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.

Our only purpose and mission are to help older adults in Alabama, and we're the only state agency who is totally dedicated to that.

We do so many things to help older adults.

We provide over four and a half million meals a year, and the elderly nutrition program is a really important part of helping senior adults stay in their own homes.

On the big picture I manage the elderly nutrition program for the state of Alabama.

We, through the assistanc of the Area Agencies on Aging, located throughout the state of Alabama, provide meals, hot and frozen.

The hot meals through the senior centers, over 330, located through the state of Alabama, and then frozen meals to homebound participants throughout the state of Alabama.

It's so rewarding to know that we are helping people stay home and in their own communities, as opposed to, say, living in some type of long-term care facility and to be able to obtai the funding at senior services at the state level and to manage all these projects to ensure that people can stay at home and receive care in the home and receive medication assistance and medical equipment and financial assistance to free up money to pay for high cost power bills and purchase the food they need is very rewarding.

The people in this department really care about the seniors and the caregivers of the state of Alabama.

The people who work here aren't just clocking in on a job.

They're really on a mission.

They have a passion to care for seniors and those caregivers, and it's very important to them.

It's also important to know that in my time here, people are more than willing to help.

If you're working on a project or learning something new and you need a little assistance, when you go to them and ask for help, they're eager to help.

For the first time ever in Alabama, we now have a Director of Dementia Services for the state.

Then also, we're a big help to grandparents raising grandchildren.

It's my opinion that those people are saints because most grandparents never plan in their senior years to be taking care of grandchildren.

We also partner with the UAB School of Dentistry.

We give them state funds, and that way they're able to provide dental cleanings for senior adults.

This is my favorite job.

I've been in state governmen for basically my whole career.

I've been a prosecutor, a judge.

But in this job, all we do is help senior adults, and it's extremely rewarding.

I think that most of the people that come to work at the state are not just looking for a job.

Of course, you want good benefits, Of course, you want your paid time off to take your vacations with your family, but you're also getting that along with a purpose.

You're getting a fulfilling job that helps you.

But even on your most tiring days, I can think of the participant in the rural parts of Alabama, where I'm from, and I can say, Oh, man, I can give it a little bit more.

And that makes it worth waking up for.

Tax world intersects almost every area of society.

And in state government you think about all the things that we do as a government here in Alabama.

Everything is funded by the work that we do here at the Department of Revenue.

So we enable the state to provide for our people, whether it be law enforcement or any other support that the state provides.

All the money comes through the Department of Revenue.

With the Department of Revenue, our mission is to efficiently and effectively administer the rules for the citizens of Alabama to fund governmental services.

To be a good employee, of course, professional, but I would say the golden rule or my rule of thumb is just treat everyone like you want to be treated.

For 22 years with the department, that has served me very well.

I worked a short time for a public accountant, I worked on the other side, and you really see what it's like for the taxpayers of Alabama and what it's like to own the business and all the taxes they have to pay.

You have, I guess, a heart for them, per se, and you really want to help because I think if we can educate the taxpayers, it will increase our funding and they can do what's right which all goes to our schools.

Working with the department is really a great experience for me.

In here, the people are very welcome.

The environment is both diverse and inclusive.

It's more than just a job.

It's a great time to showcase my talent, contribute a skill to the state and the love place.

My favorite part about being a state employee is the benefits, I guess, that we have paid time off, vacation time.

Most time when my child is out of school, I'm on a state holiday as well, so that's a great benefit.

Obviously, it can be a challenge because we deal with taxes, and not a lot of people like taxes.

But I try to look at it that we are helping the taxpayers in Alabama.

We are funding our schools and our roads and our bridges and things like that, making sure that our children and our future generations have what they need to continue to help our state thrive.

If you're interested in working for the Department of Revenue, I would say go ahead and apply, get on the register with the state personnel, and go ahead and come work with us.

Make sure you let us know so we know that you're out there, but at the same time, you won't regret it.

You will really enjoy workin for the Department of Revenue.

It's really an honor for me to be here and to represent the Department of Revenue.

I am deeply proud of our team, of our people, of what we do every day, and it's an honor to be able to represent them.

If any of this sounds good to you, we'd love to have you on the team.

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 very proud to be the head of an agency with the type of staff that we have here today.

Their work, their dedication, their actual love for teenagers and the work that we're doing, shines through.

