California recruits thousands of state workers a year. How do you get hired as one?

The Abridged version:

• California has many state worker positions for hire. Knowing how to navigate the process from application to offer could help you join the state workforce.
• The state hires about 20,000 workers a year, which roughly equals the number of workers who retired or resigned from a state job in 2025.
• Most recruitments should take 90 days, but that process may run longer for a variety of reasons.

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Getting a job with the state of California may take patience, attention to detail and some networking. But the state is hiring and taking steps to make the process easier and faster. 

It’s no surprise that more than one-third of the state’s nearly 246,000 are in the Sacramento region, and Sacramento County has more than any other statewide with more than 89,000, according to the California Department of Human Resources.

The lure of job security, good healthcare and retirement benefits, and opportunities for advancement make the state an attractive option despite protests over the requirement that workers return to the office four days a week, which took effect July 1. But even with thousands of job openings at any given time and a hiring process designed to be transparent, it often remains a mystery to applicants and current state employees alike.

“It’s such a crazy black box process,” said Julia Ekstrom, a Davis resident who got her first state job in 2018 after trying unsuccessfully for other positions. She is now an environmental program manager in the Water Justice Office in the Department of Water Resources.

Inside the ‘black box’

CalHR is trying to demystify the process, director Monica Erickson said in an interview with Abridged. The first stop for job seekers is the Work for California website launched in 2024 to create a one-stop portal rather than a decentralized system among many state departments. 

Through links on the website, seekers can set up a CalHR account, search for job openings and find upcoming events like virtual workshops, in-person job fairs and seminars. Some events apply broadly to any state job and others are tailored to specific departments or roles. The site also offers videos, checklists and a live chat function to help applicants assemble their applications and answer questions.

CalHR also has a career counseling office in downtown Sacramento and began offering one-on-one counseling sessions in early 2026. Erickson said demand for those services has been high.

A new initiative is cutting the amount of hours it takes managers to screen applicants for each recruitment — about 24 hours on average — by 85%. Hiring managers can now focus on job‑related criteria and avoid overly rigid steps such as overdocumentation, making it easier on applicants as well. 

“The old way of hiring simply took too long, keeping applicants waiting and using precious state resources on outdated paperwork,” said Nick Maduros, Government Operations Agency secretary overseeing CalHR. “It turns out we can uphold our civil service hiring requirements without constructing an overly bureaucratic system that’s so difficult to navigate.”

Simplifying the process

CalHR also completed a pilot program this year to pool hiring efforts for three classifications of jobs across several state departments. 

CalHR plans to expand the pilot and encourage more agencies to use the same process across their own departments, Erickson said. Although CalHR is the umbrella organization that sets policies and acts as a clearinghouse for state hiring, each department has its own human resources department that screens and hires applicants. 

CalHR also has simplified or eliminated hundreds of job classifications in recent months, making it easier for workers to apply for and move between government jobs. The changes also update eligibility rules, for example, by removing longstanding college credit requirements for some positions.

For healthcare jobs, CalHR has a new website to highlight benefits like higher starting pay and salary differentials. The agency also updated and broadened minimum qualifications for nurse consultants to better reflect the workforce.

Erickson said the changes will help the state bring down the job vacancy rate. The current rate of 15.7% already improved from a 17.1% vacancy rate in 2025. The state hires about 20,000 people a year, and in 2025 that was roughly the same number of workers who resigned or retired. Keeping up with vacancies is challenging in years when jobs or programs are added to state government, she said.

Starting the process

South Sacramento resident Katie Howard-Davis said she is six months into her state job search after deciding she wants to transition out of childcare and respite care jobs. In May, she attended a job fair at the Franchise Tax Board, where she got tips on interviewing and writing the statement of qualifications that is part of most applications. She applied for a tax technician job that day and was interviewed in early June.

Howard-Davis was encouraged when she got a call from the Franchise Tax Board in early July requesting contact information for her references, and now she is waiting to hear if she got the job. She is optimistic, but the length of the process is the most frustrating part, she said. She is hesitant to take other jobs that are not part time or temporary in case she gets hired by the state, but she needs more reliable income.

“I don’t want to lock into another job,” she said. “Not knowing the timing is very challenging.”

Most recruitments should take about 90 days, Erickson said. When they take longer, it is often because hiring managers are performing tasks like setting screening criteria or assembling interview panels along the way, rather than prepping those items before soliciting applications. It could be that other pressing work came up and managers must pause the process or that managers are sifting through a large number of applications.

Tailoring your application

Once hired, it is not difficult to move to other positions to advance your career or align better with your interests and skills, Ekstrom said. She started as a regional climate change specialist, won a promotion two years later and has been in her current role as a program manager since 2024. It aligns perfectly with her doctorate degree in marine science and work in environmental and climate science, she said.

Erikson’s top recommendation for job seekers is to read job postings carefully, follow all instructions and tailor applications to the job duties. Too many people submit the same blanket application for every position and fail to show how their qualifications match the job. 

Ekstrom said applicants should keep trying and use the services the state and many colleges offer to get through the process. 

“The state would love to have you,” she said.

Helpful tips

Here are common tips if you’re looking for a state job:

• Use all the resources through the Work for California website including videos, tutorials, career counseling and job fairs.
• Search on the state jobs website by keyword if you are focused on a specific type of job to narrow the search.
• Be patient. It may take months.
• Pay attention to every detail in the application and tailor your application to the job.
• Be flexible. You may not get the job you want first, but once you’re in, you can advance or move to other jobs more easily.