Alabama Public Television presents in partnership with the State Personnel Department, Alabama Career Connection a unique look at jobs available in Alabama state government.

All coming up right now on Alabama Career Connection.

Hey, y'all.

It's Governor Kay Ivey.

Welcome to Alabama Career Connection.

This program shines a light on the many departments within our state government and the diverse careers available right here in Alabama.

Serving the people of our state is a rewarding experience, offering the chance to make a real difference in our communities.

Whether you're interested in education, public safety, health care, or technology, there's a place for you in state government.

So if you're looking for a career that makes an impact, I invite you join us in building a brand of future for a home in Alabama.

As I always say, let's get to work.

I'm the Director of Workforce Development and System Support.

My main role is to assist teachers to get the credentials that they need to work in the first class PreK field, as well as we are the state sponsor for the apprenticeship, the early childhood apprenticeship that's registered through the US Department of Labor, and I help administrate that.

So my main role is to help grow the ECE workforce out in the field to work with our children, birth to five.

Well, it's something that I never saw myself doing funny enough.

Education was not my background.

That was not what I went to school for, and I have just fallen in love with it.

It's been the most rewarding, so much fun to see what you're doing out in the real world, going to visit a classroom, seeing the teachers, just seeing the children just brightens your day.

I mean, there's just nothing better than that.

Just knowing that what you're doing is impacting children and families across the state.

It's just so much fun.

This team is wonderful.

All the employees are very passionate about their job.

When it comes down to trying to get a job done, it's like everyone pitches in.

This agency is like a big family, and they're really there for each other.

One of the things that we do is our early childhood program, and that is the four-year-olds, getting them ready for kindergarten.

We also have the Head Start State Collaboration Office.

That is also a program that works with early childhood, a federally funded program.

We work with the Children's Policy Council.

There's a Children's Policy Council set up in each county across the state.

The Children's Policy Council will meet and they will discuss the issues in the counties concerning the children, and they will come up with a solution for those problems in the county.

I've been working for the Department of Early Childhood Education I'm going into my sixth year working here.

Currently, I serve as the Director of P3 Partnerships, which allows me to work with the grant that we do in the kindergarten through third grade space.

I like to describe it as taking what we do in first class pre-k and taking that magic and sprinkling it up into kindergarten through the third grade space.

I also am the lead for our state selected child assessment tool, Teaching Strategies Gold.

So that allows me to help set up the trainings and think about professional development in first class PreK, and then we also use it in our P3 classrooms.

For anyone who's considering state government, just do it.

It's one of those things I feel like you don't hear a lot about, or it might have a negative connotation, but if you're interested in the work-life balance, if you're interested in going home, spending time with your family, the great hours, all the benefits, there are just so many great things.

Don't let the negative connotation deter you into the private sector because there's just so many things right here, right under your nose.

We have four primary functions here at the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs that I'm responsible for.

The largest workforce we have out in the field is our veteran service officers.

We also have the GI-Dependent scholarship program servicing about 16,000 students in 48 different schools across the state.

We also have our five beautiful veterans homes throughout the state.

We just opened our fifth home down in Enterprise and starting to accept our veteran residents there, so it's slowly filling up.

Then lastly, we have our beautiful cemetery down in Spanish Fort, Alabama.

It's beautiful.

A typical day in the life of AVSO is pretty much we have a daily interaction with veterans who come into the office who are not aware of benefits.

We do our job to try to educate and be an advocate for those veterans.

It is very rewarding when the veterans come in, a lot of them not knowing what the benefits are, and then you assist them with it, they come back and they say, Hey, I was awarded my benefits.

That's the best pay you can ever get on this job.

I came out of the military with 41 years of service, and I was hired into this position the day after I retired from the military.

I just can't think of a better job to transition into taking care of veterans.

It's just a way for me and the other members of this staff to give back to veterans.

It's just something I've always cherished.

It's a daily challenge because veterans have a lot of issues out there.

It's very rewarding, too, that I've noticed, and it's something I just thoroughly enjoy helping veterans.

When you get a veteran that come into the office, don't know anything about benefits.

We apply for the benefits for them.

Once they receive that award, they're extremely happy.

You can see the gratitude in their face, and it just makes my day.

My favorite part about being a employee are the benefits.

We get the medical, dental, the paid vacation time off.

You can't beat it.

The health insurance is very great.

The retirement program is one of the best that I've seen, and I advise anyone to do that.

If you're a veteran looking for additional employment, you're looking for a job, we've got what you need here at the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs.

Just go to our website, VA.Alabama.Gov, and look for employment, and and you'll see the vacancies that we have in our organization.

We'd love to have you on our team.

All we're looking for are veterans that have an honorable discharge and that have at least 60 days of active duty under their belt.

