NYS 8 Hour Pre-Employment Security Guard Course

I went to take the NYS 8 hour pre-employment Security Guard course today, about 30 miles from my home. I could have taken it at a location close to home but my new employer paid for it at the distant place. I cannot argue with that. Yes, I got a job as a security guard, part time, only two days a week at most but that is better than nothing right now.

There were 30 of us there to take the course, some youngsters, some middle aged and some older than even me (or in other words some obvious retirees). The instructor was going over the application form and covering the question about if you have ever been convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor, saying how important it is to fill that out honestly. A guy raises his hand, then asks a question. In essence, his question was: If someone was arrested for a felony and a misdemeanor, does just the felony have to be put in the answer or does the misdemeanor too. The instructor explains you have to put down both and that it is not necessarily disqualifying and the guy asks another question, something to the effect: Well what if it was for a felony and more than one misdemeanor, do all of them have to be put down? The instructor replies yes and the guys asks: Even if it was one felony and 11 misdemeanors? Now, I am not saying the guy was asking this about himself or that he was even implying this was his own record but he was the one asking those questions. The guy asking also was the only one in class with a kind of a Mohawk haircut, hair that was dyed a pretty bright unnatural color. He also had fairly good amount of ink on him. Those things, about his appearance might mean little about his personality and integrity but if he was actually convicted of a felony and 11 misdemeanors and that is how he decides to show up for a future job interview, there is a serious question or two that would need be asked of anyone who would consider hiring him.

While, I truly believe in giving ex-convicts a break in life, that is once they have served their sentences and are back in the community, I would have to question the wisdom of hiring this guy as a security guard if indeed it was his own record he was talking about and he shows up for a job interview looking like he did today. I cannot quite understand how someone would give serious consideration to his application, let along hire him, if that was his record, for a security guard job. It bewilders me.

Of course, then there was the other guy who basically asked: What if I forgot about a felony conviction? And there was the other one who asked if him being discharged from the Marine Corps for conduct unbecoming would matter since he was promised an honorable discharge. I guess it takes all kinds to make the world go round. There I sat, with no arrests or convictions, nothing negative in my career, not a blemish on my record and I can only find a job for 8 to 16 hours a week at pretty lousy pay at that. Something just doesn't seem right about that to me but what is a guy gunna do! At least I found a job.

All the best,
Glenn B