Out of my league

Doing things outside of one's capacity is good for one's... humility. Having recently received my final report card, a slice of humble pie was in order. I was served that slice of humble pie today.

I applied to the county Sheriff Department dispatcher training program a couple of weeks ago. Part of the six month (and I'm not exaggerating) hiring process is a CritiCall test. It's used to weed out the inferior  assess the skills of the applicants. They have a really high applicant rate and they need to employ only the most qualified individuals.

Today I took that test.

And I failed it.

How embarrassing.

That was probably the hardest thing I have ever done. I just completed a rigorous four year college education. I picked the hardest classes to take in high school. I'm not dumb. But I failed the test.

Ouch.

I'm not used to being the one weeded out, but I was. Not harshly, mind you. It was a three hour test (or two hours if you're so wound up and neurotic that you do everything faster than necessary... not saying that's what I did. I'm not saying that's not what I did either...) with 20 modules that all tested different skills. You needed to pass all of the modules to get to the point that you could do the psych exam, physical exam, lie detector test, personal history profile, background check, etc., etc., etc.

18 of the modules I scored between 90% and 100%. The other two? I was short of the passing grade by just a smidge. And I knew it too. One of the two modules was one in which the automated voice read a string of 6 to 12 numbers and letters. After he was all the way done reading them, you had to type them into the little box. Dang it. I have always, always, always had trouble repeating back phone numbers, social security numbers, etc. from memory. I always switch a couple of the digits.

I was so tense during that test that my shoulders inhabited a region very near to my ears. Still working them back down.

Mum says it's good to do stuff out of your league once in a while to keep up your spirit of adventure.

I don't know about my spirit of adventure, but my feeling of inadequancy is alive and well now.