To be quite honest I'm not sure if I can take Sentin's post seriously.
Either way...
I'm 20... I've graduated high school and done a year of accounting. I dislike Human Resources as a course overall so I've decided to skip it for a 3-semester period during which I've decided to work full time. At the time I was working in a retail store as a front end service associate part time but they were not commited to providing the full time hours. At one point that was a big irritation to me, but eventually it paved the way for my acceptance of a new position that I find has really opened doors.
As my hours were insufficiant to put away the money I was hoping to build (since I have 3 semesters off, I have paid off my student loan already and had determined to work as much as possible during this time off so I can stay away from the loans when I return to do Marketing)... I applied for a 2nd job part time to fill the gap.
This job entailed doing stationary security for retail locations. The pay was almost 40% better than the retail offer and I decided to take many more hours doing this. With a bit of time I was given additional assignements with this company, I continued to do some stationary retail security but I also did loss prevention. Contingent upon exceptional performance, observation and handling of situations, the company offered me another raise, to which I accepted naturally and became an officer full time for this security company. My duties to fill in additional hours included a change in assignements. I began doing Lot Duty... observing parking Lots and such with a partner.
Not long after, I became involved in the investigation segment of this company. Having performed Loss prevention and Detering for some time, I thought to myself, why not go the whole 9 yards? I volunteered to do enforcement for a few unpaid shifts and with a few lucky cases that I was just in the right spot to handle (involving some incidents with threats to the public)... my performance as an enforcement earned me a spot up the ladder. I was removed from my original team and assigned positions as a solo officer at a time.
This new role of working solo was different and my first assignements included overseeing public safety at 2 malls, a bank and a public event with a large gathering. In one event at the mall... a thief pulled a needle claiming to have aids on one of the in-store security... having struck some officers and making a run... I was entrusted to assess the situation and act with whatever action required by my judgment to ensure a recuperation of this individual at the least ammount of risk to the public.
While this community is not as large as the bigger areas of the States or bigger provinces of Canada, we still get our share of people that perform these actions. Very quickly I was assigned a new partner... we were provided with a vehicle and permitted to bring a laptop recently owned. With this partner... we provided mainly additional security and public safety routine shifts. Still, at times, we are assigned investigation and pursuit of suspects past a certain point.
The pay is quite nice... 29$ an hour as of my last raise... authorization to use force when judged necessary and the people I work with when assigned are the salt of the earth type.
What have I noticed? Strangely enough, I have found that I pick up on so much more than I did in my earlier years, and not in the blunt obvious way... things that I never thought I'd have to pick up on even into my later years are now every-day occurences for me. I analyze and assess very specific details in a very fast period of time almost automatically. I still enjoy wrestling and in my job, while I have yet to use sudden impact (throwing a punch or kick, such requires a bit of paperwork)... I do almost everyday engage in disarming threats to the public. I have an enormous ammount of appreciation for law enforcement, there are security and police but there are also individuals that you don't think much of who devote their lives to this. I fear that at some point, we lose track of keeping the idea of "people" in our mindsets. We begin to view everyone as a statistic, analyzing them, the way they walk, talk, how they act, when approached, how they react around others, and quickly, we are required to act on this by our best judgment. I would be lying if I said I can easily seperate my job from my personal life. When 72 hours a week is spent in analyzing and dealing with public safety, investigations and crisis situations (such as a hostage or threat situation)... I don't know if I ever completely shut down this side of me... even when just hanging out with friends.
I deal alot with our local Law enforcement, I deal with instore security alot for numerous reports and much more...
Ironically... whenever a day is slow... it is quite easy to use the laptop to play CC and my boss laughs and has even joked about getting an account (he spends some time watching youtube videos anyway). His policy on it is simple, when times are dead, it's no problem to entertain yourself on the laptop... but when you have something to do on your job, be damn good at it.
I have been out of school now for the 2 sem's and approaching the 3rd I need to make a decision about my returning. My hours per week run no less than 72 and at 29$ per hour with no futur substancial raise in view or in my opinion required... Is it worth cutting back to go back and do the marketing? Should I stick with that plan or have I sort of dug my way into something that I could do for the next 20 years.
I speak english and french, I love to wrestle, I play chess... I like to listen to alot of different styles of music. Mainly I can listen to anything that is played on the radio but I also find myself listening to a few slower songs, the styles of Evanescence or Within Temptation, I avoid heavy metal or "hairband" styles of music simply because when I listen, I listen for something more.
Some of my favorite movies include Collateral, Troy, a few comedies. I enjoy watching "house" on television... I'm a big fan of Dragon's Den as I did go into business before taking this job... I still watch clips of it all the time on Youtube. I do hope one day to live as an investor. I have begun putting money away... initially to have my next 3 years of school paid off without needing to rely on another loan but now I am also putting money away with plans to invest later on when I can find the time. I have put away 65,000$ (including the ammount I plan to put away from next paycheck).
So what about me and CC? Well... when I play I like to keep my games very virus-oriented, I recently win any games with 3s or 5s all over the board, a very simple concept is that I play patient, I defend what I take and try to make it worthless to attack... I hate the concept of leaving 1s everywhere because it results in 1 round of luck for the opponent completely uprooting me... for this reason I conceed to the longer game to secure the win later on. I play whenever shifts are going slow and whenever I can log in, I often move sporatically because I may have to make a round, escort a prisoner, ensure an arrival or a change of vehicles... etc... So whenever I pick up the laptop and have a minute, I move. This friday Night will be different,I am escorting a bus of individuals that are being allowed to attend a Concert at Mile One stadium so I will have no laptop with me as I will be required to focus on a few "active" individuals 100% of the time... might be interesting.
That's a bit about me and why I play CC... when, etc... anyone else?
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 4:13 pm