How to Transfer Within State Civil Service
To transfer within your department or to another department, you must seek out vacancies
and compete for them.
A department may decide to accept applications only from its own staff, but it is
not obligated to give them preference. You may be competing against other State
employees seeking transfers or training and development assignments, former State
employees seeking to reinstate, and persons on examination lists.
During budget cuts, vacancies may have to be filled by someone who is about to be
laid off or who is on a reemployment list.
Location of Vacancies
Departmental personnel offices receive job vacancy announcements from other departments
and should post them where all employees can see them.
You can use the Job Vacancy Data Base on this home page under search for a vacancy.
It will allow you to search for vacancies by class title, department, and location.
You may also contact the personnel offices of departments in which you would like
to work. For information about State offices in other areas, you can look in the
State Telephone Directory
or local telephone directories; there is no central list of State offices by geographic location.
Time Off For Interviews
If you are being interviewed from an eligible list or are taking a State examination,
you are entitled to Administrative Time Off, but you must give your immediate supervisor
at least two days' notice.
If you are seeking a transfer, you may be required to use your vacation.
Giving Notice
After you have accepted a new job, you and your supervisor negotiate the amount
of time needed to wrap up your pending assignments, but the department can hold
you for up to 30 days. You cannot circumvent this restriction by resigning and reinstating
to the other department. If you try to reinstate within 30 days of resigning, you
must obtain the consent of the department from which you resigned.
Probation
Probationers: You are allowed to transfer to another department even if you are
on probation in your first State job, but you will have to begin probation again.
Also, you will not have a right of return to the first department should you fail
probation in your new department. Departments may establish a minimum period an
employee must be in an assignment before being eligible for internal transfers.
New Probation: If you transfer to a different department, even in the same class,
you can be required to serve a new probation. While you are on probation, you may
apply for promotional examinations for both your old department and your new one.
Transferring List Eligibility
Transferring your eligibility from one promotional list to another is possible;
but depending upon the circumstances, you may not be permitted to do so. The final
decision is made by the department where you wish to transfer your eligibility.
Sick Leave, Vacation, CTO
Sick leave and vacation credits are always transferred, but Compensating Time Off
(CTO) is not.
Seniority
The SENIORITY CREDIT you have earned for layoff purposes MAY BE LOST if you transfer
to a classification that has a collective bargaining agreement restricting seniority
to time served in a particular bargaining unit. If the new department undergoes
a reduction in force, you may be the first to be laid off regardless of your previous
State service. Therefore, it is essential that you determine what the status of
your seniority will be before you transfer to a new department. This information
can only be obtained from the personnel office of the prospective new department.
Relocation Expenses
The State will pay relocation expenses for involuntary transfers or appointments
from promotional lists between offices more than 35 miles apart. The location of
your residence is not considered.
Reinstatement From Voluntary Demotion
If you take a voluntary demotion for personal reasons, you may apply for vacancies
in the higher class. It is not necessary to take the examination again.
To Another Class
If you find an interesting vacancy in another class at about the same level as yours
and that your knowledge, skills, and ability qualify you for - you may not have
to take the examination. This process applies to current employees wishing to transfer
and to former employees wishing to reinstate.
Under State Personnel Board Rules 430-433, you may transfer from one job class to
another if the levels of duties, responsibility, and salary of the two classes are
substantially the same and the classes are not in the same series. It is not necessary
to meet the education and experience requirements; but you must have any license,
certificate, credential, etc. The transfer must not constitute a promotion, and
the State may establish policy to limit transfer to certain classes.
Salaries: "Substantially the same salary" means that the maximum salary
of the highest paying class you were permanently appointed to from an eligible list
and the maximum salary of the other class are no further apart than two salary steps
minus $1. To determine the maximum salary of a class to which you may transfer:
(1) Multiply the top step of your current class by 1.05; (2) round off to a whole
number; (3) multiply that number by 1.05; (4) round off to a whole number; and (5)
subtract $1. To be sure you are comparing the top salary rates, not your own salary,
check the "State of California Civil Service Pay Scales." If either class
has Alternate Ranges, use the lowest range unless there is a 21 in the Footnotes
column. For classes with Footnote 21, treat each Range as a separate class.
Duties and Responsibilities: The hiring department makes the final decision about
what is "substantially the same."
Competing: The greater change you seek, the greater challenge you face. You will
be competing against applicants who were successful in a job-related examination
or who are already in that job class.
Other State Jobs
The staffs of the Supreme Court, the Appellate Courts, the Legislature, the University
of California, and the State Universities are NOT in the civil service. State Personnel
Board transfer policies do not apply. You will be an "open hire." If you
later reinstate to State service, you will be considered an "open hire."
More Information
We answered the most frequently asked questions about transferring within State
civil service. If you still have questions, contact your personnel office.
