I know I’m qualified, and my local post office REALLY wants me to work with them. And I was even selected as an RCA last time, but the only reason I didn’t take the job is because I didn’t have a minivan. (I have a car, not a minivan).
However, even though the LOCAL post office told me that I would be a great fit for the ARC position, the HR in Washington DC denied my application and I didn’t even get an email notifying me about it.
So I sent another application, and I decided to call HR in Washington DC. They seem kinda rude, and they flat out told me, “Hiring you is not their descision to make.”, which seems like BS to me because the LOCAL post office knows all about me, and the people in Washington DC know NOTHING about me.
What’s the secret? How do I penetrate this HR Bureaucracy?
I worked there twenty years ago, so things may have changed. But back then, you had to take a civil service exam.
They’d do them 3 or 4 times a year, usually on a Saturday at the nearest big city. On the exam, you demonstrate your ability to read house numbers, understand traffic laws, and in general not be a complete idiot. Then you pick your top three post offices you’d want to work out of.
When one of those offices has an opening (which can take months), they interview candidates starting with the highest-scoring people who took the exam and working their way down until the local manager finds a good fit.
Go onto USPS and look for the job postings.
When you apply for a job make sure you complete every thing the application asks for. if the application asks for a document supply it. If you don’t your application is thrown out.
If they ask for the same thing multiple times, provide it.
Talk to the people who said you’d be a good fit.
They might not make hiring decisions, but they might help you change your resume to what the people in DC are looking for.
Would I actually be able to go into the Employee’s Only Office? Would they actually have enough time to help me with my resume?
Why would you go in there?
Are these people you know who legitimately think you’d be a good fit?
I had assumed you knew them and they would help you. But from this comment it seems you may not actually know them.
They’re 100% not going to take you into any sort of back office and sit down to help you while on the clock regardless.
But if you actually know them and they’re actually saying you’d be good at it and should apply, then asking if they can take a look at your resume and give you some advice is a pretty normal ask for friends.
If you don’t know them, then Google what kind of resume the Post Office wants yourself.
Are you able to attach a reference from the local manager in your application? Can you attach a cover letter?
If you see the listing, can you basically paraphrase each qualification and/or key duty and tie it to your experience on your resumé? I don’t know what ARC role is but for example, “Sorted 100s of files per day as a Mytown Public Library volunteer.”
I do not know the internals as far as desired, but USPS was developed to be completely self-reliant, as in no funds should be extracted or provided to/from any government’s budget. Massively oversimplifying here, this means that managers are incentivised to push workers they do have, and avoid hiring new workers where extra aid is needed. Throw in a burecracy that does incentivize lower performing carriers to be promoted, and now there’s a a management issue.
For those looking to get into the postal service, the crappy management is a hurdle to deal with, and the hiring procedure is a manifestation of that.
Not to stray away from it, as some people enjoy it thoroughly, but USPS tends to be a very finicky place to work at. It often doesn’t lead into career growth, the workplace can get bogged by bad management, and the phrase “Going Postal” happened enough to become a common concept.
Got any other career paths you can reccomend me just in case working for delivery is impossible. I REALLY enjoy making deliveries and doing special errands.
Get your CDL and get a job doing local business deliveries. Or do long haul trucking, because I believe there’s somewhat of a shortage.
FedEx, dominos
In addition to FecEx and Dominos, there’s other restaurants, Amazon, UPS, newer Chinese-owned final-mile carriers, Uber including Eats/Pets/Courier/etc., Lyft, Doordash, medical couriers, legal couriers, etc. etc. It’s tougher outside the cities, and it’s all kind of a neo-Victorian dystopia of poor wages and no support, but if what’s you actually want to do, “driving places cuz other people can’t or won’t” is a very doable job-description in the US. Just make sure you’re factoring in car expenses if you do the gig-based ones.
They don’t want to hire you dude.
This admin only seems to be interested in hiring white male republicans, so if you’re outside of that demographic, you may be out of luck.
The USPS is on Project 2025’s list to gut and privatize.
Change your linked in pic to a selfie of a white guy in sunglasses and a plausibly deniable red hat from inside a truck.
Camo shirt and a high-and-tight.
