Many who would like a job with the U.S. Postal Service hesitate because of the exam they believe is required for the job. However, one job doesn't require prior experience or taking an exam. The job is Temporary Rural Carrier, or TRC. Despite the name, it goes on indefinitely, so it isn't really temporary. The TRC job is a relief or substitute mail carrier job. The TRC works whenever the regular carrier takes a day off and often works Saturdays. This job offers you training, so that when a permanent position opens up you are the first choice because you already know the job.

Go to your local United States Post Office during regular business hours Monday to Friday. While most U.S. Postal Service, or USPS, offices have Saturday hours, the postmaster usually has that day off. Try any post office that is within a reasonable commute of your home.

Ask the postmaster if the office is accepting job applications for a USPS Temporary Rural Carrier, or TRC, or Postmaster Relief, or PMR, position. These positions are not usually advertised in the newspaper, nor are they listed on the USPS website. If the postmaster says "No," ask if he knows of any post offices looking for TRCs. If you find out about one, go there next. If not, ask if you could leave your name and number just in case a job becomes available. Follow this same procedure at each post office you go to.

Fill out the USPS job application and return it to the post office. Include any documentation requested, such as a local police clearance.

Go to your required drug test as scheduled.

Go to your scheduled job interview. It will probably not be with your local postmaster, as the postal service has trained interviewers.

Go to your scheduled physical. You merely need to fill out a health questionnaire. If any of your answers is flagged, you may need to obtain written documentation from your doctor that you are physically able to work.

Attend your scheduled USPS job orientation. This is about eight hours a day for four or five days. You are paid for these hours and for mileage if the training facility is farther from your house than your assigned post office.

Attend Rural Associate Training for one week. You learn to sort mail according to whether it is first class, second class or bulk rate. You learn to case mail, scan mail and deliver mail. Again, you are paid for these hours and for your mileage if the training facility is farther from your house than your assigned post office.

Schedule your job shadow day with the postmaster. You will ride around in a car with the USPS regular carrier that you will sub for on her days off. Carriers take vacation and sick leave, and some get either every Saturday or every other Saturday off from work. This is when you will work.

Shedule days to come into the post office to work for training. You will practice casing the mail. Routes have between 200 and 800 mailboxes each. You learn the customers in the order they are delivered. You case the mail before you take it out in your car to the street to deliver it.

Begin delivering the mail each time the regular carrier takes a day off. As a TRC, you are trained to do the same job as the regular carriers. Register online to take the Postal Service Exam. After you take it you will be on the list for regular jobs. When a job opens up in your post office or one of the three that you registered for during the exam, you will be first choice for the job, given that you are already trained.