The most important staff that we have in this department is the one spending the most time with our students because that's where the difference is made.

My position here is where I really engage with the kids.

We are the people that pick them up to and from school.

When the teachers are out, we are the ones that are here with them.

I help with a lot of students in their activities if they have any school work.

So we're really intricate with the students.

Once you understand that you come here and you have an impact on the boys' lives, it becomes more than a job.

It becomes normal.

So I talk to them.

They understand me, and I understand them.

They are just like I was when I was their age.

They can get past it.

That's all it is.

Coming from industry and coming into it at first, I was nervous.

But it's just the opportunity to come out here, work with young men that remind me, look like me or remind me of myself.

The best days is graduation days.

When a kid or either when a kid get past his GED or get something, he come running down the street with paper in his hand and excited, those are some good days.

But when we hold graduation for GED and getting their diplomas and just to see the faces, and then they see the parents come out here and see that child has achieved something that they couldn't do at home, but they got here with a little instruction of somebody behind and supporting them.

I teach brickmasonry.

I come from a masonry family.

My dad was a brickmason.

My uncles were brickmasons.

It's nothing like knowing you're building a retirement, a pension retirement.

It's nothing like knowing you got great benefits, that you can go to doctors and get the stuff you need.

You get sick leave days.

You get these days that being in the industry, being out there, you weren't getting it.

Working at DYS is a wonderful stepping stone for me.

I'm pursuing a degree in criminal justice, and so this was a way for me to get in-hand experience.

If you're interested in wanting to move up, this is the place where you can really take leadership.

If you have ever considered having a career working for an organization that helps troubled youth get back on track, the Alabama Department of Youth Services may have a career opportunity for you.

The Department of Youth Services employs adults with various levels of education and experience.

It takes dedicated adults with many skills and talents to help change the path for our students.

DYS hires youth service workers, case managers, therapists, and counselors.

We even employ teachers and nurses.

Our students benefit from engaging with the staff who are committed to providing the help they need through mentoring, learning of skills, making better decisions and continuing their education so they can transition successfully into adulthood with personal goals, a vision, and hope.

At DYS, we consider this a Department of Second Chances.

The work is challenging, but the effort is worth it when you know that you have helped change the trajectory of a young person's life.

The things I love most about my job are the people that I get to work with on a daily basis.

The purpose behind our work, joy of seeing a project come together for the peopl of Alabama and to make a safer roadway for them to traverse.

I have good management.

My supervisor and the two employees under me, we just work cohesive together to where we are like glue, and everything just work flowily through our day-to-day work, here at after.

We rely on each other.

Everybody has their strengths, weaknesses.

It's basically whoever can get it done when they need to get done is who we go to.

Being here as ALDOT as a whole, there's a lot of opportunity here to offer people that specialize in different activities or different things because you might not be a developer.

You might want to be a materials in test.

You might want to go out there and survey different areas to deal buildings or even work on the roads.

It just all depends on your criteria that you would enjoy to do for the rest of your life as an employee with the ALDOT.

I actually started with the department fresh out of high school, so when I was 18, and now I'm 33, if that tells me anything.

So I've been here almost 15 years.

It's a great place to work.

I entered being the youngest in my bureau, and now far from being the youngest.

I've been here a long time, and it's just a great place to be.

I really enjoy it.

Team goes like a family.

It's good to have good people around you.

And once you get that bond, it's hard to break.

You have important jobs to do, but with the relationship that you make with your coworkers, it makes it a lot easier to be here from 8: 00 to 5: 00, five days a week.

It's not as much as a job aspect it's more about you do your job, but you're here with friends.

It makes it a lot easier.

I can count on them with everything.

They make my job easy.

It also makes it easy on me to have good relationships with other departments.

Being here for so long, it's easy to just pick up the phone and call Design Bureau or Roadway Design and say, Hey, what do you need?

We can start on this at this time.

My best benefit, and I tell everybody to this day, is the workplace balance.

It is due to, like I said earlier, I have the opportunity to be able to go and be able to interact with my kids as well as being an 8: 00 to 5: 00 employee as well.

Because being a mom and then trying to balance work life, I got it here at ALDOT.

I don't think I would be able to have the opportunity to have it anywhere else.

If you're interested in coming to work at ALDOT, go to the website, fill ou application, and come join us.

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.