If you fulfill those two requirements, we'll consider you for a certified veteran service officer.

But you have to have the desire to help veterans because it's very rewarding, but it's also very challenging.

You've got to have that desire to want to help other people in this job.

If you want to join an organization that has a saying, come and go, everybody that's supportive, want to help veterans, this is the place for you.

Our Children's Rehabilitation program serves infants all the way through age 21.

They're children with special health care needs, typically pretty significant medical needs.

We do have some who are not as significant who we serve in our clinics, but we actually have medical clinics across the state.

I am a social worker by trade and training.

I am an LICSW, so my primary job here is direct service for social work.

I enroll clients, I carry a caseload, I work with families one-on-one, I provide social work support within CRS clinic system.

I am also an administrator, which means that my job is also to support other social workers who work under me.

I am a speech pathologist here at CRS, and I have been here almost 18 years this year.

I specialize with Augmentative and Alternative Communication, or AAC, which is what we call it.

That's a type of assistive technology that helps anyone who has a complex communication need to better communicate with those around them, their family, their peers, their school staff.

It is extremely rewarding.

I started out as a ASA 2, and then I was promoted to a rehab assistant.

I am also currently on the register for ASA 3, so there's definitely room to grow in this, and it depends on you.

If you're willing to go, you can get there.

It's really a unique program.

There's a lot of neat things about it.

One of the things I'll tell you is that we are the second-tier screener for infants and toddlers who maybe don't pass their hearing exam at the hospital.

We have licensed audiologist here, we have social workers, we have nurses, we have occupational We have occupational and physical therapists.

We have dietitians, and we have speech therapists.

We also are the state's hemophilia program.

While it sits within the children's rehabilitation program, we serve adults with hemophilia all the way through their lifespan.

It's a great place to work.

We We have flexibility when it comes to your hours.

We have a flex schedule, so that's good.

You're able to work independently.

You're not being micromanaged, so you definitely need to be able to work independently.

If you like helping people, it's a place for you.

I will tell you my personal story.

I'm a special needs mom.

When we first got diagnosed, we didn't know what we were really facing, and I was interviewing here.

I loved the vibe here.

I just loved the team I had worked with and interviewed with, and I was so excited to take this job.

I was able to enroll my child.

She's part of the family here.

She attends a clinic here.

To me, every family that comes through here, I want to be able to give them what CRS gave my family and still gives my family.

I can tell you this, I would be nowhere else than where I am right now.

I've been here almost three decades.

I love this place.

I love the people.

I love the staff, and I love our mission.

Just being able to be a part of part of their life journey, is amazing, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I'm here to tell you about the Retirement Systems of Alabama, which doesn't sound very glorious, but it's a fabulous place to work in the state of Alabama.

You may not know much about the Retirement System, but I'll tell you a couple of things that you can see.

Go to Montgomery and you'll see every every new building in Montgomery was built by the retirement system.

Every new building in Mobile was built by the retirement system.

The retirement systems are the ones that brought you Mercedes.

They're the ones that put up the money.

But it is the public pension plan for the state of Alabama, and we're very proud of it.

We're very proud of our employees because they're the best.

I do a little bit of everything.

I'm never bored.

I oversee about 13 departments, and that includes the teachers' retirement the employees' retirement system, The Public Education Employees Health Plan, we call that PEEHIP, and then all of the supporting departments that support those divisions, and that would be accounting, human resources, IT, legal, member services, employer services, field services.

It's a really interesting job.

PEEHIP is the Public Education Employees Health insurance Plan.

We service all of the active employees in public education, the two-year college system, and then we also provide coverage for the four-year universities at retirement.

We have over 400,000 active and retired members that we're supporting.

Having staff in all of our 18 divisions is so important to get the right people.

We're looking for individuals that are career-minded, not somebody that just It's not a job, but a career.

To help members all over the state, from elderly to young people of my age, is just really being a public servant, honestly, and helping them understand where they stand as far as retirement.

It is a good place to work, great management, great people to work with.

Just really research if this is something for you.

We are public servants, so if you love to help people, this will be a great place to come work.

I love helping people.

I've helped students, I've helped veterans, and I'm helping members, seniors, so it brightens my day.

Usually, a lot of time, it's instant gratification because they're so grateful.

Any advice that I would give to any accountants coming up to work for the state of Alabama.

I would let them know that working here, you would learn a lot and get a lot of efficient training to do your job.

If I had a friend coming to work here for RSA, I would let them know that you serve a great purpose.

The job getting to help our public and be a part of that is very fulfilling, and that's something that makes me feel like what I do is important.

If you want to work and have an impact on individuals daily, this is the place for you.

I would say to you after seeing the retirement systems and some of it staff, we need you.

