How to Pass the Police Oral Board Interview (Without Breaking a Sweat)

the ore board in view so you made it to this point that's a good step but you're nervous you're not sure what questions you're gonna ask you're not sure how to answer those questions it's okay i'm here to help first let's start off by saying that you probably don't want to show up to your interview looking like i am right now so let's fix that so now i actually look like i want the job and i actually look professional would you agree so that's where we're going to start how your appearance should be you'd be wearing a suit or at least this with a tie you should be looking very professional and like you really want the job that pretty much goes for any job interview for the most part you want to make sure that you're well groomed so go get a haircut if your hair is too long usually law enforcement policies say that your hair can't really go over your ears that's too long at that point you want to get rid of facial hair now i'm not getting rid of my facial hair just for this video but if i were going for an interview today i would shave it off so i wouldn't have any facial hair whatsoever i think this helps you look a little more professional even if the department's policy allows you to have a beard at least while you're going in there for the interview and stuff you're cleaned up you look nice and like you really really want this now when it comes down to what you're wearing make sure you're not wearing outlandish colors don't wear bright red don't wear red at all wear subtle colors such as this grays blacks keep it simple avoid wearing lots of jewelry keep it simple with a watch and that's basically it you don't need to wear anything else you don't need to bring anything extra don't bring any briefcases don't bring a binder you're not going to need that make sure your cell phone's outside don't need that either you don't need that going off in the middle of your interview that'd be pretty disrespectful and make sure you arrive early nobody likes it when you're late to an interview that kind of tells them a lot about yourself that you may be late to other things leaning forward and they're probably going to deny you i always say that 20 minutes early is a safe bet so before we continue what is the oral board really all about well it's really about you it's really about getting to know you and who you are so it's all going to be about selling yourself you need to show them why you are the candidate they need to pick so as soon as you walk into that room there's typically three people in there so these people are the deciding factor of whether you move forward in the process or not so when you walk in there make sure that you stand tall be professional shake everybody's hands and make eye contact with each of them you want to continue to make eye contact as you answer questions throughout this interview make sure when you're shaking their hands that you are also introducing yourself don't have a seat until they request you to sit down and don't swivel in a chair they're not gonna like this and sometimes they put these chairs there on purpose to see if you will swivel don't do that it's distracting and it bothers them keep it still sit up straight have good posture just like this and remember eye contact don't answer questions like this well yeah um i started this with some stuff no that's not gonna work you wanna answer questions just like i'm talking to you right now very professionally addressing each individual in the room so let's get into the questions now these might not be in any particular order and they might not be the exact questions that they're going to ask you but they're probably going to be very very similar it seems like many agencies use these same and similar questions across the board because they're good questions to ask so the first one might be something like this why don't you uh tell us a little bit about yourself so here you don't need to go into your whole life story kind of stick to the basics tell them who you are your family are your dad how many kids do you have for instance you know i grew up in this state of florida i grew up in this area i was raised in a military family i was raised in a law enforcement family i have been married to my wife for this long and i now have this many children or so forth okay keep it real simple don't go too far into it and then they're going to get into the big question why do you want to be a police officer and here's where you don't want to give the typical bs answer oh i want to help people i've always wanted to be a cop ever since i was a little kid i dreamed about being a cop no they don't want to hear that they already know that you're here because you want to be a cop what are the real reasons you want to be a law enforcement officer be honest you want a life of excitement right you don't want a desk job you want to be out there in the field making a difference working as a team protecting the community give them a life experience that you've had with law enforcement or something that made you want to get into law enforcement for example you could have grown up in a family full of law enforcement officers or you had a positive experience with a law enforcement officer or you had a negative experience with a law enforcement officer and you knew a way that i could have done better and you want to be that better or you're like me for instance i had kind of a rough upbringing parental issues and things like that i didn't want to go in that direction i wanted to better myself and i wanted to rise above and this is what i chose you can tell them well i don't really have any law enforcement experience however when i'm out in public and i see law enforcement activity i want to be a part of that i'm really curious i'm always wondering what they're doing to help out the community and i want to be a part of that also it's job security there's always going to be a need for law enforcement so those are just some of the examples for answering that question find what best suits you and answer it they want to hear you say that yes i want to chase down bad guys i want a life of excitement that's why you got into law enforcement isn't it you didn't just come here just to help people just because you wanted to be a police officer your entire life you've never even been in the field so be honest with them when it's okay to joke a little bit don't get over the top they may also ask you something like this what do you think about police and teamwork well i believe that the success of an agency is the combined effort of each individual meaning that it's essential to work together if you played team sports then you can mention that and how