Employment History & Contracts

[midcoaster]

Hello,
  I have a question that I haven't seen brought up anywhere yet. I have heard that a lot of agencies will be hesitant to take a chance on an otherwise qualified applicant, if that applicant doesn't possess a strong employment history. I can understand the reasoning behind this, considering the great expense that agencies incur, in order to investigate an applicant and then train that applicant to be a police officer. Being the mother of three and the spouse of an active duty Air Force member, I possess a less than spectacular employment history. Don't get me wrong, while at the jobs I did hold, I was a hard working and dependable employee, I just haven't held any long term jobs; the longest job that I have held was just over a year long, I had to leave that job when my husband joined the Air Force, and I relocated to join him. After that I had my children and it was just hard to hold a job that paid barely more than minimum wage and be able to pay for child care. I tried numerous times to take a job with hours that would fit my husband's schedule in order for him to watch our kids, but being military, his schedule wasn't something that could be relied upon; I would then have to leave these jobs when his schedule would change after a few months. I also wanted to be primarily a stay at home mother while my children were younger, because I wanted to provide my children with as much stability as possible given the nature of military life. I worry that any agencies that I apply with will look at me as being unreliable and DQ me based on a lack of a strong employment history. Does anyone here know if an agency might take my circumstances into account, when considering my employment history? I do have volunteer work history as well, in fact I am currently volunteering with a chemical awareness youth drop in center in my community, that works collaboratively with the local police dept. (the local PD isn't hiring ) I have entertained the idea of approaching the agencies that I am applying with, to offer to sign a binding contract should they hire me. I would be willing to do this if it would alleviate any concerns that they may have regarding my dependability. Is this something that is ever done? Would it be appropriate? I just want to convey to any agency that I am applying with, that my intentions to remain with them long term are sincere. If offering to sign a contract isn't a good idea, I would welcome any alternative advice that anyone could provide me with.  <br>
Thank you in advance,
Lisa    <br>
Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.           <br>                                              -Thomas Jefferson  <br>

[JimCMR]

Hello again Lisa;

To be short & sweet, I don't believe your employment history should be a problem, it can be easily explained, and is acceptable.

About the contract, I have never heard of such a thing in Police Depts., but it may exist.  I don't think it would be necessary to bring up, and I don't think you should.

Any officer hired never knows how long they will stay on the job, for many different reasons, so an employment contract is unnecessary.  The only ones I know about now is the training reimbursment if an officer leaves in the first year or 2 to go to another department.

Good luck, and keep up the good questions   JimCMR

[midcoaster]

Hello Jim,
      Thank you so much for coming through for me yet again, you have been an excellent and dependable source of advice for me, through what has been a completely foreign hiring process for me. I must say that I am learning a lot.

My first impression was that offering to sign a contract may not be appropriate, but I try never to assume anything. I figured that if I had to sign a binding contract with Agency X for X amount of time, and I found that Agency X wasn't necessarily what I had expected it to be, I would still ethically be obligated to remain with that agency for a decent amount of time, considering the time and expense that they would have went to in order to hire and train me. I was and am still prepared to stay with what ever agency I am hired at for at least two years, even if I find that I am less than thrilled with the agency after the fact. I shouldn't put myself in the position of not knowing enough about that agency before I apply with them to begin with, so I have been doing my homework and hopefully shouldn't find myself in this particular situation. If I am happy with my hiring agency, they can expect me to rot there.  

That being said, I also know that it is hard to determine the inside politics of a particular agency from outside appearances and information, but I am doing everything within my power to find out all of the inside info. that I can about the inner workings and politics of the agencies that I am applying with.

I just applied with a smaller agency that is in the town next to mine, a huge contrast from the large department that I am also applying to. I have yet to receive my written test results from the large agency, but they aren't due back for about another week yet. I wouldn't mind working for the much smaller agency, I can see the benefits of both types of agencies. While I would welcome the much faster pace of the large agency, I would also enjoy the many benefits of working on a smaller force, such as being able to know everyone on your force; something not always possible in a large agency.

I guess I just look at my resume and sort of cringe when I try to look at it through the agency's eyes. I guess my chance to prove myself to them will be during the oral board, but I guess I worry in the back of my mind that I won't make it even that far, when they look at my employment history.

I have been doing everything that I can to prove my sincerity in my pursuit of a LEO job. In addition to my volunteer work at the youth center, I have joined a community leadership initiative in New Hampshire for Substance abuse awareness and increasing access to treatment for substance abuse addiction. I just recently attended an all day retreat for this collaboration that helped me to learn a lot about these issues.

I also just completed participation in a pilot parent/youth chemical awareness program that met once a week for four weeks at the youth center that I volunteer with. It was a collaboration of the center and the local PD in which we did chemical awareness for local under age drinking offenders and their parents. I will also be volunteering with a local county affiliated domestic violence program, that offers domestic violence training in exchange for volunteering at least one day a month answering their hot line.

I have also befriended one of the officers on our local PD that I met through my volunteer work. He is going to help me to get sponsored to attend the state's required 100 hour Police Pre-certification Program, it is an abbreviated form of the police academy that will prepare you to go directly on street duty with your FTO while you wait for an academy opening, it makes you much more hirable if you have it already, although a lot of agencies will hire you without it. You can't sponsor yourself to attend the academy in the states of Maine or New Hampshire.

I have heard about the training reimbursement contract, and I can fully understand the reasoning behind that.

Well I can see that I have typed a novel again, I have a tendency to be a wee bit on the wordy side. ;D

Thanks again Jim, Have a great weekend.

Lisa