There are so many jobs at water agencies. It is amazing the opportunities available. You have all the same departments other organizations have. You have customer service, information technology, finance, human resources, administration, and operations. The operations department hopefully is straightforward since that is where most of the field construction jobs lie. I am going to focus on roles outside this department.
Customer service is a great department to start in since it also has entry level roles. There are jobs you could find that require little to no experience. They also won’t require any certifications. The only requirement is high school diploma or equivalent. By applying to these roles, you open the door for yourself. There are people that have started in this department and have been able to move to billing, accounting, and public affairs. There have also been people that use it as a steppingstone to move to operation jobs. It is definitely a great role to consider if you are unsure how to start.
The other roles in human resources, information technology, finance, and administration will require more education and experience. A great majority of roles in human resources and information technology will need you to have a degree. This does include entry level roles. You probably could find some roles in finance that may not need degrees. Those roles might include similar customer service jobs. The billing jobs are the roles that may not need the degree. However, these roles usually need more technical people. That means that they ask for more experience because they know they need someone that could understand processes and systems. The administration department could also mean the executive department. That means that most roles will require a lot of education and experience. The good news is that these executives sometimes need someone to help with tedious tasks. That means that they do technically have entry level roles. The bad news is that the amount of experience needed is going to be higher.
As always, try to focus on getting into the industry. If you work hard, opportunities in other roles will pop up.