1. Prologue
2. Desk job or Field job?
   1. Assistants
      1. Assistants: Promotion opportunities
      2. CSS (Assistant in Central Secretariat Service)
      3. Assistant (CSS): Work Profile
      4. Work diversity: CSS vs Other assistants
      5. CSS vs Inspectors (Income Tax, Excise etc)
      6. Assistant in MEA: Work Profile
      7. MEA: General vs Cypher Assistant (Difference)
      8. Assistant in Railways
      9. Assistants: remaining
   2. Divisional Accountant
   3. Auditor & Accountants (Non-Interview)
   4. CGDA vs C&AG
   5. CGDA (defence) posting
   6. Auditor:Promotion (CGDA)
   7. Tax Assistants (TA)
   8. Tax Assistant: Posting and Promotion
   9. Upper Division clerk
3. Field jobs: (Inspectors)
   1. Tax authorities: CBDT vs CBEC
      1. Inspectors: Income Tax, Excise, Customs, Examiner
         1. ACR (Annual Confidential reports)
         2. Income Tax Inspector:Work Profile
         3. Income Tax inspector: Good or bad?
      2. Physical requirements (Indirect Taxes)
      3. Excise inspector vs Preventive Officer: Work Profile
      4. Preventive Officer vs Examiner: Work profile
      5. Assistant Enforcement Officer (AEO)
   2. CBI Sub-Inspector
   3. CBI: Physical requirement
   4. CBI Subinspector: Work profile
   5. Narcotics inspector/Subins.
   6. Postal inspector
4. By the way how to prepare SSC CGL exam?

Prologue

• Many aspirants have doubts regarding what to fill up in “Preference order” for the SSC-CGL job application?
• So, following information should help you get some idea.
• Please note: I’ve not written this article all by myself. Most of this stuff is copypasted from the inputs given by some serving officers and pagalguy members, including csl180, prince1 and others.
• If you want to add update /correction / elaboration regarding these jobs, please do post your inputs in comments at the bottom of this article.

Desk job or Field job?

Desk job	Field job
Assistants, Auditors, Accountants, Tax-assistants, upper division clerks.	Inspectors (income tax, excise, preventive officers, examiners), CBI, narcotics etc.
No physical standard (height, chest, weight)	In some of these jobs: Physical standards required. (given on page 20 of notification) click me to see SSC CGL 2013-notification.
The working hours of desk job are “fixed”. (in most cases, except Assistant (cypher). It’s like office to home, home to office. So if your ultimate aim is preparing for some other exam (UPSC/CAT etc) then these are the “right” jobs because of the “City –posting” (Delhi or some State HQ).	Field jobs involve travelling, carrying out raids, inspections, surveillance etc. Sometimes you might need to work in non-office hours or even Sundays.
Less than field job (at the initial level).	Social status, nuisance power of field job is higher compared of desk job. I mean, in terms of impressing your parents, siblings, friends, college-batchmates, relatives in your village and girlfriend and her parents.
Peace of mind. Office-to-home, home-to-office. Hardly any transfers. (except MEA assistant) comfortable for family and social life.	(some of these) Jobs involve stress, dealing with informants, power-brokers, pressure-tactics, backstabbing bastards (within your department). Almost all of these jobs involve transfer from one city to another. Therefore family/social life=little bit of trouble.
No uniform No weapons. No adventure.	Includes uniform (some jobs), weapons training Some adventure (raids etc) although nothing very “dangerous”. (For Dangerous stuff you’ve to apply for CDS or CAPF).

• So first decide-what do you want: Desk job or Field job?
• Second Question: do you want to permanently shift to Delhi or not? Because If you don’t want to shift to Delhi, then job of Assistant in CSS and various Central Ministries=useless for you.
• Similarly, if you don’t want to leave India, then MEA assistant =useless.

Now, we’ll see the Desk jobs, and in the later part of the article, we’ll see the Field jobs.

Assistants

They’re of two types

Central Secretariat services (CSS)

Other than CSS (e.g. Assistant in railways, Election Commission, coast guard etc.)

