Secretary to the Director, Department of Aging #08180 O.C

FEE REQUIRED: The State Civil Service Law requires our office to collect a processing fee from each applicant. The amount of the fee is ten dollars ($10) per applicant for Each examination applied for, payable at the time of filing of the application form, by check (personal or certified) or money order, payable to the "Cattaraugus County Treasurer". Cash Will Not Be Accepted. Applicants whose personal checks are returned for insufficient funds will not be considered as candidates. Applicants must record the Examination Number(s) and Title(s) on their checks. Refunds of fees will not be issued to applicants who are disqualified for not meeting the minimum qualifications for admittance to the examination or who do not appear for testing on the scheduled test date. Therefore, Do Not Apply for an examination if you are not sure that you meet the minimum qualifications. Application Fees shall be waived for candidates that are unemployed and primarily responsible for the support of a household or are receiving public assistance. Please contact this office for an Application Fee Waiver Request and Certification Form.

RESIDENCY: Preference in appointment may be given to successful candidates who have been, at the time of examination and for at least one month prior thereto, a resident of Cattaraugus County.

DUTIES: This work is distinguished by the fact that responsibility is involved for independently performing complex clerical operations and for relieving the Director, Department of Aging of administrative details by arranging conferences for and relieving of contacts which should properly be made with subordinate officials. The work calls for the frequent exercise of independent judgement in giving out information regarding department policies and practices, and in planning the routine of the office. The correspondence duties of theses employees are distinguished by the fact that most letters and releases of a routine, recurring nature are composed personally with correspondence being dictated only when new problems arise. The work is performed under general supervision, receiving detailed instructions only upon work where policies have not been determined. Only unusually important or complicated assignments are checked in detail upon completion. Supervision may be exercised over the work of clerical assistants. Employees in this class have more public contact assignments involving agency wide policies than is characteristic of positions allocated to the class of Senior Stenographer. A Secretary to the Director, Department of Aging does related work as required.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: Graduation from high school or possession of a high school equivalency diploma and three years of clerical office experience.-*

*-NOTE: Study at a regionally accredited or New York State registered college or institute may be substituted for no more than two years of experience. 30 credit hours=1 year experience.

Subject of Examination: This examination will consist of a written test as described below. Candidates must also qualify in a performance test in keyboarding to be held at a later date.

• SUBJECT OF WRITTEN TEST designed to test for knowledges, skills, and/or abilities in such areas as:
  • Spelling These questions test the ability to spell words that are used in written business communications.
  • Grammar, Usage, Punctuation The grammar and usage questions test for the ability to apply the basic rules of grammar and usage. The punctuation questions test for a knowledge of the correct placement of punctuation marks in sentences.
  • Keyboarding Practices These questions test for a knowledge of preferred practices in such areas as letter format, capitalization, hyphenation, plurals, possessives, word division, word and figure style for numbers, and common proofreading marks. In addition, you will be given a passage to proofread and asked questions about how to correct the errors in the passage.
  • Office Record Keeping These questions evaluate your ability to perform common office record-keeping tasks. The test consists of two or more “sets” of questions, each set concerning a different problem. Typical record-keeping problems might involve the organization or collation of data from several sources; scheduling; maintaining a record system using running balances; or completion of a table summarizing data using totals, subtotals, averages and percents.
  • Office Practices These questions test for a knowledge of generally agreed-upon practices governing the handling of situations which stenographers, typists, and secretaries encounter in their work, as well as a knowledge of efficient and effective methods used to accomplish office tasks. The questions will cover such topics as planning work flow; setting priorities; dealing effectively with staff, visitors, and callers; filing and retrieving information; safeguarding confidentiality; using office equipment; and making procedural decisions and recommendations which contribute to a well-managed office.

  Candidates are permitted to use quiet, hand-held, solar or battery powered calculators. Devices with typewriter keyboards, spell checkers, personal digital assistants, address books, language translators, dictionaries or any similar devices are prohibited.

• Keyboarding PERFORMANCE EXAMINATION-Keyboarding Performance REQUIRED.