What I do with the TANF and Jobs program is I help clients who are receiving cash assistance, commonly known as welfare.

They receive cash assistance, and my job is to help them achieve self-sufficiency through work placement or child support programs or anything like that.

I'm a program specialist.

I go into the daycares, I license them, and I also investigate daycares as well.

It's a great job.

I've been doing it for eight and a half years.

I love what I do.

What we do is provide benefits for our clients if they are eligible according to the F&S policies.

We get to help people, and that's what we enjoy most about our job is being able to make an impact on people's lives.

One of my favorite little quotes about Mr. Rogers is, Look for the helpers.

Look for the helpers.

The helpers are always helping.

That, I think, is the mindset you need when you come to work our DHR is be ready to help these people because these people are coming in in a lowly state.

They are sometimes at the lowest they can be and are asking for our help, and we need to be ready to help them.

What makes a great DHR employee is one that cares about people, have empathy, can relate to what's going on in people's lives.

You care about people, and you have to care about people in order to do this job.

When you have those success stories, when you actually have people come through this program and achieve success, it is very rewarding.

I've had clients who have overcome addictions.

I've had clients who have graduated college and moved on to very successful jobs.

Sometimes you get clients who just need very little, and some you get that you need to start from scratch with basic needs.

I've had refugees come through this program and be successful.

When you get those successes, it's very rewarding.

What we do here matters.

It's important.

We get to help people provide food for their families, and we enjoy that.

We wish that we could help everybody, but the people that we can make a difference in their lives, we appreciate that.

My coworkers, we are very team-oriented.

We help each other.

We're like a family here at DHR.

They're great.

We are happy people.

We work well together.

We make decisions together.

We come here every day and make a conscious effort to do the best that we can for the people in our community that we serve.

It's like an extended family.

I personally don't even live in this county and love my drive every day to come here, to come to work, because it's just one of those places where we all get along.

We're all here for the same purpose to help all those people, and we just have a great relationship.

I would advise someone not to be afraid to apply for jobs because you never know what happens.

They go by your experience s you just take a chance on DHR.

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.

The Department of Forensic Sciences is one of the nation's oldest forensic crime laboratory systems, founded in 1935.

Alabama is fortunate in that we're an independent forensic lab system, and we process items of evidence associated with any criminal act occurring within the boundaries of our state, from Muscle Shoals in the north to Mobile in the south, and from the Mississippi Line to the Georgia Line.

I love working for the Department of Forensic Sciences because it's an opportunity to collaborate with fellow scientists.

If I were to give someone advice who's seeking a job in the forensic science community, I would encourage someone to get involved, do an internship program.

Every day is an interview, and we have an excellent, very vibrant, exciting internship program.

We make it very engaging for them.

It's a mixture of hands-on laboratory work.

They have the opportunity to attend autopsies.

They're able to attend court.

They're able to observe testimony that we provide.

Going to court is where the rubber meets the road.

Everything we do here, from a criminal standpoint, has the possibility of making it into the court systems, and we will go and defend that type of work, our work in the court systems.

Probably the most recent case that I can think of is a case where, unfortunately, we had an individual who was committing sexual assaults with females, and he was able to go undetected for a period of time.

Alabama has a law that if you are arrested for a felony, you have to give a DNA sample.

And this individual was arrested for a felony for drug charges.

And through giving a DNA sample, we were able to provide a name through our testing, which then allowed his apprehension.

One of the things that I personally love the most, I'm a mom.

I have two children.

I have a husband I am the President of our PTO.

I have a lot of obligations outside of these walls, but working for the state allows me the opportunity to have a really good work-life balance.

I'm able to provide good insurance for my family.

I'm able to be with them on days off.

I'm able to accrue sick leave and paid time off.

And in some cases, you even have the option to have a flexible schedule.

So if the traditional 8:00 to 5:00 doesn't work for you, you can find a different way to fulfill your work hours.

I would encourage anyone who is seeking an opportunity in public service, who is a spirit of science, to look for opportunities in the Department of Forensic Sciences.

We have opportunities throughout the state, from Huntsville all the way down to Mobile.

If you're looking for a plac where you can demonstrate your passion for science, your passion for being part of the criminal justice system, the Department of Sciences is the place for you to be.

Everyday we go out to do inspections at retail establishments, sometimes to warehouses, and we make sure to protect the food safety for Albanians.

