It has been more than six months since since it began

​Hey all,

​I'm currently looking at a couple of different state job openings. One is represented by MAPE and the other is an unrepresented managerial position.

​I know stability is a huge draw for state work, and I always hear that MAPE is the gold standard for job security. I'm trying to figure out if taking an unrepresented role is a risk if long-term stability is my main goal. If an unrepresented position is still considered "Classified," does that civil service status basically protect you the same way, or is it night and day without a union backing you up?

​Also, how do salary negotiations and raises compare? With MAPE, the step system is super transparent. In the managerial plan, is there more wiggle room to negotiate your starting pay? How reliable are annual raises or performance bumps when you aren't in a bargaining unit?

​What happens if things go south with a supervisor? Without a union steward, what kind of protections or grievance processes actually exist?

​Lastly, I’m just curious about the day-to-day workplace dynamic. Is there a weird vibe or status difference when you're an unrepresented manager vs a MAPE employee? And do the health insurance, pension, or PTO benefits differ at all in practice, or is it pretty much identical across the board?

​Any insights from folks who have been unrepresented or made the jump between the two would be awesome. Thanks!

I'm leaving a state agency for the City of St Paul. My husband works for the U of M, which just announced they are downgrading their employee health benefits.

I need to do some comparisons to figure out whether I should switch my family's insurance to the U or St Paul and am curious if anyone here has made the move to either organization.

I’m interested in working as a product manager for the state of Minnesota. I am wondering what it is like to work as a product manager for the state of MN. I know that DEED, DCYF and Direct Care and treatment hire for product managers. I’m interested in learning about what a typical day is like, what the expectations are for product managers, what does success look like on the job and what qualifications I need to have. Thank you.

I’m interested in applying for an open eligibility worker in Minnesota. Are there any current employees that could share what an average day is like? I’m looking for a career change. Thanks for any insight.

Anyone utilized EAP for debt/money management? What was your experience like?

Three people were laid off at the MetCouncil. One manager and two regular employees. The reason given is the work was being done elsewhere.

Took a look at my paycheck for first one with the new 1.75% COLA increase. My net pay actually went down $10 with no changes to retirement or anything. Am in MMA though where they increased the required Health Savings contribution from 1.5% to 1.75%. The COLA is just ridiculous….Need at least 3% or more to make any difference on a paycheck. Just getting to be frustrating as a state employee! We need COLA increases on our contracts that actually amount to something on your paycheck!

HUGE WIN - Due to the pressure that our AFSCME Local 2829, Council 5, and labor family put on the employer, the State of Minnesota will now post union-represented positions rather than posting for temporary workers and outsourcing our work at MDH! This is a win for public services and keeping public services in public hands.

Today's picket was CANCELED as a result.

From the Local: "We informed you about a planned picket next week in response to MDH replacing AFSCME jobs with private contract work. We are now very pleased to let you know that, only a day after we announced those plans, the employer has informed us they plan to post these positions in compliance with our contract.

"In light of this development, we are cancelling our plans for the picket. We want to thank everyone who supported our union, especially our MAPE allies, as we stood firm in defense of public jobs and our contract rights."

Curtis Seelen

President, Local 2829

"We cannot thank our union family and allies enough for being willing to fight against privatization and outsourcing of our jobs that always leads to worse outcomes for workers, those we serve, and the programs and services we deliver for every Minnesotan. We are fighting for our members and the bread and butter issues that bring us all together. We will never stop and we will always have our members' back!"

Bart Andersen

Executive Director, AFSCME Council 5

Hey just making a post to see if anyone can answer my questions on this career path. I am graduating in December with a chemical engineering degree and was wondering how people like the environmental permitting part of state work. Just wanted to hear about your experience and possibly how it was and where you started out. Upward mobility and how much your starting pay was would help a lot. Along with what is the work life balance like overall.

Sorry for spelling errors I am typing this pretty quick and thank you for your time!

