Spring Time Madness

What a crazy month! March I was told I was to be made redundant, the business was closing and everyone was getting made redundant, a sad time but equally a great opportunity to find a job I enjoy doing.

So I immediately start looking for another job. The usual Admin jobs there are plenty of them, but boring! An interesting role with the local police force as an intelligence administrator, now that’s not boring! Logistics management job, marketing, business development -Via the local paper and agencies I am going mad applying for everything I know I can do (and that has a half decent wage). I also write to the recruitment department at the police to see if they have any space for me as I am not sure if I want a permanent job or a temporary one. They obviously say they cannot fast track me and I should keep waiting to hear from them around August time!

So I go off to a few interviews for permanent jobs (temporary ones are so insecure). I even apply again for a job as an immigration officer at Stansted Airport.

After a few weeks I am finally offered what could possibly be my dream job. It is business development for a new brand of sports clothing. Perfect with my sales skills and Sport Science degree, rugby experience and general love for sport. So I am all excited and happy I have a start date for the end of April, which gives me time between the old job and the new one. I have also been offered an interview for the immigration job and as a just in case I am going to go to the interview as I know it could take a few months to come through, which will give me chance to suss out the new business development role.

New Year and New News!!

At Last, I finally got a letter to tell me that the County Police which I have applied to have made some changes in their in take proceedure. I am currentlly in the Vetting stage of my application and they will contact me again when they are ready to make a conditional offer. HOWEVER, numbers of new trainees they can take on each month has been reducedwhich means the waiting list has increased. They are now expecting a waiting time 7-8 months or more!

I must admit I cried when I read this, not sure if it was good or bad news or just relief that they had got in touch. At least now I have 8 months to make plans, maybe go on holiday some where hot and help plan the next charity ball. Even better I will be able to concentrate at work without wondering when I might get a letter and have to move county. I have 8 months to enjoy myself and relax in the knowledge that the police are still aware of my existance and I haven't been forgotten!!

Happy New Year and best of luck for 2008!

Still No News!

I have had ups and downs in this waiting game. Still No News. Seems to be the only sentence I can keep telling people when they ask if I have heard anything more from the police yet!

I have heard that the force may have stopped recruiting, which could mean at least a 6 month wait. If this is true or false I have no idea. But it does give some reason behind this long and frustrating gap of nothingness!

I have decided to try and forget about my application into the life changing career of the Police and keep my head down in my current job. Enjoy the time I have with my boyfriend and other friends here. As I have no idea how much notice I will get if this all comes about. It could be a mad rush to relocate nearer to the job, which could mean not a lot of time to see all my friends here before I go.

So Christmas is on its way and I feel I am should make the most of it this year especially as it could be the last opportunity I get to spend a whole week at home with the family around a Christmas tree. I doubt I will be seeing Dad as he has had all leave cancelled over Christmas, at least I can stay at Mums and eat home cooked food for a week though!

October 2007 - Medical Examination

Finally the medical test day comes round. My two hour drive ahead of me I leave off early just incase there may be traffic or I get lost.

However, it turns out not to be early enough. I get stuck in traffic, apparently the whole road has been closed off both ways because of a fire and possible risk of a gas explosion! I am only 20 miles away from my destination. I move around 8 miles in 1hr 20mins. My 2 hour journey takes 4 hours!!! Luckily I have the doctors telephone number and have called to tell them I am going to be late, they are very understanding and tell me to get there by 3pm as the 'water' samples have to be collected by then.

An hour later I emerge from the doctors feeling thoroughly checked over. Hearing test, eye sight test, height and weight measured, lung capacity, drugs screening and urine sample taken. Oh and not forgetting being poked and prodded by the doctor to see if I had something else wrong with me. All Clear!! Now I guess I just have to WAIT to hear from the police again.

Well what a day of waiting my patients has been tested to its limits, I am now stuck in returning traffic because of the road closure. I pull over and try to read a map of the back roads which I skilful get lost on and then find my way again. All in all 7 hours driving in one day. Most moving at 2 miles an hour behind cars full of screaming children or business men talking on their mobiles (without hands free, tut tut). All I want by the time I get to my Mums is a home cooked meal and a bed!!!

