newspaper carrier

senior software engineer

security specialist

delivery driver

senior production technician

The Washington Post

I joined the Washington Post in the mid-1990s and worked there for nearly 13 years, not including a one-year diversion to Burson-Marsteller in 2001.

I started on the Metro Desk, covering local and state politics in Maryland, where among other things, I broke the story about Jack Kent Cooke's plan to build his new Redskins stadium in Landover. I was promoted within a few years and in 1997, I became the youngest person on the National Desk, where I was given the job of national political reporter. It was my job to roam the country, writing about congressional and gubernatorial elections and other high-profile political stories. I also spent time on the Hill and covering the White House, traveling with both President Clinton and VP Gore.

In 1999, I was asked to be the lead beat reporter covering the campaign of Texas Gov. George W. Bush. I was among the youngest reporters in the country covering the campaign on a full-time basis, and the work was both exhilarating and often tiring. But it was a great experience overall getting to know well the man who would become the next president and watching Democracy unfold right in front of my eyes.

During this time, I got my first taste of life behind the camera, with frequent appearances on cable and news networks, where I deconstructed political events and provided analysis and color to viewers.

I left the Post briefly after the campaign and went to Burson to be a director in the Washington Media Practice. I returned to the Post a year later to become the first political columnist for washingtonpost.com. I did that for three years, traveling often to cover elections, including the 2004 presidential campaign. During that time, I also worked under contract for CNN as an on-air political analyst. I made more than 100 appearances on shows such as Inside Politics, NewsNight with Aaron Brown, and Wolf Blitzer's show. I also made numerous appearances on other network shows, including PBS's Lehrer Hour and NBC's Chris Matthew's Sunday Show.

After the election in 2004, the Post asked me to return to the newspaper side as an editor. It was during this time that I learned more than any other job how the media really works. My duties included supervising a team of a dozen local political/government reporters and attending daily news editorial meetings, were decisions are made about story play, headlines, angles, etc.

The Post is struggling like every other newspaper, but unlike others is in denial about its fate and run by incompetent exec leaders on the business side who sorely lack strategic smarts, expertise and vision to guide the Post to long-term sustainability. It is focused on short-term quick accounting fixes and cuts to hit annual numbers so bonuses are met for some, while the business hemorrhages.  

It is run by a 35 yr newspaper exec (President) who has a print-first mentality; has no strategic vision or understanding of digital or technology, no leadership abilities, no confidence or management skills, and views all the growth businesses (i.e. digital, mobile) as necessary evils rather than growth areas to be embraced and invested in. (Example: the Post just laid off their entire mobile team and transferred ownership to the IT dept where the entire mobile IT dept quit!)

Costs are contained by death by 1,000 cuts as they slash variable costs every year so that they can squeak by and make their numbers; execs can get their overblown, undeserving bonuses. The IT dept has had massive changeovers in leadership and has lost key players due to shifting priorities, lack of upward mobility. 

It is a top-down organization where individual smarts and opinions are disliked (bizarro world), and no one is empowered to run or make decisions about their businesses besides the President.  Nepotism exists if you came from the newspaper print side, have Harvard MBA or take orders and don't question execs. Healthy debate is discouraged and politically punished.  

If it were a true public company, there is no doubt the Board would fire the entire exec leadership team and bring in change agents who could really lead the Post to survivability. Very sad!!



Consistently failed to provide the necessary support for employees. Despite numerous requests for guidance and assistance, I was often left to navigate complex tasks on my own. This lack of support created a frustrating and stressful work environment where it was difficult to perform my job effectively. Lack of Empathy.

My efforts and hard work were never acknowledged. It was disheartening to see that dedication and commitment went unnoticed, affecting my motivation and overall job satisfaction. They will never recognize your efforts.

In addition to my assigned duties, I was frequently given extra tasks without consideration for my existing workload. This led to burnout and further dissatisfaction with the work environment.

The manager was particularly rude and unprofessional, often behaving as if they owned the company. They acting like that. Their attitude was dismissive and condescending, creating a hostile work environment. It's important to note that no employee should have to endure being yelled at or treated disrespectfully.

If you're looking to advance in your career, is not the place for you. Wrong Way!. The opportunities for promotion are almost non-existent, and wage increases are minimal at best. This lack of career growth and financial incentive is very discouraging for any ambitious employee. 

The company is quite old and seems to be stuck in its ways, with outdated practices and a reluctance to update or innovate. This decadence hampers progress and makes it difficult to stay motivated and engaged.

Working on the engineering team at the Post has been an incredibly rewarding and challenging experience. I've gained valuable skills in building and managing scalable applications in a creative, right-tool-for-the-job environment, vastly expanding my technical knowledge. The work-life balance is excellent, with good options for remote work and flexible hours. The average day involves dev work and associated meetings to coordinate projects, conduct demos, and offer new feature proposals. The degree of technical expertise and drive amongst the engineering team is first rate.

