Prospective New Job Updates

I was doing some searching through my emails last week or so and I came across the automated email response for the dispatcher job that I'm currently in the process of going through. It was dated August 29th! I didn't realize it had been that long. It'll be four months since I began the process for this hopefully new job.

Anyway, I have passed all of the tests. The "orals" was actually an oral exam. Get your minds out of the gutter! I realize I live in the Bay Area, but let's keep it PG-13ish....ahh fuck it! The first part of that exam was a written part where I was given some scenarios and situations with available officers. I had to write how and why I would use the available officers and when I would use them.

The oral exam that was in front of a three person panel was that I was given six different call scenarios. For each of these scenarios I had to answer three questions: What would I say to the caller? What would I tell the caller? and What would I do?

A couple of times I changed my decisions on what exactly I would do. I guess it didn't count against me too much since I placed sixth amongst all the other applicants that made it this far. For one of the scenarios it dealt with a woman that was just raped and it got in to some detail. At first I started to get incensed at the situation, but then I thought, "Hmmm...I bet this is what they're looking at. If I can't stay calm in this type of situation there's no way in hell I'd be able to handle the real thing." I guess it all worked out.

So after I received the positive results for that, they sent me the background packet. They wanted to know virtually every single sordid thing I've ever done. They wanted to know if I've ever molested a child, had or shared child pornography, all of the illegal and legal drugs I've done recreationally (thank God that's an extremely short list), if I've ever been drunk in public to the point I couldn't take care of myself, if I've ever hunted or fished without a license, if I've ever been fired, if I've ever hit and run with or without injuries, and if I said yes to any of those questions they wanted to know the details. On top of all that, they wanted to know where I've lived for the last ten years and ALL of the jobs I've had. Plus they wanted copies of my driver's license, social security card, official copies of my high school and college transcripts as well as an official copy of my birth certificate.

I sent that packet out two weeks ago. I had a little scare with the packet and its arrival there. I sent the packet via certified mail. The following day I sent out my high school transcripts via certified mail as well. I waited the entire weekend for confirmation that they received it. Finally, I got confirmation that they received my high school transcripts, but not the all important dossier with my sordid life story. So I crapped myself. The last thing I wanted was to be disqualified because I didn't get the paperwork in on time due to the post office. So I called them up and fortunately they called me back the next day informing me that they received the packet the very next day. Woo!

The moral of that story is never send important documents by certified mail. The tracking system isn't very good. The next time I'll send it FedEx or UPS. They have much better tracking systems.

That's it for now. They said it would be several weeks before they notify me about an interview for the background investigation. With that, I'm imagining is going to be the polygraph. I'm very apprehensive about that. We'll see.

Oh, and a bit of good news for me: Trish and I are getting married on January 14th. We're planning on doing it at city hall in San Francisco. It's going to be a small intimate wedding ceremony. Nothing fancy. We're planning on having the big wedding in the Philippines in July.