Medical examiniation now over with and a good nights sleep had, I wake up o my mobile phone rining. 'Hi mate, anychance you can play rugby tomorrow, we are really short and really really need you?' Great, I cannot help but say yes, I might as well. I haven't played all season with fear of getting injured before my fitness or medical test. I could be waiting ages to hear anything more from the police and all the tests are now over with. So I squeeze onto the mini bus the next day with 16 of my team mates (yes only 16, and the sub is a back). That means I have to play a full game!

We lost, lots to nothing, not great! I got kicked in the face and have a lovely black eye, my shoulders hurt from scrumaging But at least England beat Australia in the World Cup, shame we don't have a female Jonny on our team!

September 2007 Waiting (a more appropriate title)

Throughout the whole of September I was getting frustrated and fed up with waiting. I had found out at my friends wedding that her Brother-In-Law had already had his medical assessment, 2 weeks after his fitness test. I was so annoyed that my appointment was so much later, 6 weeks after his. Well I guess it serves me right for being so fussy and wanting a Monday or Friday assessment date, just so I didn't have to book an odd day off from work in the middle of the week. At least with it being on a Friday I could have a long weekend visiting my family for a change! The only good news I have had this month is a letter from the bank; I have at last paid off one of my student debts, I am therefore a Not So Skint Graduate now!!

It is around here that all the news about police officers blogs come about. Yes, I am obviously a copy cat, but at least this blog focuses more on application to the police, in my still naive and innocent state of pre police officer training. Not like many of the sarcastic and grumpy police officers who already have blogs. Spending my time waiting in the run up to the medical I have time to look through some of the other police officers blogs and even read ‘Diary of an on call girl’, which I find very funny and insightful. I then create this little piece of online blog space, not sure if anyone will ever read it, but at least it helps me vent some frustration with all the waiting I have been doing. According to PC Bloggs, waiting is an art best learnt quickly as a police officer. I think I may have cracked it already!!

August 2007 Fitness Test

For the last 7 months four friends and I had been planning a Summer Ball in memory of a friend killed by a ‘drug driver’ in a car accident, we use the ball as an excuse to raise lots of money for a charity in South Africa too. It was getting closer and I am getting busier and more stressed with it all.

I received a letter at last telling me that my Fitness Test date had come through, yippy, that means I passed the Assessment Centre. I make what seems like hundreds of calls to my family telling them that I have basically got in. The hard part is over. There is not really that much physically wrong with me so the fitness test and medical should not be a problem. And to my knowledge I am not a terrorist nor have been involved in any sort of crime that would fail my security checks. When I tell Dad over the phone I can literally visualise him punching the air as he shouts ‘yes, well done girl’ down the phone at me.

However, the fitness test is the same day as the Summer Ball. Do I reschedule the fitness test or just go for it? I call up the recruitment team and ask them when the next fitness tests will be, not till November. Humm, sod it, I will go on the Saturday before racing back to decorate the Hall and then throwing on a dress for the Ball.

Like I said, the ball was getting close, as was the fitness test and I suddenly come down with a sore throat and heavy chest. I rush to the doctors, I CANNOT be ill this week! The very nice Doc tells me to take the rest of the week off work and rest up. Apparently I am run down and my body needs sleep and I need to relax. Yeah, like there is any chance of that happening. I do take 2 days off however.

Test Day
Up and out nice and early I race to the station for my scheduled and pre-booked train. I am no a tight time schedule today. If anything over runs that will make everything late! Putting my trust like this into the Great British Rail service turns out to be a very silly thing to have done. As the train arrives at halfway station (1hr into the journey) an announcement is made telling everyone we will be sat there for 45 minutes as the police have closed the lines ahead. Great! I make an emergency call to my dearest Daddy who comes flying to the rescue (how useful he only lives 10 mins away). Then I call the recruitment team, no answer, so I call another number. The poor guy has no idea what I am talking about, I tell him it is imperative that he gets a message to the recruitment team or fitness instructor to tell them I am late. Dad pulls up and I jump in. I call the police recruitment number again and this time get someone who seems to know what I am talking about. 3 minutes later I get a call telling me not to worry lots of people are running late, so they have put my test back an hour! This is partly a good thing, and partly bad. I will now miss my return train.

