I think I've done it?

After two and a half years of training, including five months of working as a full time police officer in my old home town, I resigned. I loved the work, but I didn't love doing it HERE. I knew everybody and everybody knew someone. It was so very easy to tick off town officials who then pressured our command staff for one reason or another. Not only that, but when we did our field training, we were classified as 'part time employees' and were limited to 20 hours a week of FTO.

As a result, our mandated 160 hours of field training was scattered across many months, then were kicked loose to work the road. As to be expected, there were a LOT of training gaps.

I won't go into details, but I ended up putting in a letter of resignation citing personal reasons.

Since then, I had done a few interviews, but nothing panned out. My ultimate goal has always been to get into the State University Police system. An academy buddy of mine works for SUNY New Paltz and loves it. The SUNY Police, if you're not familiar with it- is not 'campus security' - they're police officers, its a state agency.

I took the civil service test and was canvassed by schools all over the state. I traveled as far as 300 miles to Plattsburgh to interview up there....twice. All told I did half a dozen interviews, and responded to twice as many canvass letters without any further contact.

Then, a few weeks ago, I get a phone call from a SUNY that is within driving distance from where I live now. "Are you still available?" I say yes, and am told "Okay, we'll set something up."

Two weeks go by, and I get scheduled for an interview. I spent FOUR HOURS at this school interviewing, meeting various officials, and touring the campus.

Flash forward less than 48 hours (to this morning) and I get a message from my wife while I'm at work. "The chief called you, he wants you call him back."

The gist of the call?

"We're wondering if you'd like to come to work for us. This is an offer of employment."

So, there it is. Nearly three years after deciding to get into Law Enforcement, and riding the roller coaster of employment in this small town....I have been offered what's become my dream job, and as a bonus, I won't be required to move, which means I don't have to pull my oldest kid out of school.

I'll be honest, I'm equally thrilled and terrified. Thrilled because this is what I've been waiting for, but terrified because up until the day I work my first shift, I'll be convinced something will go wrong.

Sincerely glad to see your epic run of bad luck seems to have turned around. Congrats! Now hold on like grim death. 

SSOK wrote: Congrats! Enjoy being a babysitter!

It can't be any worse than working a small town in an off-tourist season. There were nights when I called in to dispatch, and called out to dispatch with nothing in between.

SUNY New Paltz ">

I know someone who works up there in the communications department. 

Congrats man.  Glad it worked out!

Congrats!

Reb, I've gotta say that after working the afternoon-night shift for year in restaurants, I've come to love the 5AM wakeup, 3pm drive home lifestyle myself. Like you said, not being there for dinner, bed time, bath time, etc not only makes things harder on the SO, but you also feel like you're missing out on so much. Congrats on the new job! I know it's what you were gunning for originally anyway, so that's pretty awesome.

Reb Cpl wrote: procarbinefreak wrote: Congrats man.  Glad it worked out! I start a "new" position at work in a few weeks.   After almost 8 years of working 2nd shift at the hospital lab in some capacity, I'll be working 1st shift.  I'm real happy that I'll actually be able to see my wife and cook dinner during the week.  Not looking forward to starting at 6am though Changing shifts after so long will be an adjustment for sure. After working 'day jobs' my entire professional life, I switched to C-lines (3-11PM) when I was working for the town. It didn't really mess with the sleep schedule to much, I haven't been to bed before midnight in ages...but the mornings were all clowned up. I'd wake up and have....nothing to do. I grew to love it. I could be home when my oldest got on the school bus, I could enjoy my coffee before jetting off to work, but I sacrificed being home for dinner time, bath time, and bed time for the boys, and for five months, four nights a week, my poor wife had to handle that circus all alone, and with a five year old and a two year old, she had it worse than I ever did. Each shift has its drawbacks, but I've determined that I'd rather get up early for work, be done at a reasonable hour, and have the evening to decompress. Most likely however, with this new job, I'll be put on A-lines, which means driving home when everyone else is getting out of bed. THAT will mess with my sleep schedule a bit I think.