  The keyboarding test is rated on a pass/fail basis. No extra credit is given in any examination for typing with speed or accuracy above the minimum acceptable level. Examination ranking is based solely on the written test. The keyboarding test will consist of a test of accuracy and speed of typing at a minimum acceptable rate of thirty-five (35) words per minute. The test will be administered on a computer keyboard. No knowledge of computer operation or any specific software is required. Detailed instructions will be provided to you before you take the test.

  Candidates are given a brief practice session. The test involves typing a straight copy of a passage from the test booklet for five minutes at the minimum words-per-minute rate with at least 96% accuracy. Candidates will receive their scores immediately when the test is finished; one typing retest is permitted, if necessary.

  Use of Copyholder: The use of “Line-a-Time”, “Error-No”, or any other copy holder is permitted for the typing performance test. Candidates who use these devices must provide their own.

  WAIVING THE Keyboarding PERFORMANCE TEST: The keyboarding test will be waived for candidates serving permanently or contingent permanently in a competitive class civil service position which requires a typing speed at or above the typing speed required for this examination. The performance test may also be waived, if when applying for the examination, you provide proof that, within the last four years, you have been successful on a performance test, which must have been administered by the NYS Department of Labor Job Service, NYS Department of Civil Service, or any New York State municipal or local civil service agency, at the rate of at least thirty-five (35) words per minute corrected. The waiver must contain the candidate's name, social security number, the number of words typed, both corrected and uncorrected, and the date of examination.

PARTICIPATION IN MULTIPLE EXAMINATIONS: If you have applied for any other civil service examination to be given on the same test date for employment with New York State or any other local government jurisdiction excluding New York City, you must make arrangements to take all the examination at one test site.

If you have applied for both State and local government examinations, you must make arrangements to take all your examinations at the State examination center by calling (518) 474-6470 in the Albany area or toll free at 1-8777-697-5627 (press 2, then press 1), no later than two weeks before the test date.

If you have applied for another local government examination with another local civil service agency, call or write each civil service agency to make arrangements. You must make your request for test arrangements no later than two weeks before the date of the examinations. You must notify all government civil service agencies with whom you have filed an application of the test site at which you wish to take your examination.

SATURDAY SABBATH OBSERVERS - HANDICAPPED PERSONS: If special arrangements for testing are required, please indicate this on your application(s).

CANDIDATES PLEASE NOTE: Your application for this test is part of the examination process. Applications must be completely filled out with all pertinent information stated. The Commission does not refer to other applications on file for additional information. Applications which do not show training and/or experience to meet the minimum qualifications will be disapproved. Vagueness and ambiguity will not be resolved in your favor.

VETERANS: Disabled and non-disabled war veterans who are eligible for additional credits must submit an application for veterans' credits. Candidates who wish to claim veterans' credits on an examination should request an application and information sheet from the Cattaraugus County Civil Service Commission. Veterans' application forms will also be available upon request at the examination center. The completed forms must be received before the eligible list for the examination is established in order to utilize additional credits.

Effective January 1, 1998, the State Constitution was amended to permit a candidate currently in the armed forces to apply for and be conditionally granted veteran's credit in examinations. Any candidate who applies for such credit must provide proof of military status to receive the conditional credit. No credit may be granted after the establishment of the list. It is the responsibility of the candidate to provide appropriate documentary proof indicating that the service was in time of war, as defined in Section 85 of Civil Service Law, and that the candidate received an honorable discharge or was released under honorable conditions in order to be certified at a score including veteran's credits.

In conformance with Section 85-a of the Civil Service Law, children of firefighters and police officers killed in the line of duty shall be entitled to receive an additional ten points in a competitive examination for original appointment in the same municipality in which his or her parent has served. If you are qualified to participate in this examination and are a child of a firefighter or police officer killed in the line of duty in this municipality, please inform this office of this matter when you submit your application for examination. A candidate claiming such credit has a minimum of two months from the application deadline to provide the necessary documentation to verify additional credit eligibility. However, no credit may be added after the eligible list has been established.