DEAR JOYCE: I must find a job -- and soon! A buddy told me to apply to the post office. He offered to sell me some guaranteed training materials for $80 that he bought for $160 but never used. Is this a good price, and will the materials really guarantee I'll get hired? -- T.R.
Don't bite on this one. The postal job materials you mention are the product of a fraud. (Browse: FTC Stamps Out Postal Job Scam.) A leading expert on getting hired for federal employment agrees:
"For at least the last five years, many postal job scams popped up online and in classified ads, listing toll-free numbers and charging fees ranging from $70 to more than $200 for exam study guides. That's outrageous!" says author Dennis V. Damp in his fifth edition of "Post Office Jobs: Explore and Find Jobs, Prepare for the 473 Postal Exam, and Locate ALL Job Opportunities" (BookHaven Press).
Damp's thoroughly researched revision has the distinct advantage of timing, thanks to the U.S. Postal Service's recent overhaul of the way it hires workers.
OLD OUT, NEW IN. In January, the U.S. Postal Service switched to a new eCareer hiring system, a process by which you start on the Internet and apply for a specific job, rather than apply for any open job.
"The Postal Service made significant changes including the elimination of the recurrent postal exams that were administered across the country every one to two years for all major metropolitan areas," Damp explains. "You now apply for each vacancy as it occurs. You take a part of the required exam when you apply online and do the remainder at a local testing facility within the next 14 days."
The hiring modernization renders older postal job books obsolete, making. Damp's new edition of "Post Office Jobs" the only book available that covers the Postal Service's new system and includes a study guide for the revised 473 Postal Exam. This is the comprehensive tool you need if you want any type of job in the Postal Service.
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