Assistants: Promotion opportunities

1. Assistant (you join here)
2. Section Officer (Group B Gazetted). To become SO, you have to pass departmental test, conducted by UPSC. If you don’t pass exam, you get promotion very late (after 10-12 years).
3. Under Secretary
4. Deputy Secretary
5. Joint Secretary.

CSS (Assistant in Central Secretariat Service)

Job code	Name	Salary
A	Assistant in Central Secretariat Service (CSS)	Pay Band –II f 9300-34800GP 4600

Assistant (CSS): Work Profile

• Work=files, files and files and then more files.
• But 3 hrs of work daily: from answering RTI of people to Cabinet note making to answering parliament questions to working on daily receipts
• It is like you’re given the project, and you made the dealing hand. Now report the problem in short about the project and tell your recommendations on what can be done.
• If your seniors like they will accept it or else they will tell their own decisions etc=this is CSS work.

Promotion speed: CSS vs other Assistants

• In CSS, the promotion from Assistant to Section Officer, you have vacancies like 200 , 250 etc
• In other places like MEA or railways you’ll have 5 ,10 etc.so promotions are faster in CSS.

Work diversity: CSS vs Other assistants

• If you become Assistant in say Railways, then you’re stuck in Railways forever.
• But CSS offers you wider variety of postings like in Ministry of consumer affairs, home, finance, education, civil aviation, law etc.
• Therefore, your scope and work-diversity is huge. (just like an IAS officer).

CSS vs Inspectors (Income Tax, Excise etc)

CSS (Desk Job)	Income Tax/Excise inspectors
Desk job	Field job.
Low	Work Pressure / stress is high
Good for preparing UPSC (because you’re in Delhi, the Mecca of UPSC preparation)	Less.
Low	You can earn more (via bribes), provided that you know your job, duties well, otherwise people (your own colleges and bosses) will stab you in the back and you’ll be suspended hahaha.
For those who want to enjoy family and social life, peace of mind, and are not obsessed with money.	Promotion, name, fame, money (but comes at the cost of social life)
Permanent posting in Delhi until you retire.	Transfers, deputation, field posting.
Once you get promoted to Under Secretary, you get free air-tickets during travel.	Not applicable. But you get free petrol, free mobile card etc in some jobs.

• So it should be clear to you that in Desk job: first preference = CSS (Job application code “A”).

Assistant in MEA: Work Profile

• It is one of the most sought Assistant post under SSC-CGL.
• Why? Because charm of foreign posting and many other lucrative facilities like children’s education, accommodation etc and a very handsome salary of more than 1 lakh per month (perhaps upto Rs 1,25,000).
• But here is the problem: in the foreign countries, the cost of living, is also high!
• For example $1500 is big amount when converted in Indian Rupees, but inside America, you can buy very few things.
• And one can be posted in countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Irak, Libya too.
• but nothing to fear on this count as while sending one to an other country on posting he is given a few choices for the needed postings and he is posted according to those choices preferably. If one chooses any of the countries mentioned he is given 50% more salary and his tenure there is counted as DOUBLE; means he has to serve there for one and a half year which is counted equal to three years.
• Let’s do comparison of these two assistants under MEA (Ministery of External affairs)

MEA: General vs Cypher Assistant (Difference)

MEA Assistant (General)	MEA Assistant (Cypher)
SSC-CGL-2013 job Application code “E”	Code “F”
General filing-reporting type work.	They have to do the task of coding and decoding in addition of some highly confidential language.
Less	Cypher Asst got more foreign posting than general Asst
Assistant (General) is supposed to be posted generally 3 years in India and 3 years in foreign; and like this throughout his tenure of service	whereas an Assistant (Cypher) is posted 3 years in India and 6 years in foreign; and like this
promotional avenues are better in General Asst. You can go upto level of Under Secretary.	Less chance.
No night shifts.	Cypher has night shifts because of time-zone difference between India and foreign country And it’s like u have to work for 6 days and then 2 days off. And 2 days will be night shift.

