and tell you of my experiences so far.I seem to of had a similar journey to a lot of people with the whole RM recruitment process being a bit shonky to say the least. It took nearly 2 and a half months from my initial application to starting work with lots of one step forward then 2 steps back moments along the way, for example when I turned up for interview at my local DO ( That's Delivery Office to the uninitiated, as a newbie you will find Royal Mail have their own language that you will need to pick up, there is a useful glossary in the forum to help) they were not even expecting me.
I finally received my contract 2 weeks after starting work so don't worry it's quite normal in the RM world 
A quick point about the online tests as I've seen a few posts asking how to pass them. Its just a game of spot the difference using simulated postcodes and tracking numbers and is supposed to indicate an ability for attention to detail. A bit harsh maybe but if you can't pass the test then maybe postman is not the job for you.
So induction day arrived and it was reassuring that among the 8 new starters 3 had been posties before but had left and were now coming back as they had enjoyed the job so much.it's pretty low key and nothing to worry about, we did a quick 5 minute chat with the guy you are sat next to and then introduce him to the rest of the room, a short quiz on royal mail, how many letters per day etc, watched some dvds, learnt how to safely pick up your pouch (mail bag) from the floor, pushed a york trolley around the carpark. Upon reflection the relevance of the induction to the actual workplace is not a lot really, it was more an exercise in ticking the health and safety and security awareness boxes but was ok and as I said before nothing to worry about.
Next day turn up to start work for real, OMG this was chaos there were people rushing around all over the place
After several false starts a group of managers finally decided who the lucky postie was that was going to get the new guy slowing him down on his walk for the day and off I went to a sorting frame. "Yes mate just start chucking these letters in the right slots, you've picked a bad time to start just before Christmas and all ". So I'd been in the door 15 minutes and I am sorting mail already,the apparent game of parcel Jenga going on just above my head was alarming
This is going to be a steep learning curve.Well that was then and now here I am amazingly four weeks later (the time has flown bye) thinking I may finally be getting to grips with things. I've survived the Christmas rush and am now into heavyweight holiday brochure and catalouge season it appears, even the current extreme weather hasn't put me off (ordered full uniform 1st week so have waterproofs
) I love the job and if there is any truth in the saying "If you can survive the first 6 weeks you will probably be ok" then thing are hopefully looking good.To be honest when i first found this forum I was worried about going for the role (part time 30hrs ) as it seemed to be frequented by lots of grumpy people with tales of doom and gloom but when you think that most of these guys have been in the job for donkeys years and have seen it change for the worse compared to how things used to be in the good ole days you start to understand where they are coming from. In amongst the moaning however there is a lot of good advice and in my experience so far, everybody, especially the posties have all been friendly and helpful, showing me stuff and explaining things along the way. There is a definite band of brothers (and sisters) feeling to it that I think is great.
So that's it, thank you for taking the time to read this (longer than planned) intro, hopefully it may be of some interest to someone considering life in a blue shirt.
