A Few Background Questions...

[CivilianHopeful]

I appreciate the resources this board provides. Invaluable information for a potential candidate. I am thinking about applying with my local police department early next year. I want to tell all of you my situation as I think it is not the average run of the mill type situation.

I have worked in a family owned business up until I was 27 years old. I then started up a machine shop type business manufacturing my own product line. This has lasted up until the early part of this year due to how the economy has gone. I am currently 34 and starting out in a new business adventure.

When I was 21 years old I joined the local Sheriffs Reserve. The Reserve pretty much accepted anyone with a decent record as each Reserve Officer furnished their own uniform and equipment. Requirements were 200-300 hours classroom instruction and 200 hours of ride along. The main goal of the Reserve was to accompany a full time deputy so they are not alone. I ended up quiting after fulfilling the basic requirements of their program. This was due to my young age for starters. Immature and broke are certainly not far behind. I was married at this time which last a little bit less than a year. Some of the frustration was that I knew we married to young and things weren't working out. Paying for my own uniform and equipment just added strain to the whole situation. Living 25 miles out of town also added extra travel time and fuel cost to the situation. The reserve commander called me urging me to stay in, but I indicated that I couldn't and had a few things to deal with.

Shortly after getting divorced I ended up getting a different truck which was louder and faster than my previous one. I turned into a hotrod there for a couple of months. Got a wreckless driving and a speeding ticket. All this was when I was around 22-23 years old. About a year later an old high school friend wanted me to try weed. He was curious to see what effect it would have on me. I never smoked anything. Not even tried a cigarette up until this point. I reluctantly agreed. After doing this twice it never had much of an effect on me and I just didn't really see the point to it. After this I pretty much just worked and kept my nose clean.

I got out of the family business when I turned 27. I bought a little bit of machine shop equipment and came up with a couple of good items that I designed, manufactured, and sold myself. The overhead was extremely high and profits low so I was basically paying for my own hands-on education. I moved out of borrowed space 4 years later and into a 50x75 metal building which I built entirely by myself. Shortly thereafter I added my 1st employee and gained a large customer. A few months later I had 3-4 employees. Before you know it I basically tried to grow too big too fast. I got yanked around by the accounting department of my largest customer a few times. All profit went to pay employees. Then I had to rely on credit cards. Then I borrowed money against a piece of property that I owned. Ended up also having to borrow money from a family member. At one point I was up to 80k-90k in debt. One problem is that I could never find any "good" help and kept finding ones that would occupy space. I finally found that one "good" employee during the last year. He easily replaced everyone else combined. I slowly turned everything around and have paid off all my debts. I currently do not owe anything to anyone. My credit is now bad, but do not ever plan on having to rely on credit again. The only thing I have to show for my efforts is a metal building. The last 3 years I probably worked a good 60-70 hours a week. A couple of times I thought about filing bankruptcy, but never did. I ended up busty my hump to make things work. A lot of the driving force behind my work ethic was not wanting to quit like I did when I was 21.

I am not worried about any written or physical tests. With how tough being self-employed has treated me in the last few years my confidence levels have shot up much higher. I believe that in an oral interview that I can look through the uniform or suit and see a person sitting across from me.

Well... What do you guys think?? Any red flags? Would I have a chance or do I have too much baggage to carry around?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[DeltaV]

Less than three years from your marijuana use will hurt you and will DQ you at some places. Most agencies like at least three years (if not five) since the last time you used marijuana.

The reckless driving charge will also hurt, however whether or not it would DQ you would depend on the department.

When you say your credit is bad, just how bad? Bad credit is another red flag, however that is something that you probably can overcome if you explain everything to them about getting yourself out of debt.

There's nothing horrible in your background, however everything combined will definitely not put you at the top of the list. Do you have a degree? Military experience? Anything that would make you more qualified than the next guy?

[CivilianHopeful]

It has been at least 10 full years since my 2 tickets. Same with the experimentation with marijuana. Nothing since then. With the amount of time that has passed it would seem obvious that there is not a pattern.

Since I grew up in a family construction business there was not much incentive to go to college. I did go part time and accumulated about 30 hours of credit. At that time I still didn't know what I wanted to do so I couldn't envision working towards a degree. I seriously thought about joining the marines and wished I had. My father was in the Army during the Korean war and he advised me against the military as quality of life would be better otherwise. Working in a family business is not always a gravy train like most people would like to believe. Everyday was a race to see how much I could get done. I drove a few workers into the ground because they couldn't keep up. Of course I did not want to do this the rest of my life either.