• One can get his first promotion after about 15-17 years if he will not clear departmental examination and after clearing departmental examination, it will take around 8 odd years.
• Verdict: if you originally wanted to be an IFS officer, but it did not work out, then perhaps this is the job you should try for.
• If you want to permanently stay in India, then don’t tick these job-codes (application code “E and F”)

Assistant in Railways

• Job Code is “D”
• Assistant in railways: good job ,you’ll get 1 pass for family ( to and fro) anywhere in India free and 3 passes for family (to and fro) in which u pay 1/3rd of amount
• all this for tier 2 AC ticket..then railway has its own railway homes all over India ..so you can stay there at a very cheap rate, if you using railway passes!

Railways	CSS
Always in Railways.	Posting in variety of department and ministries= life is not monotonous.
Posting in various cities/regional HQ for example Lucknow.	Always in Delhi till he retires.

Assistants: remaining

Job code	Name
B	Assistant Central Vigilance Commission
C	Assistant Intelligence Bureau
G	Armed forces Headquarters
H	Other Ministries/ Departments/Organisations (Grade pay 4600)
I	Other Ministries/ Departments/Organisations but gradepay is 4200.

• Please note: these may or may not involve Permanent Delhi posting.
• For example,Other organization >>Election Commission =always in Delhi.
• But other organization >>Coast guard=sometimes in Chennai (Eastern command) and sometimes Kolkata (North Eastern Command).
• To sumup, if you want “assistant” job, select A to I job codes first. But Internal choice (A,E,F… or E,F,A.. or whatever) that is as per your career-interest.

Moving to other desk jobs: Auditors and accountants

Divisional Accountant

Job Code	Name	Salary
Q	Divisional accountant (under CAG)	Group “C” Pay Band –II f 9300-34800. Grade Pay 4200

• Interview=yes
• Physical=no.
• Posting: Once you join as Divisional Accountant in a state, there is no chance of moving outside the state.
• They’ve have direct engagements with contractors, so they earn (bribes).
• Divisional Accountant works in Public works departments offices (PWDs) which is a state govt office.
• Though his payroll comes from State govt, he is always a central govt employee.
• PWDs need not necessarily be in cities, so you might get posted to any district in a state.
• Regarding the work, he basically acts as an auditor for all expenses and receipts that go through the PWD, meaning he has to sign off each and every voucher.
• Since he is Central govt representative in state dept he enjoys great power and respect in the office and works independently, doesn’t need to report to anyone but himself.
• In terms of pure salary: Divisional accountant is better than Auditors, jr.accountants.

Auditor & Accountants (Non-Interview)

• Interview is not done for these jobs. (but their salary is also lower compared to Divisional accountant.)
• Pay Band -I: f 5200-20200, Grade Pay 2800.
• Posting will be according to your state preference (+depending on merit)
• through SSC one can become auditor/accountant in two depts, CGDA & C&AG
• Abbreviations

C&AG	Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)
CGDA	Controller General of Defence Accounts
CGA	Controller General of Accounts.

Job codes for Auditors and Accountants

T	Auditor	C&AG
U	Auditor	CGDA
V	Auditor	C&AG
W	Accountant/Jr.Accountant	C&AG
X	Accountant/Jr.Accountant	CGA& Others
T	Auditor	C&AG

CGDA vs C&AG

CGDA	C&AG
deals with audit works of defence forces (in various offices around India).	central audit dept dealing with state govt audits
It comes under CAG so It also has posting in Delhi	Has offices in all states as well as Delhi
Salary (approx.): 27,000 Although salary of DA is less than Income Tax inspector.	Approx 21,000

• The selected candidates for the post of Auditors were allocated departments of C&AG and CGDA in round robin manner of first candidates going to C&AG,
• second to CGDA, third to C&AG and so on, until the vacancies of the department
• in the respective category are utilized.
• The rest of the candidates in that category have been assigned the department with left over vacancies.
• The same criteria have been used to allocate department of C&AG and CGA to the candidates selected for Jr. Accountants/Accountants.

CGDA (defence) posting

They get posting in only in these cities: click me to see the list of CGDA offices

Experience (of a serving officer in CGDA)

(I’m just copy-pasting this).

• Auditor is the best amongst all non-interview post.
• I have been working as a Senior auditor in dad dept.(min. of defence) since 5 years.
• Auditors are recruited under CAG and CGDA dept. although most vacancies are in CGDA
• in CGDA you will be appointed as an auditor in defence acctts.

