PDA

View Full Version : Couple questions


rmace1234
11-30-1999, 12:00 AM
im going to be turning 21 in August, and I am currently scheduled to take my written test on April 22nd. If things were to end up well, and I manage to make it all the way to the QAP interview, there are somethings that I am wondering about if they will hurt my chances.

One question I have is that the fact that I am only 20 right now looked at as a bad thing?

I havent always lived the best life I could. At 16 I got into smoking pot (which I will fully disclose) but have grown out of that partying lifestyle, and am currently settled down, and recently married to the love of my life. Even before I knew I wanted to join the CHP I have tried to live my life in a postive way. But another question I have is that it has been three years since i have smoked pot (and that is the only drug I ever did), is that grounds for an automatic DQ, no matter how my life has turned around.

Also one last question I have is on education. I graduated high school fine, but I have not been able to fully go into college full-time, due to the fact that I have to work 60 hrs a week to help support my wife while she finishes up cosmotology school. She graduates in a month and from then on im going back full-time, but will the panel look at that as a negative thing, the fact that I have taken so many semester's off, and have not concentrated on school? And should I wait to try to go through with the hiring process until I have a couple years of schooling under my belt?

Sorry at the long post, but just have a couple questions on my mind. The academy is something i want to pursue extremly bad, so thinking about these things has got me kind of worried.

TheForceCHP
03-17-2006, 10:17 PM
first off, nobody can for sure answer the pot question, because it is a case by case thing. BUT i would say that since you haven't used in a while that you would be ok(my opinion), just FULLY disclose it!!!

in regards to the education and age, i think you will be fine. if you show them that you are mature then they will see it and you don't need a degree to become an officer. think of it this way, you have a heads up on all of the other people that never went to college at all

Mac
03-18-2006, 08:58 AM
As far as your age goes, consideration will be given more to your demonstrated maturity than your chronological age. I (along with many others) applied when I was 20, and was appointed to the Academy just after I turned 21....and I scored fairly high on my entrance list - so my age obviously didn't have too deleterious of an effect.