I got out of that business 7 years ago when I was about 27 years old. I bought some machine shop tools and proceeded to machining parts. I designed, setup, programmed, finished, packaged, and marketed my own product line. At the height of my business 2 years ago I had at least one guy working 24 hrs./day. For 2 months I had a guy machining parts 1st, 2nd, and 3rd shift. Carried my cell phone at all times. A machine would tear up at 4 a.m. I would get up, go to the shop, simply hit a couple of buttons to reset something, and go back home to bed. Of course at that rate I couldn't go on forever and thankfully things went on for only a couple of months like that. Lots of times my 40 hour week was already finished on noon Wednesday. I tried to grow to fast and took on a lot of overhead. I had $53k in credit card bills, $24k credit line, borrowed $7.5k from a family member, owed on some of the equipment, and also some on the building itself. I slowly started getting rid of employees 1 by 1 and doing things differently. In a year or so I paid off all debts and have sold most all equipment.

What is crummy is after spending 6-7 years working towards something I don't have that piece of paper stating that I have achieved something. Nothing to show to the folks who do not know me. No graduation ceremony. I believe that if I got up in front of a panel for an oral interview that they would not fully understand or appreciate the amount of work and dedication that I am capable of. The markets changed and gas prices went up. That was about it for what I was doing. My credit used to be about 780-790 up until 2 years ago. It is now bad enough that I don't receive many credit card offers. If I do then they will have yearly fees, high interest rates, and low limits. Right now it kinda peeves me that my credit could be considered an issue when compared to the situation that I worked my way out of. Most people would probably have given up and filed for bankruptcy. On paper there will probably be many more people that will *appear* more qualified. My question is... Are they? That is the sad part for me.

[Samuel]

TMI... "Just the facts, Ma'am"...

[CivilianHopeful]

TMI... "Just the facts, Ma'am"...

Yes, I did go overboard. Most posts I see don't have enough info. I figure that my employment history and what I did will not be fully understood. What I hate being told is that something might be an issue. The issue is so large or so small when compared to the number of applicants and positions to be filled.

[mcsap]

You have some explainable bruises on your background. I would suggest you find out what the PD/SO has for a drug policy and barring any other unforseen events, apply.

[txinvestigator1]

What is it with the 20-somethings these days? I see it all of the time. Lack of personal respnsibility, blaming others, low work ethic, etc.

I then started up a machine shop type business manufacturing my own product line. This has lasted up until the early part of this year due to how the economy has gone

?? Other than gas being up, the economy is fine. My wife's, high end retail men's skin care and shaving line is up all over the country. The realtor who sold us our house last year became a friend, and she has had a banner year this year. Businesses fail because owners want to just blame, "the economy" rather than work harder and look for innovative ways to increase business.

I ended up quiting after fulfilling the basic requirements of their program. This was due to my young age for starters

What? At 21 I moved 400 miles away and became a full time cop. I purchased ALL of my gear for the academy. Over half of our class was not local, and nearly half was married.

Shortly after getting divorced I ended up getting a different truck which was louder and faster than my previous one. I turned into a hotrod there for a couple of months. Got a wreckless driving and a speeding ticket. All this was when I was around 22-23 years old. About a year later an old high school friend wanted me to try weed. He was curious to see what effect it would have on me. I never smoked anything. Not even tried a cigarette up until this point. I reluctantly agreed.

This speaks for itself. A full fledged adult that should be moving forward with his life. Sad.

Before you know it I basically tried to grow too big too fast. I got yanked around by the accounting department of my largest customer a few times. All profit went to pay employees. Then I had to rely on credit cards. Then I borrowed money against a piece of property that I owned. Ended up also having to borrow money from a family member. At one point I was up to 80k-90k in debt. One problem is that I could never find any "good" help and kept finding ones that would occupy space.

How I would love to live in a world where everything is someone elses fault.

The markets changed and gas prices went up. That was about it for what I was doing. My credit used to be about 780-790 up until 2 years ago. It is now bad enough that I don't receive many credit card offers. If I do then they will have yearly fees, high interest rates, and low limits. Right now it kinda peeves me that my credit could be considered an issue when compared to the situation that I worked my way out of. Most people would probably have given up and filed for bankruptcy

Now you blame outside influences outside of your control, then boast that you should be praised because you didn't file bankruptcy.


You are going to be mad at me reading this, but after you do I hope you thoughtfully consider what I am telling you. I see a series of bad decisions followed by immaturity in blaming other things rather than looking for where YOU went wrong and figuring how to improve yourself.

If I were an interviewer and heard all of your excuses, (that's what they are, even though you don't see it) I would summarily dismiss you as a candidate.

I don't want to discourage you, but to motivate you to re-evaluate yourself and see where changes in your thinking might help you.

Best of luck to you.

[CivilianHopeful]

TxInvestigator1, I am currently 34. 35 in 1 week. You refer to me as a 20's something. Did you not read all of my posts thoroughly??? Read the part where I was 27 years old, but that was 7 years ago. I see that I rubbed you wrong right from the beginning. This is why I have a concern. I don't want to get interviewed by a person like you and get the wrong impression right off the bat when that is certainly not the case. I don't want to waste my time on someone jumping to conclusions, but and honest and fair chance to hear what I have done and for it to be considered.