Work profile of Auditor (CGDA)

• Initially u will get army/navy/airforce/ordnance factory command.
• You have to do the manual work like passing of bills,auditing pay bills of Staffs, accounting the factory production in factory command.
• it’s a very good post. You have to work 8 hours(officially) but u can manage.s
• Saturday-sunday off days.
• You will get ample time to spent with your family.
• if bachelor maximum time u can utilize for your higher preparation. (UPSC)
• salary wise it is a very good post. initially you will get minimum 21 thousand in A class cities including HRA

Auditor:Promotion (CGDA)

• You will get automatically promoted to Senior Auditor (grade pay 4200) in 3 years .
• You will get a chance to sit for deptmental SAS exam for the ppst of AAO (Gazette post) after completion of 2 years.
• Promotion wise its a good dept. over all i have enjoyed thoroughly as an Auditor.
• so i will recommend each and every one(those who got selected in non interview post category) to give auditor as his first preference.

(end of copy paste).
Ok so far we saw Desk Jobs>>Assistant, Auditors, Accountants.
Now next Desk Job

Tax Assistants (TA)

Job code	Tax assistant in
Z	CBDT (Direct tax)
@	CBEC (Excise and Customs)

• Both are Group “C” Pay Band -I: f 5200-20200 (grade pay: 2400)
• Interview=no
• physical=no
• Data-entry test=yes.

Tax Assistant: Posting and Promotion

• Promotion : after promotion you rise to inspector level, and then to officer level.
• The inspector level is the same as the one people get through CGL (direct inspect in Income tax or Excise department)
• So joining as TA, you begin at one step lower.
• Promotion wise, CBDT (direct tax) is far better than CBEC.
• Both of these are transferable jobs. when you become a senior, you are automatically transferred to your home town for convenience.

Upper Division clerk

Y

Upper division clerkCentral Govt. Offices/Ministries other than CSCS cadres

Pay Band -I: f 5200-20200

• (Mostly) Delhi posting. He gets transferred from one ministry to another.
• Promotion : Upper Division clerk-> Assistant (generally after 5-7 years)
• Assistant>to>Section officer.

Ok this concludes discussion on “Desk Jobs”.
Now moving to Field jobs: Inspectors in Income Tax, Excise, CBI, Narcotics etc.

Field jobs: (Inspectors)

• I classify them under : Tax and Non-Tax
• Tax means Direct (Income tax) and indirect tax.(customs and Excise)
• Non tax means: CBI, narcotics and postal Department.

Let’s start with Tax inspectors

Tax authorities: CBDT vs CBEC

First understand the difference

Direct tax	Levied on your income and property. Income tax, corporate tax, capital gains tax are examples of Direct tax. Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) deals with it.
Indirect tax	Levied on goods and services. Service tax, custom-excise are examples of Indirect tax. Central Board of Excise duty (CBEC) deals with it. Note: Sales tax is also an indirect tax, but State Governments look after it.

Inspectors: Income Tax, Excise, Customs, Examiner

Organization	Direct tax (CBDT)	Indirect Tax (CBEC)
Inspector	Income Tax Inspector	Excise inspector	Preventive officer (Custom officer)	Examiner
Application Job code	J	K	L	M
Group	C	B	B	B
Salary	Pay Band –II f 9300-34800 GP: 4600
Physical test	NO	Yes	Yes	Yes
Uniform	No	Yes (Khakhi) but optional.	Yes (White) Always have to wear.	NO
First promotion:Group B Gazetted*	Income Tax officer (ITO)	Superintendent	Superintendent of Customs	Appraiser
2nd Promotion Group A*(IRS)	Assistant Commissioner	Assistant Commissioner	Assistant commissioner	Assistant commissioner
subsequent promotions:	Deputy Commissioner. then Joint Commissioner > Addl. Commissioner > Commissioner	Deputy Commissioner	Superintendent of Customs	Deputy Commissioner then Joint Commissioner > Addl. Commissioner > Commissioner

