Like many who come to work for the Postal Service, I didn’t find my way into the USPS because I had burning desire to deliver mail; I just needed a job. A laid-off journalist, I’d spent six months striking out on landing a writing gig and grew tired of the soul-sucking grind that is job searching. An old college friend was working happily delivering mail, and making more than I ever did in newspapering: The benefits are good, you don’t take the job home with you, and there’s lots of overtime if you want it.
And the USPS is nearly always hiring, especially in metro areas in advance of the holiday shopping season. Colorado’s Front Range, which includes Denver, Boulder, and Fort Collins, is currently short more than 500 positions. The hiring process is long—I applied in mid-February and didn’t start until May—and includes two exams, a personality assessment, and the 473 Postal Exam, which tests your ability to check addresses for errors, accurately fill out forms, and memorize and recall lists of street addresses. I had to also pass a drug test (that’s the biggest hurdle to hiring in weed-legal Colorado, the Fort Collins Postmaster told me) and an exhaustive background check. Then it was off to city carrier academy, where veteran carriers taught my fellow classmates and me the tricks of organizing and carrying mail and how to drive the postal vehicles. We each got a navy blue USPS hat and T-shirt and were sent to our respective post offices to begin our postal careers; I was now a USPS employee, working as a city carrier assistant.
Working for the Post Office seems like an interesting career, especially as one is in retirement. It might be a fun way to get out and learn more about your community.
The Class of 2019 is getting ready to enter one hot job market. And grads with a background in slicing and dicing data have an edge. Data scientist was the highest-paying entry-level job last year, according to Glassdoor research. Young adults in this field earned a median annual base salary of $95,000. That’s higher than young Wall Street workers received as investment-banking analysts.
One of my Facebook friends posted a provocative post the other day — does your job define who you are?
Like most people, what I do for employment is the center part of my weekday. I get up, have breakfast, shower, take a bus downtown, then work, then I take another bus home, have dinner, and enjoy the remaining 3-4 hours left in my day before bed. Weekends I often have free, but I sometimes work then too. Over all, if you do the math, work is about 35-50% of my waking hours — depending on the week.
Ultimately though, I’m not a volunteer for work. I work for the money, both to provide for my contemporary needs, but more importantly for a better tomorrow. Statistically, less then 1 in 3 people enjoy their jobs, most people do it primarily for their paycheck. That’s certainly my thing — I do enjoy seeing the result ofjob well done, but I’m mostly there for the paycheck. I don’t romantic ideas about my job, but I try to do quality work, that reflects well on my employer, provides a good service and provides me with good compensation in return.
The old generation used to ask, where are you from? The new generation often asks, what do you do for a living? I really don’t like that new question, because I don’t think it’s an accurate way to frame who I am or what I believe. I get occupation is in part a reflection of the quality of your work, but I don’t think it should overally define who you are — much of our lives is lived outside of work.
"We've written a lot about how income has changed (or not) for the rich, middle class and poor in the U.S. We've written much less about what the rich, middle class and poor actually do for work. To remedy that, we made this graph. It shows the 10 most popular jobs in each income bracket. Click on each job to see where it appears in different income brackets."
SELECTED ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS - by US County
2010-2014 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
Civilian employed population 16 years and over by Industry