I got out of the family business that I was in so that I could start something on my own. Where whatever happened was 100% my own responsibility and fault. Yes I did some boneheaded things in my early-mid 20's. Probably enough to knock me down the list from any agency. The last 10 years(read and reread mid 20's then, mid 30's now) I have been working as hard as I can and have been as straight as an arrow.

I merely tried to highlight the struggles of the business that I got involved with. I jumped in feet first, became heavily invested, and had to make it work all the way out to the end which was 6-7 years later. I endured several years of total loss at which point most people would quit and find something else to do. I am sorry that you look at person trying and sticking it out as a negative issue. What would you suggest otherwise to put a person in positive light?

TxInvestigator1... You are so wrong about why my business ended. It was certainly not due to lack of effort as you would like to believe. Maybe I did a poor job of explaining of what I did. My business was making aftermarket automotive accessories. Extremely high demand 7 years ago, virtually none today. The items I made matured in their life cycle, the vehicle market changed, gas prices went up, and people stopped buying items that they necessarily did not need. Getting retooled to make other parts just was not feasible due to the costs involved. Has your buying and travel habits changed in the last year as gas has shot up 1/3 in price? Do you buy less and conserve as your paycheck doesn't go as far? You bet. When less items are purchased then certain industries will slow down and close regardless of what you can be done about it. Maybe the airlines are not trying hard enough despite their #1 cost which is fuel has double in price over the past year. From your perspective those airlines must be some lazy outfits.

I am glad that your wifes skin care business is doing well. Retail is certainly different from manufacturing. Your wife's business is doing well as her customers probably have enough money to insulate themselves from the economy. Not everyone is like that. To paint everything with this broad brush just shows you don't completely understand and probably don't want to. Lets say your wife designed and manufactured every single item she sold. Well if her items don't sell she couldn't very easily turn around and change production without incurring a lot of cost and time. Compare that to simply finding a new supplier off the internet or out of the phonebook. In less than 5 minutes she could order different products and change the direction of her business without much effort. Your realtor... You live in Dallas/FortWorth?? No wonder your realtor is doing well with the oil boom going on. Are you nieve enough to think that your local economy reflects the rest of the country?? Lets say your realtor lived in California, Las Vegas, or Florida. I seriously doubt that she would be having a banner year no matter how hard she worked in these locations due to the housing markets. If she lived in Florida selling Condos and things weren't working out for her I guess you would simply say that she just needs to try harder when she doesn't have a chance. In certain areas yes the housing market is doing good with moderate home prices and good local economies. My state is one of those.

You have pointed out a retail industry job and a service sector job. The set of variables between those two jobs and those of manufacturing are so totally different. I just cannot fathom how you can link the success of two service sector jobs with the failure of a manufacturing sector job. Somehow equate and broadly label that a person must have just been lazy and not worked hard enough. That is so stupid! This is part of the problem with why America is a nation of consumers and why as a whole we are losing wealth everyday.

[txinvestigator1]

TxInvestigator1, I am currently 34. 35 in 1 week. You refer to me as a 20's something. Did you not read all of my posts thoroughly??? BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.

No more questions, your Honor.

[CivilianHopeful]

Overruled

[txinvestigator1]

Overruled

No, I have BTDT, lived on my own at 18, was a cop at 21, have had several successful businesses, and never blamed the economy, my age or others for my mistakes and failures. I took my lumps and *** chewings, learned from them, and did better for myself.

Have I been perfect? A huge NO. But my daddy taught me that no one was responsible for my success or failure but ME.

My post to you was intended to show you a different perspective, one that will help you. You seem to believe your thinking is fine; well as Dr Phil asks, "how's that working for ya"?

Still, good luck.

[CivilianHopeful]

I may seem, but am not blaming anyone or anything. I have absolutely no regrets with how things turned out because I did the best that I could do with what I knew at the time. I never quit. I am proud as I made myself work through problems which I unknowingly at the time got myself into. I simply believe that most people would have folded under pressure and I feel like that is something that should be worth counting.

[txinvestigator1]

I may seem, but am not blaming anyone or anything. I have absolutely no regrets with how things turned out because I did the best that I could do with what I knew at the time. I never quit. I am proud as I made myself work through problems which I unknowingly at the time got myself into. I simply believe that most people would have folded under pressure and I feel like that is something that should be worth counting.

You are looking for that pat on the back for not making worse decisons than you did. I just don't get it.

[CivilianHopeful]

The world of hurt that I put myself in was my fault. I am not looking for a pat on the back for not putting myself in an even worse position, but a pat on the back on how I handled myself getting straightened out would certainly be nice.