act

If there is a role or station you are interested in when joining in the MDP push the issue to get it the force has sent recruits to special units and sought after stations without advertising the vaccencies to serving officers first. Once you are in the job and at a station its nearly impossible to get a move as new recruits will always have priority for vaccencies so try as hard as you can to get what you want straight away

As soon as you get your uniform you will wear your boots but black shoes are also aloud as an alternative to boots but rarely see people in shoes especially on station

Bring a week worth of shirts with you dont do what some people did and only bring one then have to wear it all week waiting on kit.

Get the liquid polish you just rub on and let it dry do 4 or 5 layers and it will look bulled and last a long time as well then just needs topping up once or twice a week easy.

Don't spend too much on your boots although you dont get boots when starting the job you can order them when on station and guys have got really good boots from the MDP Altbergs Hiax etc, although the wait can sometimes be long for them.

Some people brought their own TV'S and game consoles for gaming in their bedrooms. Laptops and dvds etc for the evenings, no wifi on sight so any entertainment that doesn't requires it will be useful, There are TVs in the blocks in the communal area as well.

no idea are the stations closing down completely or just having MDP removed seems like a bad time to be pulling MDP from places with the threat of terrorism so high

Where are they sending new recruits if they not AWE i cant imagine anywhere being more desperate than Aldermaston and Burghfield

shiiby_jay's post just seemed like a dig at the job before leaving. if your not happy with the MDP for whatever reason and are leaving the force dont take it out on the recruitment team who have nothing to do with your reasons for leaving MDPREC is only here to help.

Mdp are the only force I've seen that answer queries of applicants on public forums so MDP recruits are lucky they have that as an option compared to home office recruits. I personally think mdp marketing and recruitment is well ahead of other forces in terms of social media presence.

I think it is perfectly fair to say the MDP is not a public facing role as the recruits will be going into an armed guarding role so need to be prepared for the fact that they will not be dealing with the public on a frequent basis. Plenty of recruits have resigned after getting to station and seeing what the MDP actually do so its a good thing its been advertised publicly to give potential recruits the heads up before joining.

Shift patterns due to change we were supposed to have an update on it this month but nothing has came out no surprise lol

I don't work at Portsmouth but lots of new recruits have been sent there in previous intakes so don't see why you wouldn't have the opportunity when/if NEOF intakes start again. I wouldn't bother with the MDP unless you are flexible with location due to it being a national force and the bosses dont really take into account where you live before applying just where they need bodies at the time. There are plenty of officers all over the country working at stations they didn't initially want because its all they were offered at the time they applied, just depends if you are lucky enough to apply when they are allowing officers to go to a station you are interested in.

The merger will probably take years to go through as the MDP are involved, making fast decisions isn't their strong point. The job has been hanging this shift pattern change over our heads for nearly a year now. It cant be that hard to just make a decision either give us a date for the shifts and change it so people affected by it can make plans, leaving officers in limbo for this long is getting ridiculous.

Good to hear as long as you are prepared to be doing boring tasks at first you will be fine there is still plenty of benefits to just doing standard duties excellent stress free work life balance you leave work and it doesn't follow you home. Overtime available to ease any financial worries good ammout of annual leave and tactics and firearms shoots thrown in here and there to change things up. People are just quick to join the bandwagon and look at the negatives instead of the huge amount positives the job offers.