Government career options by field: clerk, peon, courts, doctors, nurses, municipal bodies and more

How to use this page

People usually start from a kind of work, not from an exam: 'I want an office job', 'I am a nurse', 'something in the court'. This page maps those to actual posts. Where a post is profiled on this site, the link takes you to its pay, age limit, qualification and a description of the working day. Where it is not profiled yet, the note tells you who recruits and what to check.

A contented working life depends less on the pay level than on fit: desk or field, fixed hours or shifts, near home or far away. Read the 'typical day' and 'cons' on each post before choosing what to prepare for.

Peon, attendant and other support jobs (Class 8 to 10)

Support posts carry files, keep offices running and do manual work. In the central government they are called Multi-Tasking Staff; in the railways, Level 1 or 'Group D'; in courts, Peon or Hamal.

Peon and Hamal posts in the Bombay High Court and the district courts are filled through the High Court's own advertisements. Municipal corporations and state departments advertise their Class IV posts separately, usually district by district.

Clerk and office jobs

Clerical posts exist in every department and are the largest group of government jobs. The work is files, registers, typing and counter service; hours are fixed and transfers are limited.

Courts

Court staff are recruited by the High Court of each state, not by the state's public service commission. In Maharashtra the Bombay High Court advertises clerk, stenographer, translator and peon posts for itself, and runs a centralised recruitment for junior clerks, stenographers and peons of the district courts. Judges of the lower courts are selected through the state judicial service examination, which needs a law degree. The Supreme Court recruits its own Junior Court Assistants.

Revenue and village administration

These are the posts that keep land records and run local administration. They suit people who want to work in their own district and deal with the public.

Postal

Postman, Mail Guard and postal MTS posts are now filled mainly from serving Gramin Dak Sevaks and staff through departmental examinations, so GDS is the usual way in.

Doctors

MBBS graduates enter central service through the UPSC Combined Medical Services exam. State health departments and municipal corporations recruit medical officers separately; many of those advertisements are for contract posts under the National Health Mission on a fixed monthly amount, which is very different from a regular post on a pay scale. Always check which one an advertisement offers.

Nurses and hospital staff

In Maharashtra, staff nurses and technicians for government medical colleges are recruited by the Directorate of Medical Education and Research, and those for district hospitals by the Public Health Department. Registration with the state nursing council is required.

Police and uniformed services

Teachers

Engineers and technical jobs

Diplomats and ambassadors

There is no direct recruitment to the post of Ambassador. Ambassadors are senior officers of the Indian Foreign Service, which you enter through the UPSC Civil Services Examination; it typically takes two decades or more of service to head a mission. Support staff in embassies come from the Foreign Ministry's own cadre, filled through SSC.

Municipal corporations and state bodies (BMC, MHADA, CIDCO, BEST, ST)

These are often called semi-government jobs. Each body is a separate employer that issues its own advertisement on its own website, usually conducts the test through an agency such as IBPS or TCS, and pays on Maharashtra state scales or its own. There is no common exam, and recruitment is occasional, not yearly.

We have not written full profiles for these posts yet, because we could not read their advertisements well enough to confirm pay, age and qualification. Do not rely on coaching sites for those figures; open the advertisement on the body's own website.

Banks, insurance and regulators