you understand how a teamwork helps you accomplish the ultimate goal so make sure you write down some good answers for that one why do you want to work for this agency this is a good one and don't be surprised by this one because if you're caught off guard on this one usually means you didn't do much research but there could be numerous reasons why you want to work for that specific agency now you could be applying at multiple agencies and that's understandable but you need to understand why you want to work at this specific agency do your research on that agency find out what kind of equipment they have what their crime rate is and so forth you can also mention that they have a great pension this shows that you're interested in the long haul and that you're dedicated to this agency you guys have great pay you guys have great benefits what else maybe you're a local maybe that's your community and you want to protect your community maybe you just enjoy that city that you want to work for that county you want to work for but make sure you tell them why you can say something like well i have observed your officers out in the field and i observed your vehicles it seems like you were always advancing forward with the best equipment for your officers the best body cameras and so forth they really love to hear this kind of stuff because it shows that you're paying attention and that you did your research if you got any kind of positive experience with that agency that's good to share too all right and this question why should we choose you over the other candidates now be confident but don't be overconfident this is really really where you want to sell yourself write it down why should they choose you over everybody else now good thing to note here is looking at the qualities that law enforcement officers must possess and kind of using those to your advantage here such as i'm great with communication you're calm under pressure you're very active and physically fit you understand the importance of being active and physically fit in the law enforcement field and eating healthy you have a strong moral character and a good sense of ethics you have great interpersonal skills and you get along with others and if you were say top of your academy class you can throw that in there too anything you can think of will make you stand above the rest use it how about this one what are your weaknesses weaknesses yeah what are your weaknesses but here you need to make sure that they're also strengths and what do i mean by that well if you're like me i'm a bit of a perfectionist and how can this be a positive well i'm gonna make sure that my work is all done right i'm very self-critical another good one to use is i lack experience i have no law enforcement experience whatsoever however throughout my life anything that i've really wanted i've accomplished and i'll strive as hard as possible to accomplish that goal and right now i really want to be a law enforcement officer so i'm going to push myself 110 avoid anything like well i'm kind of lazy or yeah i'm not really a morning person those are not good weaknesses their weaknesses but not good ones so make sure you write them down practice them and then they might hit you with some honesty questions like would you ever write your mom a ticket and that might switch that question up and add a little bit more to it they might say that your mom was going 80 miles an hour and a 25 would you write your mom a ticket the answer is always no really you really write your mom a ticket even if you disliked your mother you wouldn't write her a ticket so the answer is no okay moving on what would you do if uh you caught your partner stealing oh that's a good question now take your time on this you don't have to rush it it's not a race think about what can you do in this situation or you can ask a little bit more on the question such as well did he already steal the item like leave the store and not pay for the item or did you just catch him pocketing the item because there could be different answers there one is such as i would confront my partner and let them know what i observed and that they should put the item back or if they did pass out points of sale i'd immediately notify them that i was aware of what they were doing and then i'm going to have to notify the supervisor any other way in that super situation i would still notify the supervisor and let know what was going on because this could be a reoccurring incident if they're doing it just now and i caught them there's a chance that they may be doing it already or they're going to continue to do such a crap and we as law enforcement officers we're not above the law so they want to hear the honest answer from you all right so the final question is there anything else that you would like to add if there was something during this interview that you felt that you didn't completely answer or maybe you answered kind of wrong and you want to correct yourself you can go back and do that they understand that these interviews can make you a little bit nervous and you might mess something up or you might forget to add something so here's your chance go back add it and just say something like uh yes so back on that last question in regards to i would just like to add to that that and besides that there's nothing further that i would like to add i would like to thank you all for your time and allowing me to be here today and i look forward to hearing from you once again you shake their hands as you leave and if you really don't have anything else to add it's okay simple no i have nothing further i just want to thank you for your time yada yada you get the point so once you're done they'll contact you and they'll let you know if you're moving forward or if they're not interested at this time so if you're going to be moving forward awesome if they're not interested at this time then you need to kind of evaluate yourself and see where maybe you messed up that way when you go to your next interview you can improve so remember sell yourself don't give bs answers be honest be confident in your answers and practice well guys thanks for watching hope this video helps you out and i wish you the best of luck in your law enforcement journey if you have any further comments or questions leave them down below in the comment section make sure you smash that like button and i'll see you guys next time [Music] you

Channel: Just.that.officer

Views: 129,104

Keywords: oral board interview, police training, police oral board questions, police oral board answers, how to become a cop, the oral board, police interview

Id: 05Cy0-ZE4BI

Length: 10min 40sec (640 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 03 2022