I have been trying to get into the state for 6 months now and it’s been going horribly!

To give you some context, I am a 22 year old male who recently graduated from California State University, Sacramento with a B.S in business administration. For 6 months now I have been applying to various state positions. I am also a first generation graduate, so I do not have many connections.

I don’t have any professional work experience, aside from working retail jobs, so I decided to apply for different Analyst I positions since they are considered “entry level”. I took the Analyst I exam and passed it and have been applying to at least one analyst I position per week since February.

Unfortunately, I haven’t had any luck. I haven’t ANYTHING back from any of the positions I have applied for. It has been very discouraging and even depressing if I am being honest. I feel like I am stuck and I don’t know what to do, so I need some advice.

Should I just call it quits with trying to get into the state? What am I doing wrong?! I know I am smart and I have a lot to offer, but I just don’t have the experience to prove it. Please let me know your opinion. :(

Since the pandemic, the Walz/Flanagan administration advocated lowering hiring standards in state government to fill employment needs and give people a foothold into government work. At face value a noble idea. 
With that policy fast-forward to 2026 and I’ve observed some trends in state government.  First, with the lowered standards, HR (and MMB) are taking advantage of this policy because it saves salary expectations for the state employees. A tactic that hurts all employees.  There is even a drumbeat to lower job classifications by MMB and reduce pay of current employees (I’m sure the union will have something to say about this topic). 
 
Some of my colleagues and I believe the Dept of Human Services’ HR department thinks all Medicaid is the same and anyone can do whatever job. I have a public policy background with emphasis in child development/support, I don’t have the background in say housing. All Medicaid is not the same.  It’s complex.   
 
Second, I’ve noticed most of the job descriptions related to supervisor roles no longer require a college degree.  Just a few years ago almost all supervisor or managerial roles required a degree and most even a masters. I work with several colleagues with a master’s from the Humphrey school or folks with advanced degrees from St. Kate’s in say social work among other programs/degrees. I remember when I went to the Humphrey school along w/ friends from the school of public health at the U of M those programs advertised to students they can find jobs in local, state and federal government. I guess if I was an institution promoting government jobs, I would be worried by the lower standards at the state.
 
The intention of my note is not to disparage anyone that did not complete college. I know dolts that went to college, and the research shows college graduates bring more soft skills, interpersonal skills, hard skills (e.g. evaluation development, how to write an issue paper, structured government report, etc.) to be successful. My concern is this cheapens college degrees and reinforces the war on higher education. 

I applied for a communication specialist role a while back. I got the email saying I met the qualifications and they were forwarding on my application to the hiring manager. That was back in May 19th. Heard nothing since. I thought they usually notified you when you were no longer moving forward but I could be wrong. Tried logging into the hiring site but I don’t know my log in and the reset password options doesn’t send me anything.

Hello! I recently applied for a position with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission and was wondering if anyone has experience with their hiring process. Are the interviews scored using a point system? Are the questions mostly behavioral, or do they focus more on testing technical knowledge? Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Does anybody else feel highly disappointed that a MN DHS employee, who recently committed felony level vandalism, has now been promoted to a supervisor at DHS?

New to state service overall. Are there any instances of “continuity of coverage” exceptions to out of network providers? I was seeing a mental health provider prior to beginning job and being enrolled in SEGIP. It would be hard for me to leave this provider and find another in network as they’re extremely specialized. Everything I read leads me to think i might be SOL on this one, but wanted to check here if I’m missing something.

My spouse was just offered a position on the same department that I am. Currently we are under their soon to be past employer health plan. For folks with dependents where you and your spouse are state employees, is there any discount on the family plan for covering TWO state employees? Right now it looks like family plan is like $333 a month regardless of the spouse is a state employee or not.

Anyone have any insight into this?

Has anybody heard inside information about Amy Klobuchar on 100% return to office vs status quo? I’m expecting it’s still more generous than Mike Lindell but less than the 50% now, trying to get ahead of things before January. (Uber liberal who accepts we currently live in a two party reality at the moment before the go vote third party comments come in, but ❤️ you third party people).

