BHUBANESWAR: Engineers, PhD degree holders and even journalists were among thousands who appeared for the written examination for appointment to assistant section officer (ASO) posts, conducted by Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC), across the State on Saturday.
Such is the lure of government jobs that for 796 ASO posts in group-B of Odisha Secretariat Service under the Home department, a whopping 1.84 lakh candidates downloaded admit cards for the written examination that was conducted in three sittings on the day, according to the reports of OPSC.
Though many of them are already employed, they are pinning hopes on the security of government jobs - all the more after the Covid-19 pandemic impact on the private sector - and fixed work timings.
Swastika Choudhury, a software engineer with Infosys, Bengaluru for the last four years and currently working from home, appeared for the examination at Capital High School in the city. “For people like us in the IT sector, work from home has become even more taxing with no fixed timings or week offs. That is not the case with a government job which also comes with pension benefits,” said the 36-year-old engineer who earns over 50k a month.
Pradyumna Hial, also an engineer, said with the government pay scale being at par with private MNCs after the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission, he wishes to shift to a government job with fixed working hours. “I am also earning around `50k a month and the ASO job would more or less pay me the same. In the current market situation, a government job weighs over a private one because the former makes work-life balance easier. Besides, it is any day more secure than a private job after the pandemic,” said Hial, an alumnus of CET.
For some others, it is also about better pay. Sibani Mohanty, a private school teacher from Baripada and Ranjan Pradhan, a Berhampur-based journalist, appeared for the exam for a secure future. “The ASO post is any day more prestigious than what I am doing now,” said Sibani, a resident of Ward 3 under Baripada Municipality.
This time, what favoured a large number of aspirants was that the upper age limit of examinees was increased from 32 to 38 by the commission. The examination was held in around 480 test centres under 33 zones in the State. This time, the OPSC banned wristwatches during the test to check malpractice. Wall clocks were installed in all rooms of the exam centres.
(With inputs from Baripada, Berhampur)