Personal History, My

I am applying to a job with the Pierce County Animal Control. This is a great job and I am excited for the opportunity but there is a catch.

First I had to take a test, which cost me $10, just to get seen as a viable candidate. So I went and paid my $10 and took the test with all the ridiculous questions. I get that they want to know how I react to certain situations and judging by my score (90%) I think I did okay. Of all the people that took the test (approximately 400) they were only going to choose 50.

I was picked as a candidate, but the journey to gainful employment with the Pierce County Animal Control Office is only beginning. You see back in the day the Animal Control was hired, fired, and supervised by the Auditors office without any help from outside sources. This only required the normal government background check and a couple of interviews. Now in an effort to make the office more law enforcement friendly they have outsourced the hiring process to the Pierce County Sheriff's Department. This is all fine and well but the require a lot more of their employees then animal control.

The PCSD requires an extensive personal history from all of their applicants. I have been sitting with the document open typing in names and phone numbers. E-mail addresses and real addresses. Yet I am still missing information. I have asked people for it multiple times an not received anything. I have racked my brain as to how I can remember the names of my co-workers when I was 16 and worked for the Youth Conservation Corp. I even went so far as to e-mail the head of the Pacific Region of YCC and asked for the information and got nothing in return. I asked for work numbers and got cell phone numbers, of people I had texted for the information.

So after I turn this paperwork in, by 8AM tomorrow morning, I will get a pre-oral interview and must bring in hard copies of the paperwork along with my HS Diploma, Birth Certificate, SS Card, Driver's License, and a Driving Abstract (Which I already paid for but didn't have a printer so I have to pay again at the actual office). Then I will have psychological tests and another interview, and all sorts of crazy stuff. Then they will have at the end dwindled it down to 9 candidates for 3 positions.

If it is this hard for me to get this information can you imagine what it is going to be like for someone twice my age. Or even someone a few years older then me. I am lucky that I have a small family and am not married, without kids and have only had a few jobs in my life. Plus I don't have any military or law enforcement background so I got to skip whole sections of the paperwork.

Oddly enough there are some things they didn't bother asking. Like my grandparents information, do they just assume that everyone that applies has no living grandparents? I have their information and would have loved to have put it down but they didn't seem to want it. I guess I will just have to pretend that they are dead or something.

I warn you now, only apply with a sheriff's department if you are prepared for the background check.

Tuesday.