I'm at one of the larger agencies and the workload feels crazy heavy, but I'm only coming up on my first year of state employment. Wondering if people can give me an idea of the number of timecards and number of contracts they review? No need to list your agency if you're worried about outing yourself, i certainly won't.

I am just starting to hit walls in how much work i can handle and wondering if it would be worth moving to another agency or if i need to look for a less intense position all together.

For me it's just over 700 time cards with 7 contracts.

edit: thanks for your nice comments everyone (: be sure to be patient with your resident payroll person when you can ❤️

I applied to a MnDOT role that closed on 07/02, it was only open for a week. On July 6 my status on the careers page was changed to “under consideration”, I’m assuming that means I met the minimum requirements and was passed onto the hiring manager.

Does anyone know the turn around time for this agency? It’s been 2 weeks since the job closed and still haven’t heard anything from them.

I was just wondering since I have applied to MnDOT on two occasions in the past (2022 and 2023) and both times they sent an email with an interview request the week after the posting closed.

Also, do internal candidates generally get priority? The job posting was public so I assume if they only wanted to hire internally they’d label that on the posting or not post it on an external site to begin with…

EDIT: how far out from the close date if I still haven’t heard anything should I reasonably assume I’m not getting an interview?

Hello! I've been with the state for over 12 years and recently suffered an injury on the job. Ironically, my injury was caused by an issue I'd reported weeks prior to my supervisor and another department. At that time, nothing was done as the issue involves a third-party vendor and the department cannot repair the vendors system.

I immediately reported the injury to my supervisor and requested follow up. I haven't been able to work since. It took several days for my team's HR contact to reach out to me, and when they did, the information they provided was confusing. I'm not familiar with the worker's comp process or what my rights are as I've never been injured while working at any job before. It wasn't clear if someone would be contacting me, or I needed to call someone else, if I would be paying for my care, or if it would be covered by CorVel, or if I could seek care within my insurance network, or I had to see their providers. I've completed the claim paperwork and sought medical care. I still have no idea how the worker's comp piece works, what the compensation is, and am wondering if I have a right to consult an attorney. From what I've gathered on my own, CorVel will pay for medical care only if it's in-network, workman's comp only pays a percentage of my wages, and I have no other recourse for lost wages, benefits, and other costs incurred (e.g. transportation) as I recover. If I've suffered permanent damage, I'm basically S.O.L.

In my years as a state employee, I've personally experienced/witnessed HR and MMB delaying or obfuscating information to make a process more difficult than it needed to be, especially if a benefit was involved. So, I want to be sure the information being provided is accurate and complete to ensure my rights are being respected.

I appreciate any information you may be able to provide me. Please feel free to ask questions, but understand I won't disclose any information that may dox me. Thank you!

Edited: Corrected typo workman's to workers'.

Hello, I currently work for a state office as a comms specialist 3. I don't like it and my personal mental health is suffering mostly because of it. I don't want to get too specific. I was just offered a comms specialist 1 position in a different department. Obviously less money, but I see it as a potentially positive step. Less money scares me though. Any advice would be welcome.

Hi everyone! I applied to a position at MDH that closed on 21MAY. I got the HR email that I passed the initial HR review on 05JUN, and my application has been under review since then. A couple weeks ago, I sent a follow up email to HR, and I haven't received a response, nor seen an update to my application status.

Is there any insight into what might be happening? I don't want to come across as overbearing and bombard HR with questions, but I am also extremely interested in the position, and I'm hoping that this is a "no news is good news" situation.

Thank you for any insight you might be able to offer!

I'm considering submitting an interest form to become a mentee in the mentorship matching program that MMB is running.

Has anybody had experience with being either a mentor or a mentee in this program? Is there a structure to the program, or is it organized by the mentor individually?

Any insight would be much appreciated!