After a couple of months of waiting and wondering, the wait is over, my DBS has been completed and it is as expected, clear. So the final hurdle overcome, confirmation from work that all is well, and I start training NEXT WEEK !!
It has taken so long, yet come around so quickly at the same time. It is genuinely hard to comprehend how two events on the same timeline can seemingly have take such different amounts of time, when in fact they are hour for hour identical.
Going back to January when the redundancy news first hit, I had an idea of how it would play out. Both an ideal scenario, and an expected one. Ironically timescale wise, things have played out to my ideal scenario to within a couple of weeks.
I hoped that I could take the bulk of summer as a break after official redundancy in May, and hopefully start whatever new role I went for in September. Well here I am in early August, with a start date of Aug 12th. I had hoped to spend three weeks in Florida before starting any new job, instead I have had two, but that is OK with me, as I changed my holiday schedule once I had a provisional start date.
With regards to job, in Feb/March I was set on working for the prison service, and after initial positive experiences, everything went quiet. Since March I have had little contact with the prison service, and have awaited an offer from them, after getting my initial provisional pass of all interview stages. Surprising given that we are repeatedly told that the prison service is desperate for new staff.. Hmm!
Out of a blue a good friend told me of the role at their work. Having previously applied and gotten nowhere with it, I was in two minds if I would apply. However on careful consideration it ticked all the boxes, so I went for it. Much to my shock I passed all stages, and moved onto medical and background checks. Medical was a breeze, but the DBS seemed to take forever.
Today, while in Florida I asked Juno, the house/ dog sitter to check my mail for me as I had seen on my DBS tracker that it was complete. A few images later and there it was, DBS clear! So I popped it off to their recruitment, and was giggly when I received an email saying "Welcome to the ********".
This time next week I will be in the midst of my first day at control, and embarking upon 11 weeks of training. I have my schedule for this already, which is handy. So now I know what I am doing until almost November. After that, all being well, and if I have passed all my training tests, I will go onto a watch, and begin my permanent rotation of shifts. Which I am SO looking forward to.
So eight months after that first group call on Teams with Fedex, being told we were at risk of being made redundant, I can proudly say that I start work / training next week, with an organisation I can honestly say I am chuffed, delighted, excited, and honoured to work for.
Now onto my next over-thinking topic, training, will I pass?? lol.
Thanks for all the support over the past eight months and long before for some people.
Hopefully I can share with you the next part of my journey, but of course will be careful to make sure what is and isn't allowed to be shared.
To say I feel pumped right now is an understatement. But part of that could be the fact I am sitting at the kitchen island here in Florida, having just come out of a tornado warning, as Tropical Storm (now Hurricane) Debby passes over.
As much as I am sad to be leaving Florida in the next few days, I am over the moon to be here to celebrate a year of marriage with my wife, and looking forward to the premium seats for the flight back to the UK to start my new chapter.
Here's to the future...