If you're an accountant, we need you.

If you're an ITEC person, we need you.

If you're an investor, we play with other people's money, and we want you to come join us.

I'm Matt Leverette, Assistant Chief Engineer for Preconstruction for the Alabama Department of Transportation.

I've been with the Department for 30 years, and I am responsible for our Design Bureau, our Bridge Bureau, and our Rideaway Bureau.

There are lots of engineering opportunities for Civil Engineering graduates at ALDOT.

ALDOT offers you the opportunity to do a wide variety of things.

Everybody depends on our transportation network.

I get cards in the mail from Louisiana and Texas, and Indiana, and Illinois, from people in our ASAP program helped change a tire, or they ran out of gas, or something like that.

Those guys work to help mitigate those incidents, and that in turn means that we're not just helping the people of Alabama, we're helping the people of the nation.

A TNC operator, what they do is they monitor the cameras looking for crashes, incidents, debris, disabled vehicles, abandoned vehicles, to try to get help out to the public.

This is a perfect time to start a career at ALDOT.

There's a lot of things going on in our department these days.

A lot of new investment and infrastructure from the federal level and the state level.

A lot of people may think of ALDOT just from what they see on the side of the road, from our maintenance activities or our construction projects.

But there's a lot more to ALDOT than just that.

We're embracing new technologies like 3D modeling, drone surveys, and GIS.

And so we're looking for people like you with interest in those areas.

I head up our drone program, so UAS stands for Unmanned Aerial systems.

The last eight years we've been doing this.

It has increasingly expanded our role on what we're doing for the department.

Take a lot of imagery, a lot of video.

They do an excellent job of collecting the data, getting it processed in a timely manner, and delivering it to our end users.

It's enhanced our abilities as far as the DOT is to the data we collect and what they can do with it.

We go from how do we plan and program projects that expand efforts like the traffic management center or ITS and communications, or those traffic signal operations through a planning phase, through a design phase, so the engineering aspects of making sure those specifications are met, that all of our design standards are met and then let to contract and go out to construction to where we actually see those things that we put on paper come to life in the field.

ALDOT invests in its employees.

We offer a job study program for civil engineering graduates who are taking their PE exam.

That helps the employee be successful in passing the exam, and it helps ALDOT develop its workforce.

If you're a civil engineering student, a recent graduate, or a practicing engineer, ALDOT has a career path for you.

The opportunity is there.

You just got to be willing to go out and go to work.

DOT has been good to me.

No other job that I've had gives me the opportunity to make a positive impact on people's lives daily.

The decisions that I make count.

When we can provide a reliable transportation network to get those goods to market, that's a huge economic benefit and lifeblood of the state.

As the seasons change, we help set up the Christmas tree at the capital steps.

We make sure that we get all the leaves up during the winter season.

We make sure that the grass is nice and moned during the summer season, and just make sure that everything is tidied up around the buildings, go from debris all the way to making sure that the shrubs are taken care of, everything is trimmed and nice.

I go through a lot of preventative maintenance to make sure that the turf and the grass is healthy.

On a day-to-day basis, we take care of about 11 buildings around the capital.

We do all of the turf grass maintenance, the landscaping, and make sure that it's ready for all the visitors and the employees to enjoy.

We take care of plumbing, HVAC, electrical.

We have building staff, custodians, our landscape crews, paint, carpentry, and we also have our central metal operations.

We cover all that with about 136 employees.

It's been a great opportunity for me, for my people that I supervise, between the benefits of retirement, the holidays, the annual sick leave, it's a no-brainer.

Honestly, it was the best decision I made.

I was coming from a hard place, and it gave me structure.

I meet a lot of people that I wasn't expecting to meet, so so far, so good.

I recommend it.

I wish that I did it sooner.

The benefits are great, retirement's great, health insurance is great, pay is where it needs to be.

There's definitely room for growth.

We've just put a lot of that into place in the past year.

We're looking at more ways to get people promoted up and also some training opportunities for them so they're ready for the next step.

Knowing each day I get up and come to work, I'm very happy with the people I'm encountering every day from my upper management division.

They support us in everything we need, from tools to knowledge.

The people I supervise are great.

They come in with a great attitude, knowing that they are happy working here.

Really look at the opportunities that you can get from it because you can come in as a custodian, but you might leave as a manager.

My goal is to be a Custodial tool in the next six months.

It's not hard to get benefits or training to get another position.

I look forward to my future with the state.

We've been able to develop some more positions with our state personnel department where we've taken about 17 positions, tied them all together.

On the up side of that pay scale, they've been able to increase some of those positions about 50%.

We're looking for people that are willing to come in, that are dedicated to the job, somebody that's looking for a career move, not just a job.

If you're interested in finding out more about these jobs and many others, please scan the QR code on the screen or go to our website.

