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STAR Format
KSA Examples
By Richard P. Weiss
KSA Examples
By Richard P. Weiss
applicants need to address these qualities when answering requirements listed on job vacancy announcements currently posted at the eCareer section of Liteblue.usps.gov. Since eCareer submissions require narratives that describe actions taken to resolve actual situations, the "STAR" format is still recommended. STAR stands for Situation and/or Task, Action, and Result. Unlike 991 submissions, however, eCareer instructions indicate that more than one requirement may be addressed in each situational essay. As the Summary of Accomplishments section of the eCareer program limits the entire section to 6000 characters, addressing multiple requirements within each of several essays becomes a necessity, and excessive wordiness becomes a liability. Applicants need to recall a situation or problem that they encountered, usually in a work situation, that they had to act upon to produce a remedy and/or positive result. These experiences do not necessarily need to have taken place while working for the Postal Service. Situations may have occurred while working for other companies, civic groups, etc. However, common sense would dictate that if you have worked for the Postal Service for 20 years, you shouldn't use a situation that occurred before your employment some 25 years ago. Try to stick with Postal examples whenever possible, and stay fairly current (within the past five years, if possible). The important aspect of these essays is to show that you possess the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to fill your desired position. Here are several KSA essay examples that I have written. For purposes of privacy, I have changed the names of those I reference, however the situations are genuine. The first two pertain to Postal experience; the third relates to experiences I acquired outside of the Postal Service: Knowledge of English composition, grammar, punctuation and spelling at a level sufficient to develop, write and edit technical materials including instructions, procedures and training materials. While assigned as a Retail Associate at the Fox Chase Post Office, Philadelphia, PA, I inadvertently accepted and cashed a fraudulent Postal money order. I discovered that the money order was a fake after the same customer who presented this phony document returned with another, less convincing version. Both the second money order and the one I had cashed had been somehow chemically altered from $10 to $810. After this incident, I felt a need to warn other Retail Associates as well as others who might receive these bogus vouchers, especially since these fakes contained all of the security features of “real” money orders. I gathered information that I had noted from perusing the Postal Inspection Service’s web site as well as other sources, including a Postal memorandum that explained that the spelled out amount on a Postal money order should never begin to the left of the word “amount.” I incorporated this data, along with other information that I had researched. I also added input based upon my own experience in verifying Postal money orders. After completing considerable research, I wrote an article regarding raised Postal money orders that covered information not readily available elsewhere. I streamlined the essay into a concise and informative training article that I targeted toward thousands of Postal employees as well as many others who regularly received and dealt with the handling and cashing of Postal money orders. Soon after submitting my article to a number of publications, my information drew readership from thousands of visitors who read it online at PostalMag. com, as well as from the Bloomfield Bank corporate web site. The article was also picked up and published by Pinnacle State bank for use on its web site as well as several of its subsidiaries. A shorter version appeared in the May 2005 issue of the Eastern Area Update, a Postal magazine distributed to 138,000 Postal employees working throughout the 10-state Eastern Area. My efforts in warning tens of thousands of Postal employees and others about fraudulent postal money orders have helped to assure that they were much more aware of what to look for before cashing these documents. My efforts have also helped Postal employees to stop criminal activity and to protect the sanctity and reputation of the US Postal Service. Ability to review, revise, and restructure existing technical informational materials. The implementation of the POS-One System greatly streamlined the efficiency of financial file transmissions from postal stations to district accounting offices. However, there were still times when transmissions failed to transfer all or some of the data needed by accounting operations. Failure of station personnel to verify their transmissions caused delays in the regeneration and transmission of vital financial information to District Accounting offices through the use of the Retail Consolidated Unit (RCU) system. Because POS-One implementation was new, existing informational materials were virtually unavailable. I decided that I needed to write an informative article regarding the regeneration process that could be shared, through inclusion in my District newsletter, by station employees. I felt that employees could use this information to speed up the regeneration process, and bring in timely financial information. To educate station personnel, I wrote an article, directed toward those handling POS transmissions within the Philadelphia District, regarding how to verify their transmissions, including ways to regenerate their files when necessary. Besides using my own knowledge of the POS-One system, I collected additional information through a talk with Bill Johnson, Postal System Coordinator for the Philadelphia District. I also researched how to verify POS-One transmissions by noting information I read |
