Long awaited progress

With all the medicals, interviews, documentaries and paperwork done and dusted, the only outstanding issue was my Security clearance. With Covid dragging on and agencies being slower then normal to communicate with each other, my joining date hinged on passing the SC.

10 days to my course date, and I had recieved my joining instructions, yet, the SC clearance status still read as PENDING.

Ahhh, then an email arrived from HR saying I had been deferred due to the SC not clearing in time... followed by confirmation that I needed a security clearance interview.

A few weeks later, a telephone interview with the Security clearance agency was held. The hour long conversation was pretty in depth, looking into a wide range of subjects ranging from family life through to political views, previous service and my grand mother in laws jam making abilities.

"Before you are old and wise, you first have to be young and foolish"

I don't think that there are many people who get to 40 without some degree of skeletons in the cupboard acting as a hurdle to jump over, and I think the above quote summarises this.

​The interview went well, and a few days later the PENDING notification that seemed to be holding everything up changed to COMPLETED. A hesitant relief was felt, but was it a pass or a fail.....

.... A few weeks later, the contracts arrived. No more hurdles, no more uncertainty. My process for joining the RFA had been completed, taking 16 months and a lot of eagerness.

The countdown begins before the course begins.