I’m getting things together to apply as a Deputy Sheriff at a southwestern Washington Sheriff’s Office. The past six years I’ve been a security guard, and through a process of repeated contract acquisitions, reassignments, and a few voluntary resignations I know that my employment background looks very unstable. On top of that, one of the listed disqualifies for the agency I’m considering is having three or more terminations, which I have
Criminally, my background is clean. Between finances and employment, I worry that my social background may take a hit
If you have three terminations, and they say that three terminations is a disqualification, then you have a zero percent chance of being hired by that agency.
You should find a job, stick with it for two or three years and apply to a different agency that won't DQ for the terminations.
So your paragraph about contract acquisitions if your company was bought out and you got laid off that’s not a termination. Likewise if you are a contractor and your contract ended early for 100 different reasons that’s not a termination that’s just life. But if you fired three three times getting hired is gonna be difficult at this point.
But places are so short staffed I wouldn’t put your chances at zero honestly.
3 terminations, or just laid off? Because it takes quite a bit to get fired from a security job, so if you were really fired I really want to know what you did to get fired three times.
3 terminations. One was from my first job for theft (which was nearly 10 years ago now), one I suspect was retaliatory as it came two weeks after I made a complaint against my immediate supervisor, and the last one is a very long story
Lol you aren't going to be hired at any reputable agency.
Wait several years and get some stable employment, if that's possible for you.
I have stable employment. Like I said, it looks unstable because there have been so many contract buyouts. Company B obtains location X from Company A and starts making schedule adjustments. Company B moves me to location Y which is then acquired by Company C. There’ve even been a few times where the client terminates the security contract and the new provider doesn’t offer positions to existing staff, or there is no new provider
Security grew a lot during COVID. After the restrictions were lifted, both sides were left with contracts and staff they didn’t really want. Why does that mean I couldn’t be a cop?
Number one, employers changing hands and contracts being terminated aren't the same as being fired. You said you've been fired at least three times.
Number one, you've been fired three times and that does not meet the minimum requirements of the job you applied for, so you can't work there. That easy.
Two, on the job thefts are a huge character issue that is going to keep you from just about any policing job that exists. You don't get to commit crimes AND be a cop.
And three, you're clearly minimizing your actions, not being blunt about the whole truth of the matter...you take that crap into a hiring process and you're toast. Brutal honesty is the only way.
None of your actions tell anybody that you're the type of person who should be a cop, and that's if you were qualified, which by at least one agency's standards, you are not.
Let's assume you've made a complete 180-degree turn around from all that...you still don't get to just say "I'm different now" and now all of that stuff doesn't count. You gotta put a lot of time and distance between it and PROVE you're a different person.
I think that there’s a line to be drawn between not going into explicit detail on a public forum about the reasons for my departure from every job I’ve ever had and assuming that I’m minimizing my accountability. I don’t deny that I stole. Thankfully, my previous employer never pursued criminal charges. I got a letter of demand asking that I pay back the value of what I stole plus additional attorney’s fees, and I paid it
The big thing I’m curious about is whether there is any discretion on the investigator’s side when it comes to my terminations and if I’ll have the opportunity to explain, openly and honestly, why my job history looks the way that it does
Edit: Typo
I was 26 when I applied. I got my first job when I was 16 and at no point during those years was I unemployed. The only time I didn't technically have a paying job was during the fall when I was in college because I was in marching band and didn't have time for one.
Most of that time I held 2 or 3 jobs at once. Generally 1 job was my "main job" while I also had 1 or 2 other side jobs (even if all of them were part time) that I held for much short periods of time. Looking at my job history without paying attention to the dates it looked like I was job hoping and is something my board kept harping on until I got a little annoyed about and firmly, but respectfully told them to actually look at the dates on those jobs and see how many overlapped and how often I was working multiple jobs, but that I also had 3 "main" jobs that I worked at for 4+ years (including my first job at a gas station.)
I was never terminated from any of them, always left on good terms, and always had a good reason why I left.
If the agency says 3 or more terminations is a DQ and you have 3 or more termination then you're sol. Were you actually fired or are those "terminations" from when contracts were acquired, canceled, etc? There's a difference and if you lost your job because it was a contract job and the contract was canceled then that shouldn't be considered a termination usually.
Based on your replies in the comments, find a different field to pursue. Admitting to theft from an employer too isn't a "clean criminal background," it's just not a criminal record. That alone can DQ you permanently from many agencies.
Why?
That I didn’t know, which is a big reason why I asked this question. I was under the impression that things like past criminal activity won’t be disqualifying if there is time separating you from it and you can show change through present actions. I’m not a thief now. I made a stupid decision 8, 9 years ago which I took as a learning opportunity and never repeated