*notes on promotion

1. You’ve to pass departmental exam to get promotion but it is for “screening”, otherwise promotion is actually given based on your zonal seniority.
2. In Income Tax and Excise, initial years= you get posting only in the given zone. But once you get the “group-A” promotion that is Assistant Commissioner= you can be posted all india.
3. Because those Group A jobs are just same like direct recruitment via UPSC civil service exam.
4. According to All India Association of Central Excise Officers, the people joining in Income tax (CBDT) and Examiner (CBEC) get more promotions (6-7!) while Excise inspectors get barely 1-2 promotions, despite joining in the same year.
5. Qualification for an ITI to get promoted to ITO is 3 years, though seniority also plays a major role in promotions. So basically it takes atleast 4-6 years to get promoted to ITO(considering the fact that one clears departmental exam in time), depending on the zone. (input by Rahul, CGL 2010).

Now let’s check the work profile of individual inspectors under Tax authorities

Income Tax Inspector:Work Profile

He can be posted in one of the following two areas (transferable on cyclic basis)

Assessment of tax	Non assessment
He has to do assessment of income tax to be imposed on an individual, partnership firm, company etc; He has and refund of it in case someone has deposited in excess. He also has to see the work related to TAX DEDUCTION AT SOURCE (TDS) besides being accompanying a raid team.	An Income tax Inspector on non-assessment seat generally has to do do clerical work though he too could be asked to accompany a raid team.
He is part of the raiding party.	No.

• He is entitled for 30 liter of petrol if posted on assessment seat.
• He also gets a SIM from the department on which all STD calls on every type of BSNL/MTNL phone are free; and 400 minutes on other phones whether STD or LOCAL are free for every month.
• This SIM is provided to every ITI irrespective of the seat he is posted at.

Income Tax inspector: Good or bad?

Merit	Demerits
public dealing & regards good promotion opportunity to prove your talent good pay & other benefits good workplace and environment	vulnerable post involving risks of making enemies.. Post is under strict vigilance by CVC. Lots of departmental jealousy over coveted postings (=have to be alert of the backstabbing bastards) departmental complains from colleagues and public can get you in trouble very easily. too much hardwork & treachery to remain in importance.

Now let’s talk about the inspectors associated with indirect taxes viz. excise inspector, prevention officer and examiner.

Physical requirements (Indirect Taxes)

Following are the requirements for Central Excise/Examiner/Preventive Officer/Inspector & Sub-Inspector In Central Bureau of Narcotics.

Gender	Male	Female
Height	157.5cm	152 cms
Weight	NA	48kg minimum
Chest	81 cm fully expanded	NA
Walking	1600 metres in 15 minutes	1 Km. in 20 minutes
Cycling	8 Kms. In 30 minutes	3 km in 25 mins.

Height relaxation

In case of Garwalis, Assamese, Gorkhas and ST candidates.

Male	Female
Height relaxable by 5 cms.	Height relaxable by 2.5 cms.Weight by 2 Kgs.

Ok now let’s check the work profiles

Excise inspector vs Preventive Officer: Work Profile

Excise & Service Tax	Customs (Preventive Officer)
You have certain number of factory units or business entities under you. Your job is to scrutinize records to verify that the correct amount of the tax has been paid (according to production of particular goods). have some control over the production, money making capacity of community industrialist, business men, etc. your area of working is defined. Even in the Customs Intelligence Agency like DRI, the most of the personnel belong to Central Excise. Thus, the Central Excise category officers have multi-skilled expertise	for those wanting an adventurous jobs, area of work is very broadly defined. in special cases you can also go out of your area also to nab a culprit, which gives u some more power than CE excise, ServiceTax or an Income Tax Inspector. Its a kind of job of both collecting intelligence as well as prevention- be prepared to work day and night, far away from your home.
sometimes they conduct raids etc but not so adventurous or risky.	Customs always surrounded by enemies.: on one direction there are smugglers/culprits and on the other hand are unsatisfied colleagues trying to ruin your hardwork by intruding into your information, network and assignments.(=backstabbing bastards)

Preventive Officer vs Examiner: Work profile

	Preventive officer	Examiner
Uniform	white	No.
Work	It Is more about intelligence gathering and raids. Checking boats, cargos, containers coming from foreign ports. auction and disposal of confiscated goods. a preventive officer also acts as a facilitator of trade and commerce and tourism.	examine the goods imported or to be exported and assessing duty on that.

