Let me give you an insite into law enforcement.

Contrary to popular belief law enforcement is no walk in the park... your heart HAS to be in this field because you have to (well I did) go to work knowing there is a 50/50 shot you might not come home every night. The reports are a pain, the district attorney's and judges/magistrate are worse.. then lets not get into the administration at the PD and the disrespect you get from the public. Your always the bad guy because your there in most cases to take peoples civil liberties away... not make them feel good like the firefighters do. Yeah it's fun to run code 3 (lights and sirens) but in the long run if you crash into someone or put someone remotely in danger the burden is on you in a crminal case. your scrutinized more than ANYONE ELSE in that profession.

Then theres recruiting.. most places have a 4 month to 1 year waiting period. THEN, youll be up against people that will automatically score higher than you because of certain criteria... degrees, already certified, military experience, past experience.. etc.. can you afford to be unemployed for that long just for a potential "thanks but no thanks" answer? Most can't afford that. I had a degree and experience in a jail and it still took me 1.5 years to get into one of the 7 departments I applied for... competition is stiff.. especially since the economy is down and people are joining the police force for "security".. and everyone knows you won't "get fired" because business is always good.

This comes from my 3 years expereince in that field.... I was a detentions deputy for 2 years at a county jail before moving to a police department to get to the streets. I went through a full academy again where it was really a pain in the butt with bullcrap politics and paramilitary bull... and you cram about a years worth in 4 to 5 months.. not to mention the risk of injury from arrest control and being shot by someone incompetant on the firing range. THEN, you have 14 to 18 weeks of FTO or Field Training where they put SO MUCH stress on you to "see how you will react." It was so bad most nights I would get off at 11 and would get home at 3 or 4am because my FTO LOVED overtime... 2 months of that and I was done. then I went to midnights and my FTO was trying to get me to be "more aggressive" and fight people when it wasn't reallly necessary.. I learned in the jail you get more cooperation by being the nice guy and only becoming a dick when you have to.... then they can extend you because your not skinning the cat their way despite having multiple ways to skin it. After 6 months of the academy and 20 weeks of training with 4 more to go while holding a very high stress level all 20 weeks, developing medical conditions that started affecting my health because of the stress, and my relationship falling apart because I snapped at everyone due to stress levels and dealing with douchebags all day I resigned. NO job is worth all that. It was great pay but at what expense? nothing I was willing to maintain or go through.

Please use your heart when thinking about a career field because if its not some may die, including yourself, depending on the field. I wanted to be a cop for 5 years and spent my college life getting a degree in criminal justice.. now that i'm out of it that don't leave me a whole lot of options. BUT, my heart has been with the big rigs since I was 6... 25 years now. I've almost broke into the field 4 times and after resigning from the PD my wife and I are now in trucking school to team... following where my heart has been. Think long and hard before you "settle" on something because you think its a great field.

and FYI EVERYONE is stringant on the psych... Arizona is one of the worst.. not to mention based on a cops board i'm a member of Arizona very much follows the "good 'ol boy" way of things.. as do alot of western agencies.

Good luck in whatever you chose.

 

Well, thinking long and hard tends to take alot of money out of your pocket too.

I just don't want to be near retirement age and have it all finally figured out.

And as repeated before, most college degree programs my parents and others have suggested to me basically lead to desk and office jobs.

So, if it means being out on the street and risking my life and limb, either getting shot at, or running into a burning building, or risking an infectious disease, or continuing to deal with motorists cutting off my semi, then I'll stick with that.

I'm already 25 and don't have any family or significant other, nor do I really plan on it at this point.

 

Well, after hearing some of the bad news about Swift not taking any rehires for any reasons, I went ahead and signed up for the EMT-Basic course.

Eventually I'll do this as a full-time job to either lead up to becoming an RN, or Paramedic/Firefighter.

College counselors asked me what I had in my heart one time, and I simply told them that "hippie" way of thinking will only get you on welfare.

Thus they signed my ed-plan, but the class doesn't start until February.

As for what I originally had in mind(or at heart), that B/S in Mechanical Engineering was an idea I had in high-school to use as a precursor to get into the Air Force, or Navy officer-training program, then into flight-school.

But, then I found out my vision blew, and my math-level was low for the 10th grade.

I just recently began to understand Algebra, but if I were to continue steadily taking math classes, I would eventually be too old for flight-school, and all I would be good for is a desk.




So, instead of chasing a dead-dream, I figure it's time to start a new one where I potentially won't have to worry about the current employment woes facing other fields.

Oh, and I'm keeping my CDL too, just in case the economy rebounds in the near-future.

 

Join the army

 

ArNG, or Active?

No thanks. I'm not afraid of getting screamed at, or dying in a battlefield.
But, after working with the California Conservation Corps for months back in '01, I am not a fan of living in dorms or close-proximity to other people.

I could see team-work being key in many jobs and there are ways to work around it.
Hell, there's even community-college, police academies where you get to go home at the end of the day.

But, it seems that in all branches of the armed forces, you're required to know all the personal-stories of your bunk-mate, battle-buddy, whatever you want to call it.

And getting back to the college-thing, I'm only sticking to low-unit, vocational-certifications.

Academics was a thing I never really cared much for anyway, the shorter, the better.

 

Perhaps after realizing how much of an "EPIC FAIL" the roll-over accident was, I should just labeled this thread, "The Forced Career-Change" thread.

The way I finally see it, I enjoyed running for a large carrier like that, and I consider the accident the biggest screw-up in my life.

Moving onto, training/getting educated into, and obtaining another career is basically seen by me as the proverbial, "death-sentence" in all of this.

Seriously, I know I could do other work, but I'll be forever miserable if I can't get into a well-equipped, national carrier ever again.

 

Not meaning to sound like the "Beater of the Dead Horse", but I turned in my re-hire app to Swift last Wednesday.
If it all works out after these last seven months of Hell, then my mood will go from uneasy to calm.

If it goes the way the last, 25 apps to different, Q-Comm equipped companies have went, then the RN, or EMS-path it will be
I'll also keep plugging away at the law-enforcement apps as well and just cross my fingers I answer the oral-psych questions correctly, I mean, there's no law against repeatedly applying now?
Meanwhile, I'll most likely find a security-officer job to cover what little bills I have and to pay for school as well(financial aid=socialism).

As for all the nay-saying against going into either of the above careers, with the economy the way it is right now, I'd rather get myself a degree/certification that will actually get me some form of work.
This is in opposition to getting some "dream/heartpath-oriented" degree and begging for work from an employer that utilizes that particular education.

Okay, once again no luck involved, only a matter of numbers, charts and trends.
Because luck is for Leprechauns, and everyone have a Merry Christmas!!!