And now a couple of GIANT steps....

and then maybe we'll see how long it is until we can take the next one.

Last Friday I called and accepted a "tentative job offer" to be a Department of Defense (usually called DoD) employee working at Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center. It is a HUGE facility located about 25 miles southwest of Bloomington, Indiana. Step one...

And, last night I finished filling out a huge form of background info for the first part of the process to get my security clearance. Step two.....

I am not sure after talking to the nice lady in the security office this morning when they will actually start the process of doing the background checks. I thought before that they had to complete at least the first round before I could start working but she implied that they would only look at the paperwork itself but that I had to physically present myself (and get fingerprinted - I've never done that before) before they could actually start the background check. They stressed over and over again that I should present myself for that on the first day of work. So, anyway, at some point several folks are probably going to be getting phone calls.

So, as I understand it, the security folks will now give the HR folks a green light and then the HR folks have to send the paperwork back to the regional office (in Philly I think) and they have to do what ever it is they do and THEN we have to mutually agree on a start date. Which means in the meantime that I get to march in place for a while. Hurry up and wait.