Joseph Libowsky,
You have applied for the law enforcement position you have been waiting for. You have been determined as “Meets the minimum qualifications” and you have taken the police written entrance exam, which you passed, it was graded pass/fail which many are. Now you are given the opportunity to take the police oral board interview. At this point you are at an even starting point with everyone else going through the interview. Everyone has met the minimum requirements. Everyone has passed the entrance exam. So what will be the determining factor in whether or not you get the job? How you score on the Oral Board Interview.
The Oral Board Interview
Those who don’t do just “well” on the oral board interview, but do great are the ones who get hired. Everyone else keeps looking for a job. You will never hear anyone say “I scored great on the oral board” but I just can’t get hired. You will not get hired unless you ace the oral board interview. Even with everything else you have done to prepare you for a law enforcement career, your internship, your grades, your extracurricular activities, it all comes down to how you do during the oral board interview.
Often I get emails from very qualified people who are extremely frustrated that they have not been able to get hired, and it is all because they have not scored well on their oral board interview. They feel the process was not fair, that the board did not objectively evaluate them, because if it was fair they would have been hired. However, in almost every case when I ask them what they did to prepare for the oral board interview the answer is the same, very little or nothing. They didn’t think they needed to, because they were a great candidate. However, the oral board panel doesn’t just know you are a great candidate; the burden is on you to show that you are in fact a great candidate by scoring well on the interview.
You may have gone to college for 2-4 years to prepare for this job. You spent thousands of dollars on tuition and books. However, that is not what is going to get you hired because everyone else competing for that job has done the same thing. What will get you hired is the oral board interview, and guess what, 95% of those taking the oral board interview do little or no preparation. The oral board interview is the single most important factor in deciding whether or not you get a job in law enforcement and nobody prepares. But this can work in your favor. If you are willing to put in some effort and do the proper preparation you can move ahead of those 95% who did little or no preparation.
How to Prepare
There is too much at risk for your future to just hunt around online for bits of free information, you do get what you pay for, you should be prepared to purchase an oral interview course that can greatly increase your chances of a career in law enforcement. I often get emails from people looking online for “the questions” to the oral board. They feel that if they know the questions they will do well. But it doesn’t work that way. The oral interview is not a math test where you just need the right answer.
You’ve already spent thousands on your college education, it is worth spending a hundred dollars for an oral board interview course especially since that is will be get you hired.
One of the most popular programs to help applicants prepare is Pass the Police Interview from former Special Agent Joseph Libowky.