I'm Daniel Urquhart, Secretary of the Office of Information Technology.

OIT was formed by the legislature in 2013 to define statewide IT policies and governance across the executive branch of state government.

In 2017, this legislation was amended to include the technical operations for the state network, in addition to the policy and governance function.

OIT employs approximately 150 talented and hardworking people who have an incredibly diverse range of professional backgrounds and experiences to support this agency and its vital work.

Our team, along with several of our managed service providers, work every day to ensure the state network, telecommunications systems, security platforms, and multiple cloud environments remain operational and secure.

Seeing as there's multiple millions of dollars that are going missing on a daily basis.

At a personal level, what happens is whenever your information becomes compromised, it takes up hours and days of your life, and it can affect you for the rest of your life because If someone steals your identity, imagine what happens to your social security number.

It's very important at both a personal level and a financial level for people individually and for corporations.

The advice I would give is to be open to any opportunity that comes up because you can get a foot in the door and then see what else is going on and maybe follow a new direction at some point.

One day it can be focusing on writing and making sure policies are published for the state.

They are also the policies for OIT, then the next day it could be dealing with risks that have popped up from vendors to system risks, security risks, things like that.

I love the benefits, and I like the fact that I only have to put in X number of years, reasonable years, and then I can retire.

The perfect employee is someone that's curious.

We can go to college and we can get degrees, but at the end of the day, there's one word that really defines what the person we're looking for is, and they have to be curious constantly and always asking why.

Because whenever you ask why, they say that you ask why five times, you get to the core of the problem.

We have to keep asking why, and that helps us understand what we actually need to protect.

A great employee for OIT is really one that comes in and they want to learn.

They might have a little knowledge, but if they are willing to learn from the bottom up, show some humility, and that nothing is beneath them, they're going to be a great employee.

In addition to our primary mission of managing the state network and telecommunications infrastructure, OIT assists many of the executive branch agencies with their technology initiatives that ultimately provide benefits and services to citizens of Alabama.

And because IT is constantly changing, we're always looking for new team members who can augment our collective agency skillset and knowledge base.

OIT is honored to be a part of this important work, and we invite others to join us in our mission to serve the state of Alabama, its executive branch agencies, and its citizens.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is filled with dedicated men and women who have answered the call to protect and serve.

However, law enforcement is a career that takes a combination of physical and mental toughness.

This is not just a job, but a lifelong commitment.

You will face obstacles that test your limits but gain strength that will prepare you for any challenge.

It's an amazing thing to be able to wake up every morning and for one, to be able to be a part of such an amazing organization that, for one, comes with various opportunities, multiple units that you can get involved in.

Depending on what your job is within the agency, whether it's a trooper working the highway, investigating crashes, enforcing traffic laws, making the roadway safe for people, or on the investigative side of the house, whenever you are investigating major crimes, bringing closures to families, whether it's a homicide case.

Just to be able to have so many opportunities under one big umbrella is very fortunate and a great opportunity.

But the biggest thing of all is being able to be involved in my community because that was my biggest dream once I was finished with college.

I always wanted to be able to be involved in my community, feeling like every day I wake up, I'm going out there protecting, ensuring safety on our highways.

Regardless of what your role is in the agency, you're impacting somebody's life.

A lot of times when we meet people in the public, we're meeting them when they are at their worst, something that's happened to them.

They've been involved in a crash.

They've been involved with a family member getting killed in a wreck.

There's been a victim in their family that's been killed.

We're meeting them at the lowest of lowest, and we have a chance to impact them and be something very positive in their life that they'll always remember.

The great benefit of being in the state is, one, it's a great place to work, but also the ability to travel throughout the state to assist and locate missing people.

We're able, we could be down in Fairhope or Mobile and then get a call in to Coleman, where we're looking for someone with Alzheimer's or dementia.

The unique opportunity of being an Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Aviation Unit member is that we can go anywhere when requested in order to help locate someone.

It's not just about writing citations and having to give that deaf notification, but we are still personable at the end of the day.

We're humans.

That's the biggest thing for me.

Wearing this uniform every day, that's the biggest joy every time I wake up in the morning, putting on the badge, getting to wear my nice hat, and just being involved in insuring safety in the community.

As we celebrate our 10th anniversary as one of the greatest law enforcement agencies in the nation, I invite you to consider if a career in public safety is calling you, each day you will have the opportunity to change lives, protect those who cannot protect themselves, and forge lasting relationships within your community.

If you're seeking a career that demands courage and conviction, we invite you to rise to the challenge and join the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

Join us for Alabama Career Connection, an in-depth look at career opportunities available in Alabama state government.

Alabama Career Connection, Sundays at 1pm on Alabama Public Television.