Fitness!! If you can call it that. A warm up, light jog and some stretches. Then the dreaded bleep test, wow this chest infection / run down illness thing has really taken it out of me. However, I successfully get to the level required (which is well below my average (8.5) and even further below my personal best (10.4, aged 15)). Then I am the first to be called into a tiny room where a strange looking bit of gym equipment awaits me. The push and pull test! I am not sure I got the timing right and not even sure I pushed enough weight, I had my eyes closed with all the effort I was putting in.
The Fitness Instructor comes out after testing everyone and congratulates us all on passing. I am just leaving off when a random guy walks in and says ‘sorry I am late, the trains were delayed. I am here to do the fitness test’. I giggle to myself knowingly as I rush down the stairs.

Back into Dads car, back to the train station and jump onto a train luckily with no ticket check. 1 hours later I rush home, run to the venue an hour late, help finish off the decorations. Then home, shower, throw on an old shirt and drive the hair dressers. While she does my hair while I do my make up and we have a good gossip, but she does burn my ear on the tongs, OUCH! Then home again, where all my friends are already drinking, put on my dress and shoes where they have been neatly laid out for the last two days. And then the Taxi arrives. Rush over, we held an amazing ball for 300 people and raised nearly £8,000 for the charity. All in all a very productive day!

June 2007 Assessment Centre

Pre-Assessment Centre Briefing.
Lucky for me I had holiday booked for two weeks. So the Pre-Assessment Centre Briefing fell right in the middle of the holiday. It meant that my holiday plans had to change, but at least I didn't have to make excuses at work or book more time off.

As I queued up outside of the meeting room, I spotted one of my good friends future brother-in-law. It seemed strange, the last time I saw him was probably when we were teenagers. There were about 50 people in the room, most had arrived on time, in smart suits, though one or two I spotted were sporting jeans or trackies, not very professional I thought. We sat through the briefing, frantically scribbling down notes on every word of advice they gave us.

Most of these potential future police officers seemed around my age, in their 20’s. I was one of about 9 females in the room, a poor resemblance to the real life male to female ratio I thought. I recall sitting there weighing up my chances of passing all the entry requirements and how I would compare to the others. I felt sure that some of the other girls in the room were unlikely to pass the strength test during the fitness assessment, particularly the girl in 4 inch stiletto’s, a very short skirt and low cut top, with a perfect manicure and makeup. Here I was in a trouser suit, flat pumps and no makeup and broken nails from last weeks rugby training.

So fully prepared from the briefing I trotted outside to my Dad. The now recently retired Inspector was waiting in the car park full of interrogation questions for me all the way back to his place. ‘Yes Dad, No Dad, I don’t know Dad, I will have to wait till the Assessment Centre Dad’. This questioning was a fairly regular treatment in my childhood I had nearly forgotten about it since leaving home. I guess if I get into the police I will learn to be just as skilled and annoying as he is at interrogating questions and lie detection.

The Big Day.
I have booked my train ticket in advance and am so very nervous. My train gets delayed and I have to run to get a cab as I come out of the station. Luckily I get to the police Assessment Centre in time, to be sat in reception and told to wait.

Eventually we are escorted through to an examination room where we are divided into groups. There is 1 other female in my group of 8. We are now taken to the old accommodation block where were are squeezed into a tiny room before being interviewed one on one, then assessed in role plays. I hadn’t been very worried about this stage of the assessments. However, it was horrid. I couldn’t think of examples to use for my answers in the one on one interview. I then lost my words and felt unprepared in the role plays. Surely I was not going to pass, these were timed interviews and after every question they kept telling me I still had time spare – arr panic I must say something, and some random repeat of what I have just said blurts out of my mouth. What an idiot, I emerge from the room glad to see the red faces of the other interviewees; thank goodness I am not the only one who found that hard!!

We are then taken back to the exam room to sit several long paper based examinations. This is the bit I have been dreading. The Pre-Assessment Briefing had made me very nervous about this. Only up to 4 spelling or grammatical errors are allowed, or you will fail. You must score a least a minimum % in all tests put together to pass. My ‘specific learning difficulty’ could really cause me a problem, I just got to try and not use any long words and stick to the basics, just like they told us to.

After 5 whole hours of being assessed I am absolutely shattered, physically and mentally. So I head off to the pub to meet up with some old school friends for dinner and drinks, a good way to relax after such a long and tiring day. I then head home on the 2 hour train journey and yet another long wait to find out if I passed. Fingers Crossed!!