Smithsonian National Postal Museum Curator Of Philately Job Opening

The search is on:

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/View...ls/547975400

The only way I could afford to take that job is if they'd let me do ebay in my free time.

Yup. The pay sucks and you would have to live in DC or area. Amazing job though for the right person.

This job definitely needs the right person.

Someone who is active in the philatelic community, like the last two, at least, really has helped. Of course the person has to have the right interpersonal skill set as well as other requirements.

I will be very interested to see who gets this.
It will have an impact on our hobby.

I'm out. I just asked my wife if I could apply at dinner tonight...she says raising 2 kids in D.C. on 60 grand not possible. Conversation lasted all of 1 minute. Thought it was worth a shot . I told her with experience maybe 90 grand? My wife then informed me that I have no experience. She is right

Someone who is benevolent.
Move to a city which has the 5th highest cost of living to work for $50k to $90k?? The job market is tight, you cannot throw a rock without hitting a good paying job. I do not see how they will be able to attract high quality candidates.
Don

An early retiree who loves the hobby and wants some extra stamp money.
I can vouch that that worked well once.

If the criteria is "I like stamp collecting and I need some extra money" then the door is indeed open to many people. Perhaps that fellow who was removed from the APS after being arrested, who I think already lives in the area, should submit his resume.
Don

That was obviously not the only criteria.

His Harvard MBA, undergrad engineering degree and tons of business leadership experience also helped.

A love of the hobby and a lot of drive is why this candidate was great vs just good. That was my point. We don't just need someone qualified, we need someone who wants it.

My question is who stepped down to create this opening. I thought Daniel Piazza was the curator. Am I mistaken?

I worked for a stamp dealer in DC in the 1980's and started at $15k - upped to $18k after 3 months. DC was expensive then, too, and the $ was worth a lot more then, but I really struggled. Lucky for me, the company went out of business after I was there for a little more than a year and I went to another dealer and got a bit of a raise. I thought I had it made - a job I loved and making a little more money. When THAT company went away, I left the industry. Simply not stable enough. Fun, no doubt, but no stability. I learned to keep a hobby a hobby. Now I make lots more money (in the aerospace industry), buy all the stamps I want (well, not ALL the stamps I want, but you know what I mean), and I GET TO KEEP THEM!

Plus, the weather in DC is horrible. One of the summers that I was there, there were over 50 days over 90 and like 10 over 100. Unbearably humid, too. And they get snow in the winter. My understanding is that diplomats in DC regularly get hardship pay because the climate is so bad.

The pay range noted in the advert incorporates a 29 % locality adjustment for the DC area. Kind of silly for the level of responsibility but that is commonplace for some Government jobs. And the 90k is at step 10. Nowhere left to go unless the job was reclassified.

Foreign diplomats posted in their countries' missions in DC generally do get hardship pay because of the climate -- and not just the political climate!

The posted job would be ideal for someone who already has an income stream -- say a retiree -- and who already lives in the area. Wait a minute, that sounds like me!

Piazza is acting. Cheryl Ganz stepped down.