Motivation

Everything starts with a motivation. Why go for government services?

• Out of altruism.

• Secured job, fair+meritocratic selection and fair+dependable+predictable salary.

• Fixed working hours.

• Side benefits like loans, insurance etc depending on the corporation you are working for.

• Inclusive representation for socially, economically and historically marginalized communities.

No job is good or bad. You need to weigh pros and cons of the type of jobs based on your position in life and career.

De-motivation

Why not go for government jobs?

• Deployed Location shifts continuously. Harder to meet with family.

• Lack of exponential career and financial growth.

• Job locked in: It is usually cumbersome to resign immediately from government jobs.

• Lack of creative and innovative work. (To be honest, private companies are not doing any innovation either. So maybe this does not hold true currently. But let’s be hopeful about the future :))

• Lower salary relatively for higher positions compared to private companies(highly debatable though as it is not necessarily true for most folks).

Who am I?

I have worked in private technology sector jobs. I have been preparing for government computer engineer job since the past five months.

Vacancy

Missing vacancy notices is very common in Nepal due to lack of centralized examination division. There are a couple of ways to be notified about latest vacancies.

First seek the Loksewa’s yearly calendar. It contains expected vacancy, exam, interview dates.

https://psc.gov.np/category/yearly_calendar.html

You can find all corporations names where you can apply in the above document.

Some of the notable corporations are:

Core Engineering/Tech Companies

Nepal Television
Nepal Telecom
Nepal Electricity Authority

Non-core Engineering/Tech companies

Nagarik Lagani Kosh(Citizens Investment Trust)
Nepal telecom Authority
Electricity Regulatory Commission
Nepal Bank Limited
Rastriya Banijya Bank 
ADBL
NRB
Nepal Oil Corporation
National Insurance Company Limited
Social Security Fund
SEBON
Nepal Re-insurance company limited
CDSC(meroshare owner company)
Nepal Insurance Authority
Gorkhapatra Corporation
Nepal Engineering Council
Employee Provident Fund(EPF)
KUKL
Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal
Nepal Airlines Corporation

Security sector

Nepal Army
Nepal Police
Armed Police Force
National Investigation Department

Education sector
Tribhuvan University
Pulchowk Engineering Campus and IOE constituent campuses (assistant professor obviously)

Officer level positions’ title that are open in these companies:

• Information Technology officer

• Computer officer

• Computer Engineer

• Assistant Director

• Database Administrator

• System Administrator

In some non-tech companies you might also find a 5th level position generally called as “Head IT Assistant” instead of Officer level positions.

The qualifications required varies. But in general a Computer Engineering Bachelors’ degree suffices for most of the officer level positions. Some banks might ask for master’s degree in IT or Engineering for officer level positions. For most non Engineer (i.e. Officer/DBA etc.), all IT streams can apply including BCA, BIT and Bsc.CSIT(Of course lol).

You can then visit these sites. They contain the vacancies, exam centers, exam dates etc. notices of various organizations.

https://psc.gov.np/category/recommended/all
https://psc.gov.np/category/sangathit-vacancies.html
https://psc.gov.np/category/sangathit-examinations.html
https://psc.gov.np/category/local-level-exam-center.html
https://psc.gov.np/category/sangathit-results.html
https://psc.gov.np/category/notice-advertisement/all
https://psc.gov.np/category/center/all
https://psc.gov.np/category/result/all

You could visit the career pages of specific organizations whose vacancy opening date is tentatively around. It would be extremely cumbersome and risky(because you could miss some updates).

I have created a telegram group where I have semi-automated sharing such updates.

Link to telegram group:

https://t.me/+T8NBlBFkQ8kwODFl

Syllabus

Syllabus for computer engineer and IT officer Loksewa positions at various corporations and nijamati are available in their respective websites. The syllabus is subject to change. But do not worry. It will not vary that much.

I have shared all the syllabus in the telegram group as well.

Thus, I highly recommend that you check syllabus updates time to time. I will share the overall syllabus subject structure here:

Common subjects:

• Computer Architecture / Computer Organization
• Operating System
• Computer Networks
• Data Structures & Algorithms
• Database Management System (DBMS)
• Software Engineering
• Programming (C / C++ / OOP / Java)
• Digital Logic / Digital Systems
• Microprocessor / Microcontroller / 8085 / 8086
• Cryptography & Network Security
• Emerging Technologies (AI, Big Data, Cloud, IoT)
• Management / Organization / Planning basics
• Numerical & Logical Reasoning (IQ tests for MCQ section)

Sporadic subjects:

These appear fewer in between but are of higher priority.

• Distributed Systems
• Advanced DBMS (Replication, Indexing, Query Optimization)
• Project Management (PERT, CPM, Monitoring)
• VHDL, Embedded Systems, PID Controller
• Theory of Computation (TOC – DFA, PDA, TM, NP)
• Compiler Design
• Computer Graphics
• Electrical / Electronics Fundamentals

previous year questions

The highly recommended way of tackling preparation for any competitive exam is by solving its previous year question papers. Unfortunately, as yet questions of Computer Engineering, IT officer are not available completely in public domain. I have heard that PSC, Kamalpokhari office where the question papers are located is planning to publish such question papers in PSC website itself. But since it is government work, it is not sure when they will complete it.

I have captured most of the previous year question papers from the office itself. And they are available in the Google Drive link provided here:

Link to file:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SJXYfpEnz32A2tDUOG7-JY9kja2Q3ICQ/view?usp=sharing

How to study

As you can see from the previous year questions, the questions being asked in Loksewa Computer Engineering, IT officer exams are not tough at all. But here is the catch which I hope you have recognized already.

There are too many subjects with too many contents in the Loksewa computer engineering, IT officer curriculum. The seats are limited. In most non-tech companies, the seats are limited to only one. So you are competing with many people for scarce resources.

To add, engineering concepts stack one upon another. So you have to study everything that follows a concept to certain level of understanding before trying to cram the important stuffs.

This is not true if your memorization skills are over the top.

The questions do not seem to follow a standard pattern. And they are very few so you cannot extrapolate accurately.

Preparation providing institutes

There are a couple of institutes providing classes for Loksewa computer engineer and IT officer. But their quality is said to be questionable by many people. I do not recommend joining any institutes for preparation. If you are extremely stubborn about joining one, make sure to get a huge discount.

Notes

I will be sharing my handwritten notes once they are ready to publish(for a small fee). However, I urge you do not depend on a single non-standard resource like notes of someone else to learn. Follow the reference textbooks, university slides etc. Think of notes as just one more resource for researching about topics.

Best books

The best books are as I said earlier, the standard textbooks. The topics are in the syllabi. And the possible questions and patterns are present in PYQs. if you still need some help, get any books that are available for Computer Engineer/IT Officer technical paper in Bhotahity bookshops.

Salary

The salary varies in corporations. It is provided below:

link to salaries

You can set your eye on the corporation you want to work for based on the benefits provided at each corporation. It is all about what you want out of the government job.

job+Loksewa

Many students start preparing for Loksewa along with a low paying job. It takes around 6 months to 1 year of full-time studies to complete the entire syllabus given rudimentary only knowledge. Most IT companies provide two days leaves. If you think you can manage that, go ahead. I feel that it is not manageable for many reasons. But I also started preparing along with a job. So you can start like that as well.

psychological tips

Eyes hurt a lot during any competitive exam preparation. Get proper sunlight. Eat nutrients rich food. And coffee!

Keep on contact with your friends.

Have backup plan ready.

Keep applying for private jobs once you are confident in your preparation.

Explore.

Be ready to face nosy relatives.