Qualification Requirements:
(Excerpted from The Book of U.S. Postal Exams & Post Office Jobs:
How to Be a Top Scorer on 473/473-C/460 Tests & Other Postal Exams to Get a Post Office Jobs by Veltisezar B. Bautista.)

Job Description

As a carrier (whether city or rural) you’ll be required to sort, rack, and tie mail at the post office before you start making deliveries within your route or area of delivery. In sorting letters, you must arrange them in the same order as the streets occur on the route. Letters and magazines for occupants of an apartment complex must be tied together with a rubber band or a belt. If you make a mistake in reading an address, the letter may go into the wrong home mailbox, causing a delay in delivery. The next day, you may find a note that says, “This is not ours. Opened by mistake.” The letter might be a “deadline” letter, an order from the court, or a warning from a creditor.

As a carrier, you’ll maintain required information, record changes of addresses, maintain other reports, and forward undeliverable-as-addressed mail.

In some ways, a rural carrier’s duty is different from that of a city carrier. If you are hired as a rural carrier or a rural carrier associate, you’ll be a jack of all trades; you’ll also be a “walking post office.” You may carry stamps, scales, and other equipment and supplies to serve the people of the rural area you cover.

For this reason, you must know how to compute the cost of a piece of mail or a package whether it’s going to a neighboring city, Somalia, or Russia.

Age Requirement
“The general minimum age requirement for positions in the Postal Service is 18 at the time of employment. For high school graduates or for persons certified by local authorities as having terminated formal education for adequate reasons, the minimum age is 16.

Applicants who are less than 18 years of age, who are not high school graduates, and have not terminated formal education may participate in the examination if they will reach 18 within two years from the date of examination. For carrier positions which require driving, applicants must be 18 years of age or over. There is no maximum age limit.”

Citizenship
“All applicants must be citizens of or owe allegiance to the United States of America or have been granted permanent resident alien status in the United States.”

Whether you are from the Philippines, Haiti, or Nicaragua, provided you are an immigrant, you are eligible to take a postal exam and to be employed in the USPS.

Qualification Requirements
Many positions, such as clerk and carrier, require passing an entrance exam: but some do not. To be a plumber, a machinist, or a maintenance mechanic, you have to pass a written exam. Your rating will be based on both the written test and on your qualifications. But you don't need to pass a written exam, for example, if you're a physician, a nurse, a psychologist, or a computer programmer. Your rating on these jobs will be based on your education, training, and experience. In the written tests, the passing score is 70 (excluding the extra five or 10 points for applicants entitled to veterans preference.)

Education Requirements
The Postal Services does not indicate that you must be a high school graduate to be eligible for any position.

So unless it is stated specifically that you need a college degree to be qualified for a certain position, such as doctor, nurse, or engineer, you will be considered for any position if you meet the requirements and win over other competitors.

Physical Requirements
Applicants must be physically able to perform efficiently the arduous duties of any position. For instance, the physical requirements for a carrier are different from those for a maintenance electrician. The carrier must be able to carry a load of 70 lbs. and must be on the road in all conditions. The electrician must be able to perform the duties of the position, which may involve standing, walking, climbing, bending, reaching, and stooping or prolonged periods of time as well as intermittent lifting and carrying of heavy tools, tool boxes, and equipment on level surfaces and up ladders and stairways.

Like your car, you should always be in top condition. No matter how cold or how hot it is, your body should be in good condition to withstand the conditions of the roads and the climate.

But most important of all, you must score 95-100% on the exams to be able to be called for employment.

Although the passing score is 70%, you need to score 95-100% on exams. Why? Because usually, only those scoring 90-100% are hired due to the large number of those taking the exams. In short, the competition is too keen.

Training Requirements
Applicants for some positions may be required to complete satisfactorily a prescribed training course or courses before assignment, reaasignment, or promotion.

Operator’s Permit
Some positions may require driving a government vehicle. Such positions include city carrier, rural carrier, garageman, and electronics technician.

Road Test
As an applicant for carrier or any other position requiring that you drive a government vehicle, you must demonstrate a safe driving record and pass a postal road test. If you fail the road test the first time, you cannot be hired, but you may be given a second chance later. Some people who have taken this test complain that it is more difficult than the state road test. That’s because safety is the name of the game in the Postal Service; to pass this road test, you must show that you follow traffic rules, drive safely, and deliver letters, magazines, and parcels to the addresses without damage.

The Key to Employment
Says Veltisezar B. Bautista, author of The Book of U.S. Postal Exams & Post Office Jobs:How to Be a Top Scorer on 473/473-C/460 Tests & Other Postal Exams to Get a Post Office Job!: “Employment hinges on one thing and one thing only: ‘how well you do on the exam.' This rule is strictly enforced with no ifs, ands, or buts. You could have a Ph.D. and still not be hired if you didn't come through on the exam. It doesn't matter whether you're a United States citizen or an immigrant, man or woman, black or white, brown or yellow, you name it. It's your exam score that counts. Make 95-100% on exams and you'll make it!”

If you wish to know strategies and techniques to obtain 95-100% on exams, you may buy now The Book of U.S. Postal Exams.

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