scribbling out job application forms and scheduling interviews. But by five it's Joe — who never paid much attention to the workings of the state personnel department — who flags in first with a choice state job. His secret? He went right to the department, drank lunch with its director and asked for a job.

Logically, Al and Joe — both are fictional characters, of course — should have had an equal crack at the job. But Joe had taken the time to learn a few important facts about the Illinois Department of Personnel. For example: that more than 112,000 applicants handed in civil service tests during 1974. Of these, better than half — 87,380 — went on to place on job eligibility lists distributed to state departments and agencies seeking employees. Those on the lists are divided into three categories according to test scores: well qualified, qualified, and minimally qualified. Only a fraction of those on the lists wind up with jobs.

The Personnel Code, which blankets the "code" departments and more than 30 other agencies whose heads are appointed by the governor, requires that merit system employees undergo a system of testing and an application. It also requires that agencies exhaust lists of well qualified candidates and veterans before turning to outside interviewees. But Walter Peura, manager of the Division of Selection and Employment Services (the unit that administers tests) admits that it's hard to pin down which departments actually follow the rules and which don't. And employers themselves confess that the little extras — like knowing the right people — can go a long way.

"It's quite often frustrating," says Robert McDonald, in-service training supervisor for the Department of Personnel. "The guy off the street doesn't know how to go about it." Personnel counselors advise their clients to mimic their counterparts in the business world when they seek state jobs. Cultivating the right contacts and selling one's self are decidedly important in both sectors.

"The state of Illinois is a closed circuit. It's hard to find out where jobs are unless you have contacts," complains Dean Victor R. Lindquist, director of job placement at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Lindquist and other professional job hunters agree that the successful state jobseeker is one who applies job development principles. They advise applicants to:

1. Get hold of job listings distributed monthly, in the form of a bulletin, by the Department of Personnel and sift through them to find the best positions. Don't just fill out an application for each of the positions listed. Do some additional research and find out who's in charge of each department or agency to which you're applying. Getting an application into the right hands — especially if it means meeting a potential employer in person — is a definite plus.

2. Sit down with a counselor from the Department of Personnel and decide which jobs are worth applying for. Right now "software" jobs — in social sciences, social work, communications — are painfully scarce in state government. Technical positions in data processing, systems analysis, nursing and medical fields are in demand.

Code departments are said to be well supplied
with lists of campaign workers, most of
whom land jobs with little effort. Still,
the system is constructed to work fairly
and people who pass tests do land jobs

to take that knowledge a step further. "Conduct a survey, seek information from the people who are doing the kind of work you'd like to do." Above all, McKenzie says, the applicant should remember to call looking for information, not a job.

4. Get to know your state legislator. Even legislators cannot direct you to an ideal position, but they might have good information. A legislator is often in a position to hear of things, and a recommendation from a well-known name doesn't hurt. "Recommendations carry a lot of weight," says Fred Banks, in charge of recruitment for the Department of Personnel. He acknowledges that it helps make one's name stand out on a forbiddingly long list of eligibles.

5. Affiliate with a professional organization. Many maintain lobbyists in Springfield who know of jobs — or potential jobs. Banks says that such organizations are called upon from time to time by state departments seeking workers.

6. Ask to be listed with the Department of Personnel's new selective referral system. The program, which employs computers, is used mainly for highly skilled positions and matches the best qualified persons to each individual vacancy.

7. If all else fails, work in a political campaign. But make sure it's with the right party. Code departments are rife with reports of ex-Walker campaign workers who won state jobs simply because of campaign efforts. "Let's face it," says one highly placed state worker, "you're dealing with political parties so you have to play according to the rules." He goes on to say that code departments are well supplied with lists of campaign workers — most of whom miraculously land state jobs with little effort.

Still, the system is constructed to work fairly and it does. Carolyn Olsen, who worked until recently as an engineer with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, is a case in point. She followed personnel suggestions to the letter, filling out applications and waiting for official word from the state. "I filled out separate applications for about a dozen jobs," says Olsen. She landed one of the best.

And Ross Rubin, an attorney with the energy division of the Department of Business and Economic Development, was summoned long after he made a formal application for a job.

Still, job developers agree that it's best not to leave everything to chance — and the Department of Personnel's long eligibility lists. "An employer can throw a dart at the eligibility list or he can look for a name he recognizes," states McKenzie. McKenzie adds that if he were looking for a job, he'd make sure his name was one that an employer somehow recognized.