Putting forth the effort to join for something greater than myself.

[MacGuy]

I have been described as trying to save the world and being selfless as opposed to selfish. I'm the only grandson of my grandfather that went into the military, he was retired a Lt out of the Newark PD(NJ)(26yrs) and always wanted me to consider law enforcement since he felt I would be good at it because of my character outside of some of my mistakes. I'm 36 years old going on 37 and a single father of my son since 04. Been struggling financially since that time and even before then when I had my son's mother, step-daughter, and son under one roof. Trying to support all of us on my $9.50 a hour job at the time. I have a pretty consistent job history and as far as I know would get good reviews from past jobs. The last one I don't know though because I was supposed to be getting transferred to another job site(working security) that never materialized and I never heard back from my many calls to our office.

I have been out of work since April of last year and yes I have been pounding the pavement job hunting ever since even getting up early going to daily labor and daily pay to no avail. Luckily me and my son reside with my father. I have always gone back and forth with doing law enforcement and the reason why was my credit not good at all I think. I am in default in student loans and the amount of money they asked me to pay even when I was paying was quite a bit I was paying at a time when I wasn't on deferrment but at the time I was single. None of my jobs even when my wife was working at the time was enough to pay bills and make payments. There was a jobsite my last jobsite where I was a whole year it was being paid but I was at 60 hours but once I got cut back to 40 hours was a different story. A few months before my last jobsite I started a loan rehabilitation program to get me out of default but with me not working that came to a stop. i have applied to other security companies and anything under the sun but with my car being out of commission for sitting less time than I have been out of work, money ran out on paying insurance, paid off. Where I'm at you pretty much need a car to get around. I have been getting around on the bus system. I have the apps for a few police depts but worried about the credit issue namely the default on my student loans which is not just a couple of thousands.

I know I will probably take some hits on my story I can deal with it, being a single father is thick skin developing experience. I want to be able to show my son something greater than myself and at the same time show him taking the hard road sometimes is a challenge that makes you a better person. I don't get child support and his mother is not a factor in his life. I'm pretty much on my own doing this and would love to know am I setting myself up for even more disappointment and pain by attempting law enforcement. It's hard to keep my spirits up but my son deserves that and more not to mention I can't afford to let him see me let this get to me.

[DeltaV]

By all means go for it if it's something you want to do.

That said, there are a few things that are going to go against you before your credit situation even comes into play. First, because of the hard economic times, agencies are seeing a huge surge in applications. In addition to the typical applicant who is right out of either the military or college, lots of people from other career fields are applying for LE jobs because of the job security. Not only do you need to have better qualifications than the rest of the applicant pool, but you have to be able to convince the department that you're trying to go into LE because you really want to and not just because of the poor economy. While 37 is not too old to enter this profession, some people may question whether or not you really want to be in LE or whether LE is a last resort because you've been out of work for so long.

I mean no offense to you here, but if you haven't been able to get a job in the security field in the past year where the standards are relatively low, I really question whether you will have the qualifications that most departments want (college, military, a good background) in order to land a LE job. I'm not telling you not to apply, however you need to realize an already competitive field is now more competitive than it was a few years ago.

[MacGuy]

No offense taken, in regard to obtaining a job in security field. Once my insurance ran out on my car and the money for it, I immediately stopped driving my car and started taking the bus. The public transportation system is limited in where it goes and its operation times. What knocks me out in regard to getting a job is they always ask do you have reliable transportation and I put yes but confined to public transportation which is well known here to be not all that great. Not to mention my availabilty is limited due to having my son and that his school is not in our residential neighborhood, I have sent him to a new school in a affluent area for a better education and its a long bus ride for him. What little help I get from others has been limited. My last job I was gung ho about was loss prevention as a stepping stone to law enforcement. I worked for free. You wasn't getting paid unless you made it out of training which consisted of 3 day classroom, a final test, and then field training for a week in the chain grocery store. 2 diff 1 lpo each store. What I didn't know is you don't make it out of training unless you make a apprehension. I didn't make any and couldn't afford to be working for free trying to walk around daily trying to make a apprehension. My trainer only caught one person that week.

In that past not going int LE was always because I was trying to make a gf happy or eventually my wife.Working a 3rd shift which is what I had allowed me and would allow me to not miss out on my son and his activities. This year I decided to live for me, I have made tremendous sacrifice for others never really myself and just bit the bullet. Tis time with nothing else panning out I figure its time to put my dreams in motion in compared to only iiving my life for my family.