It's About Time!

17 months ago I had applied to become a full time California State Lifeguard. The long process began with a general written exam. After passing the exam there was an interview. Following the interview, a physical agility consisting of 6 test, a step test, weight carry, 500 yard run, dummy drag, 100 yard sprint and a swim test. In completion to the physical came the background investigation. Patiently, I got through the background and moved on to the last parts of the process, the medical and the psychological evaluation. Thankfully, I am both healthy and sane! One last minor hurdle, I had to complete states lifeguard cadet training since I was a guard coming from an outside agency. The cadet training was a week long and both mentally and physically demanding. 

Just to give you a rough time line, my initial application was submitted in the beginning of May 2007. My written exam was a month later, June 2, 2007. It took about 4 weeks to get my exam results and an interview date. The interview was somewhere in the second week of July 2007 and my results were mailed to me 5 weeks later. In the first week of September 2007 I was notified to report for my physical agility test on October 6, 2007. I was also mailed a 45-page background packet that had to be turned in the day of testing. Approximately 8 weeks after the physical agility I heard from a background investigator, it took him about 3-4 months to complete the background. April, 2008 I had my medical exam and in June I had a 500 question psych screening. It was June that I also completed the week long state lifeguard cadet training. Finally, August 5th, 2008, I had my last step, the psychological interview with a psychologist. 

Five weeks later I FINALY received the long awaiting phone call. I was officially accepted into a police academy offered by California State to become a full time State Lifeguard. Crazy thing is I leave in 5 weeks to Monterey, CA for 25 weeks. 

I am going to attempt to update this blog once a week to share my exciting journey to my future career.