That said, the engineering team is managed in such a way that is very reactionary. Few processes are well established or consistently applied, technical and user documentation of products is lackluster, and the expectation of quick turnaround times create an atmosphere that often feels undirected. Dealing with constantly shifting priorities and tight deadlines make for a somewhat chaotic dev environment. In my view, the performance review system is fairly opaque and handled solely by your direct supervisor. Several other engineers were afforded opportunities to switch teams based upon their desire for a change of work or manager, but I have not had that experience.

Overall, I'd recommend the Post to someone looking for a face-paced engineering job in the DC area, but would caution prospective employees to be wary of disorganization and the uneven management processes.

When you work for the Washington post for  d.c be prepared to get the routes nobody wants, they pull you in on how much you wanna make a month when they ask you how much money u wanna make my suggestion is Don’t say anything at all wait until u get paid, and depending on the your first check will determine from there how many papers you want to deliver ( when other news outlets will pay you every two weeks, instead of monthly pay) on top of that they will give you the lowest pay because your new! Then the will have you sign a contract but they won’t follow it! Secondly the COMPLAINTS you’ll get  is 10 dollars a paper that wasn’t delivered is  deducted from your pay, even when someone can steal a paper or a animal will take it and use it for shelter or whatever else’s reason! They don’t care! I suggest you have another job, expenses for this job adds up fast and that other job can help pay for your expenses while working this job! ( so basically you have to work another job to support this job!) I also suggest do not buy a paper if your short while out on your route to avoid a complaint  the company claims they will reimburse you but its a lie! If your really interested in this job really think about and pay attention to what’s going! I worked one month and only got a hundred dollars pay check! And I was delivering about 300 papers a night! And had under 20 deductions! I quit that same night

I started at the Post having worshiped the pape for years. I was hired to work in the advocacy/political advertising department. There was nearly 0 training and on boarding, even a "boot camp" was scant on actual direction. The person who was supposed to train me was unable to focus and all I heard from the rest of the department was that she was a walking disaster. 
After being there for less than a month, both of the senior sales reps for advocacy left and no one knew what they were doing. There was contention between the sales planning team and marketing and it was a hot mess. People would email you all night and over New Years week everyone went out of town and there was no one to ask questions of as a new employee. They abuse young workers in a fashion similar to how law firms treat new hires. Other than it being the Washington Post there were no possitives about this job. It was like dating a hot guy and being abused, but being like "well he's hot".

Up all night, up all day, never much sleep... though pay was extraordinary. get up 11 PM go to warehouse and load newspaper trucks to go out to carriers. Next, last minute paperwork for exact newspaper counts, new starts, stops, comments, complaints... all of these done on the truck as it goes out into the field. After drops made, meet carriers for instructions, wake carriers from oversleeping, for carrier no-shows, give up-to-date route list for extra routes for other carriers to carry or carry the route myself. After carriers finish, go behind them to inspect potential delivery mishaps. 6AM take a coffee break. 7-9 take customer complaints (many irate) and make redeliveries. 9 AM, go to office for A/P, A/R. customer billing, go to post office to collect payments, get the bank deposit ready for 11 AM. Lunch. Management meetings 2 PM get paperwork ready for carriers for the next day. 4 PM work done go home and sleep until 11P. All this 7 days a week

One run a night. From 11p to 4a that's all you have to do. You go home when you return from your run. So, if you get back from your run at 1:30a you go home and get paid for 5 hours. Pretty sweet, huh? The only problem there is you have no control over what run you get each night. It's sort of random rotation (or possibly management favoritism). Some runs are much longer/shorter than others. So, it's the luck of the draw. That being said, almost no one stays til 4a besides the dispatchers. It's pretty much the easiest driving job you could ever ask for. A dock worker loads your truck, you unload with a power jack. Then, you're done. At the most, you may spend 20 min at any given location, then you're back on the road. Easy peasy.

It was an honor working at The Washington Post and being apart of history, groundbreaking news, media and digital empire. I've worked with some incredibly talented and dynamic people who have made a huge impact in my life at work, encouraging me to become a better individual both personally and professionally. To be quite honest, the hardest part about leaving were the people; beginning with the mailroom clerks, security guards, all the way up to senior management. Life at The Post, particularly is exciting, innovative and forever changing, always remaining relevant in today's digital world. The Post created a flexible work-life balance which is an invaluable benefit for any working parent.

I worked for the Washington Post for over 24 years as a Single Copy Agent. My main duty was delivering the Washington Post Newspaper  to residential customers as a Home Delivery Agent. I aslo delivered alternate products of newspapers including The New York Times, Wallstreet Journal, USA Today, Washington Times, The New York Post, World Journal, Korean Times, and other independent news papers.

I also reported to a warehouse located near my zone of deliveries where I packaged and prepared the newspapers for home delivery. Processed daily ledger for customer stops/starts, and complaints.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Newspaper carrier 2 salaries reported	$1,750 per month
Senior software engineer 4 salaries reported	$117,500 per year
Security specialist 1 salary reported	$40.50 per hour
Delivery driver 1 salary reported	$19.67 per hour
Senior production technician 1 salary reported	$107,500 per year

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