It
doesn't get much more scary then the oral interview for police
applicants. This is where you'll literally sit in front of
a panel of people who will interview you. It could be
anywhere from 3 to 12 people (on average) from every aspect of
the police department including captains, lieutenants,
sergeants, officers, secretaries, citizens, etc. the
idea is to mix up the panel so that there are
different
opinions and views on the board, not just police officers.
However, their job is to see what you're made of and see
how you respond to questions, trying to get to the truth.
In fact, a lot of applicants are convinced that the panel
"knew" they didn't want them hired from the minute they
walked through the door. I can remember of one case
where a police applicant got up during his police oral board interview
and said "Its obvious you don't want me hired me; I could tell
that the moment I walked through the door." The man walked
out. What the applicant didn't realize is the panel had
nothing against him, they just wanted to see how he reacted
under pressure. He failed
for
lack of preparation, which is what this
article is about. The officers that are getting hired now
have taken the extra steps (like you're doing now) to prepare
themselves.
So
before we get into some of the psychology, let's talk about some
basics to start out
Be on time
- This can hurt your chances right out of the gate if you show
up even a minute late. If you're not familiar with the
area, drive the route before your interview date to make sure
you are not late the day of. The last thing you want to do
is start off on the wrong foot by saying "Sorry I'm late, I was
stuck in traffic" or "Sorry I'm late, I wasn't sure how to find
this place." These statements, although recommended if you
are late, will signify to the panel that you didn't prepare and
may not be serious.
Your clothes - Wear a business suit, period. Do not
wear anything else. Not jeans, not slacks with a nice
shirt tucked in, nothing. Business suit only that is
conservative. Do not walk in there with a Daffy Duck tie,
or a loud tie that's bright red. You want to appear
business and professional on the conservative side. It
doesn't have to be an expensive suit either.
Once you're at the police oral interview
When
you get to the interview, its ok to say "Hello" but we recommend
you don't say anything else until they ask you a question or
start a conversation. When you take your seat, do not
slouch, lean back, lean to the side, etc. These all send
signs that you are not serious and frankly that you don't care.
You could be toast just by how you sit.
When
answering questions, be sure to look the person in the eye.
Don't look away, or down when answering. This shows a lack
of confidence and can lead the interviewer to believe you are
lying. It's ok and recommended that when you answer your
questions that you occasionally glance at other interviewers as
well. In other words, you shouldn't be in a dead stare
toward the person that asked the question, but rather look to
other interviewers a bit while answering and explaining your
answer as well. Under normal circumstances when you are
not nervous, this is exactly how you would do it anyway and is
natural.
Understanding the psychology of police oral boards
I did
touch base on a few
police oral board scenarios in a recent article, but let's
talk about the psychology involved in police interviews. A
lot of applicants don't understand what's going on once they get
into the interview. They're immediately put on the
defensive as they don't understand why the interviewers are
talking to them the way that they are. So some of the
points below are important to understand before even entering
the room.
They're job is to get the truth - So how do they do that?
By simply asking? Nope. They must use trick
questions and psychology, for the most part, to get to the
truth. When I say trick questions I mean asking you one
thing in one way, then asking you a completely different
question next, but later going back to the first question that's
worded in a different way or even an analogy. In other
words, you're asked one time "How would you handle this
situation?" and later given a very similar scenario with the
same question. If you answer different, you will have to
explain your reasoning as to why you handled one situation
different then the other even though they appear to be the same
situations.
The
psychology - This is the part that gets most police
applicants in their police oral board interview. They
haven't taken the time to prepare, but rather just jumped in.
But the psychology generally goes like this: If I'm the
interviewer I may want you to think that I don't like you by
being the one guy on the panel that always cuts you off, or says
statements like "Is that all you did?" or "Doesn't seem like
much to me," for example. Its not that I don't like you,
but its to see how you respond to me, how you act under
pressure. Take the following example, and this is a true
story. On one interview (true story), a female interviewer
got an applicant to admin that he didn't think women were as
strong as men and shouldn't be in law enforcement. Do you
think that's the right answer? Well let's put it this way,
he didn't get hired. But the way she did it was she asked
him how he felt about female officers backing him up on calls,
and his response set him up for failure. He answered
saying "If its a fight call, I'd rather a male officer back me
up." This was completely the wrong answer. His
response could have been "I have no problem with it," and simply
go from there. If the next question was "What if you're in
a fight on a call and you know its a woman officer responding;
how would you feel about that?" The applicant's response
could have been "I don't care if its a man or a woman as long as
they're on the ground with me fighting the bad guy." But
once the applicant said what he did, he trapped himself into
defending why he felt the way he did. He tried to explain
upper body strength in male vs. female, which may very well be
true. But he trapped himself in the beginning. The
female interviewer ended up asking the applicant if he
thought he could beat her *ss to give you an idea how heated it
got. So the point is think about your answer before you
answer it.
Conclusion
Although this article only hits a few areas, they are very
important in the police oral interview. A mistake in even
one of the these areas can be critical in your success.
Don't be one of those guys or gals that put yourself through
years of college only to screw it up when it really counts.
If you want to get more information on police interviews, we
also strongly recommend a
Video Training Course for Police Oral Boards that we've come
across. The course offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee by
the author and sells for around $50 bucks. The instructor
claims to have done thousands of interviews for police officers
and is highly recommended by most high ranking police websites
we've come across. Its worth checking out.