My day-to-day varies, but set twice a week, I'm going to go to the stock yards.

I cover two yards in the state.

I'll go and I'll sit and I record the market.

So as cattle come in the ring, we break them down based on size, frame size, their yield grade, and then we just record the prices and upload it for the producers to see.

Being in the field, I really get to see how we affect the producers in the area.

But getting to b in the stock yards every week, meet the producers, see the faces of the people that are raising the product that's feeding the state.

That's one of the most rewarding parts of this job.

I'm Dr. Heather Walz for the Alabama Veterinary Diagnostic System within the Department of Agriculture and Industries.

I really enjoy interacting with clients, learning what their needs are, trying to help them.

Usually, it's an animal mortality or mortalities.

They have a crisis, and we're trying to respond, find out the cause of the animal's death or deaths, and then help them tr to prevent that from happening again in the future, mainly by working with their veterinarian.

We're responsible fo enforcing Alabama pesticide laws as well as FIFRA, which is a federal laws for the pesticide use, pesticide sales.

I worked in retail sales for a farm for a long time.

I had inspectors coming in my store.

That's how I found out about the job.

There's jobs out there in agriculture with the department that you don't even exist.

So apply, get on the registries, get on the a website look.

I work with an amazing team.

I have an amazing boss, and this job also offers a lot of flexibility.

I come from a cattle background.

That's what my family does.

After graduating college, I knew I wanted to get back into the cattle industry.

Working with the department offers a sense of flexibility where I can go to work, do what I love.

I'm also working on my masters, so I can do that.

And then at the end of the day, I get to go home and tend to my own cattle.

I would say that college degrees are helpful for some of the positions.

The general classification here is microbiologist, but we also have several chemists in the labs.

Then also some of the people that really help out, too, are laboratory technicians.

A college degree is no required, and most of our work can be, is definitely learned.

We have a lot of training.

And so really someone's interest in working, they have some basic requirements for the state of personnel one year lab experience, but there are other ways to start with no experience.

It's super rewarding for m just because we get to protect Alabamians and their food supply.

We get to see those people every day.

When we over these counties in Alabama, we get to work right alongside all of our retail partners, and it's just a great job.

I enjoy it.

The most wonderful thing that I found about this job and the position that I do and what we do as preservation staff, the division I'm in in this agency, is getting to go acros the state, getting to meet new people, getting exposed to new areas in the state.

It's been really wonderful being able to travel and just to get to know things that I would be in my own little bubble, my own little rive region bubble, or whether it's where I'm from in the Gulf Coast bubble.

I get to see things in central Alabama, in North Alabama, West, and East Alabama, and they all have their own unique thing that they bring to the state.

And so it's really made me appreciate our state more.

When you work in a museum, it's interesting because you never know what's going to walk through the door.

And so people bring things from their own personal collections or sometimes say, I have this item at home.

You might be interested in this for your museum.

And we had someone who donated it actually a sword from the Civil War period that was captured at the Battle of Shiloh and given to Braxton Bragg, who at the end of the war gave it to a young boy who was six years old named Abram Martin Baldwin, and that sword came full circle back to us because he had left something in memory for his brother at one point in time for the parks that we oversee.

So people have things stored away in their family collections that may not seem that significant, but from a historical perspective, has a lot of significance towards our history and our state history.

We were able to share that with the public, which I think is wonderful.

I think my favorite thing is when we have out-of-state visitors that come to Alabama with an expectation of what the space will look like or what the people will look like and what they'll hear.

Then at the end, they are always surprised by what we have to offe and that it wasn't necessarily what they expected in a positive way.

In a sense, we provide a lot of customer service.

We provide a lot of information and knowledge to people.

We try to plug them into other programs, so making sure that you're always staying knowledgeable on either new technology or maybe a new contact that can help a constituent that calls us that's looking for assistance.

Always trying to be up on things like new grant programs that may be able to assist people, different programs in the state.

So making sure that you're really able to be able to speak with people and want to help them.

That's a big part of what we do.

State benefits are great.

The insurance is wonderful.

They have multiple insurance options, everything from health and dental to cancer and eye and vision.

So certainly those benefits are great.

They also have a retirement program, which is wonderful, and I would love to stay here until retirement.

I love the work that I do every single day.

Again, it's a new challenge, but that keeps it interesting for me.

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.