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its material to improve upon the conciseness of my article. After I completed my research and assured that all of my facts were sound, I included my article in the Financial Focus, a district-wide publication distributed throughout over 150 stations and offices throughout the Philadelphia District. I received very positive feedback regarding my POS- One article. The information I provided to the stations made their employees more conscientious in assuring that their transmissions took place and more knowledgeable of how to complete these transmittals. By providing this information, I greatly decreased the time I needed to spend on calling stations regarding their transmission, and significantly enhanced the timeliness of financial transmissions through POS-One. Ability to coordinate and oversee the activities of others to meet organizational goals. When I was Newsletter Editor for Lifeline, the monthly publication for Parents Without Partners, Greater Northeast Chapter #582, in Philadelphia, PA, I had to meet strict deadlines in gathering information from various board members, other chapters, our Regional and Zone councils, chairpersons and committee people. I also had to insure a balance between social, educational and family activities that were scheduled in order to meet the programming standards required for our organization as a non-profit entity. For any given month, I was responsible for making sure that committee members mailed the newsletter by the end of the third week of each month. The January 1998 issue was particularly difficult to complete and mail in time, due to the Christmas holiday. During the second week of December, I still hadn't received any information for the January publication, yet I needed to produce it, get it printed, and distribute it to committee people at circulation (where members prepare the newsletter for mailing). In addition, due to the Christmas holiday, I had to schedule circulation earlier than usual in order for members to receive the newsletters in time. My goal was to send out the newsletters to the general membership at least a week before January 1. Beginning early in the month, I began my monthly ritual of gathering and editing write-ups from the Parent Social Director, the Family Director, and the Program and Education Director. I called one of my committee people associated with our chapter orientations in order to receive a list of our new members (for inclusion in the newsletter). I also contacted the Treasurer for his monthly Treasury report, the Secretary for her list of motions made at our monthly board meeting, and other chairpersons and committee people who had information relevant to the newsletter. I wrote additional material and combined other information from various sources to complete the proof copy of the newsletter. After proofreading the finished product for errors, I had 400 copies printed and readied them by the circulation deadline. The chapter volunteers prepared the newsletters for mailing, so I was able to meet my intended deadline and mail them to the general membership more than a week before January 1. Knowledge of revenue protection programs and procedures. During the many years I worked as a Bulk Mail Technician, I followed strict guidelines in accepting presorted mailings; my major responsibilities involved assuring that business customers properly presorted their mailings, thereby reducing the need for additional handling by postal employees. My ongoing duties in this capacity assured that the Postal Service would not lose revenue from mailings found to contain more than 5% presort errors based on an initial cursory review, followed by a presort verification, as needed or as scheduled. During one of my assignments as an onsite mail acceptance representative at one of our biggest mailers (a government agency), I discovered that there were no provisions in place for presort verifications. The site did not include a scale for obtaining a piece weight nor were any PS 2866 forms (presort verification reports) available. When I first began my rotation at this facility, I found the lack of provisions for such verifications alarming, especially when I performed a cursory review and discovered major problems with their level of sortation necessary to qualify for the Presorted First Class rates that this mailer had claimed. I obtained a copy of PS Form 2866 and initiated a presort verification on a mailing presented by this agency. Although I could not include a piece weight without the use of a scale, I was able to keep track of the number of pieces that were not sorted to the finest level possible, and recorded percentages of error based on the ratio of errors to the total number of pieces included in my sample. I gathered a target wedge of three trays and performed a presort verification. I discovered that about 70% of the mailing contained presort errors; I assessed the postage due by using this percentage at full rate First Class rates and subtracted the Presorted First Class rate on this portion claimed by the mailer. The additional amount of postage I assessed to accept the mailing was astounding, especially due to the large volume of this particular shipment. I presented my findings to my supervisor, Ashley Canter, clearly showing that the Postal Service was losing about $400,000 per week from the 10 million piece mailings this particular government organization mailed on a regular basis. She immediately contacted Rob Wilson, of the Rates and Classification Service Center (RCSC) to discuss my findings. Within a week of my discovery as well as my recommendations for a regularly scheduled presort verification program, Business Mail Entry took my lead by incorporating a presort verification requirement as a standard operating procedure at this mail acceptance facility. The newly enforced provisions prompted representatives at the agency to more closely monitor those responsible for preparing their mailings, thereby saving the Postal Service millions of dollars in potentially lost revenue. |
| Experience with serving the writing needs of Postal Professionals since 2005 |