• These are all “Tax” officers.(direct or indirect).
• There is one more officer associated with taxation: Assistant Enforcement officer (AEO). But he doesn’t fall under CBDT or CBEC. He is under Directorate of Enforcement, Department of Revenue.
• Enforcement directorate basically looks into 1) Moneylaundering 2)FERA, FEMA (Foreign exchange)

Assistant Enforcement Officer (AEO)

• If posted in the field, he carries out regular inspector type of work, viz.

1. prevention of money laundering,
2. to conduct searches of suspected persons, conveyances and premises
3. seize incriminating materials (including Indian and foreign currencies involved),
4. to arrest and prosecute the person suspected to be involved in the act of money laundering, etc.

Assistant Enforcement Officer: Posting

10 zonal offices	11 sub-zonal offices
Headed by Joint Director	By Deputy director
Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Mumbai	Bhubaneswar, Calicut, Guwahati, Indore, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Madurai, Nagpur, Patna, Srinagar and Varanasi

Now let’s talk about non-tax inspectors.

CBI Sub-Inspector

Job code	Name	Pay
O	CBI sub-inspector (group C)	Pay Band –II f 9300-34800GP 4200

• interview=yes
• physical=yes

CBI: Physical requirement

Height	For men – 165 cms. For women – 150 cms. Height relaxable for Hillsmen and Tribals : 5 cms.
Chest	76 cms. with expansion (There shall be no such requirement in case of female candidates)
Vision	Eye-sight (with or without glasses) Distant vision : 6/6 in one and 6/9 in the other eye. Near vision 0.6 in one eye and 0.8 in other eye.

No physical test (like running, cycling carried out, unlike those indirect tax inspector jobs).

CBI Subinspector: Work profile

• Life in CBI is stressful due to heavy workload and deadlines there.
• Training duration is 32 weeks involving physical training and training on criminal and anti-corruption laws. During the training the daily physical activity includes 2 km run, PT, Drill in the morning and Games/Unarmed Combat Course in the evening.
• It is not a 24 x 7 job; but sometimes the work streches beyond the usual working hours i.e. sometimes one has to work till 8 or 9 pm. Usually on Saturdays, if the workload is more, the work goes on as usual; though Sundays are spared.
• Also in some branches like Special Crime etc, the job involves a fair bit of travelling especially in the starting years.
• The nature and hours of work also differs from branch to branch and place to place. Some branches have less workload and so the personnel can take it easy.
• No uniform required.
• Sub Inspectors in CBI or for that matter any rank in CBI does not possess revolver/pistol.
• In a very few cases, when a search is to be carried out in some dangerous places, weapons are issued to the staff.

Narcotics inspector/Subins.

Central Bureau of Narcotics=CBN

Job code	Name	Pay
S	Inspector	Pay Band –II f 9300-34800GP 4200
#	Subinspector	Pay Band -I: f 5200-20200, GP=2400.

• Mrunal edit: still searching for job profile, posting, promotion etc. if you’ve information, kindly post it in comments.

Postal inspector

• Well this doesn’t really count as “field job” because Field job=social status and nuisance power- unfortunately postal inspector gets neither.

Job code	Name	Pay
O	Inspector of Posts (group B)	Pay Band –II f 9300-34800, GP-4200

• Inspector of posts is there with every postal division.
• There must be 2 or more divisions in district.
• Presently the Postal inspector must go to canvass people for getting Postal Life Insurance and also they have to acquire a huge sum for the department.
• The Department of Posts has given instructions to all circles to enhance their growth by 20 percent- All such burden comes on Postal inspector.

By the way how to prepare SSC CGL exam?

Booklist, strategy, topicwise analysis of last three years, cutoffs everything given in following articles:

General Awareness Tier I	Click me
Maths / Quantitative Aptitude for Tier I and II	Click me
Reasoning / General Intelligence for Tier I	Click me
English Grammar, Vocabulary, Comprehension for Tier I and II	Click me
Cut off marks of 2011 and 2012	Click me