How Long is the Police Journey?

How Long is the Police Journey?

People new to the police career journey think the process is like any other job. Today I'm going to address the question, how long is the police journey, based on my 21 years of helping police applicants land the job.

Each individual has different circumstances and different skillsets they bring to the table which influences the speed of hiring, but this article goes over trends that I have seen over the years.

Are You a Desirable Candidate?

The first question to ask yourself is, are you a desirable candidate? Do you have great volunteering experiences, fitness habits, education, and enough continuous work experience? All of these are not just boxes to be checked, they need to be lifelong philosophies of how you approach life. Important to know is that you are expected to continue with these lifestyle habits after you are hired.

The services don't care if you're in an unrelated field. I've had candidates get hired who were formerly mechanics, massage therapists, physiotherapists, software engineers, mortgage brokers, musicians, and daycare providers. What matters is showing you're able to transfer those skills.

Add speed to your journey if you are a desirable candidate.

Are You Flexible in Your Living Location?

The second question to ask yourself is, are you flexible in where you eventually live? This is especially important with RCMP, CBSA and Ontario Provincial Police, as well as the military. But a lot of candidates start out thinking that they will apply only to one or two services and discount the rest (until they are unsuccessful and start to be more flexible).

Add speed to your journey if you are flexible and willing to relocate.

Is the Service Going to Give You the Best?

The third question to ask yourself is, how big is the service you are applying to ... and do they have the hiring budget to do mass hirings? How many seats are they looking to fill at Police College? How picky are they going to be? In my experience, the smaller services are overly picky and hard to get into given what they don't offer to their police officers. Most importantly they don't offer the support, tools in the field, tech in the cars, and so on that a larger service will.

Sometimes going with bigger services that are able to mass hire is a better route. After all, you'll be able to apply to your preferred service after you're trained and experienced if you feel strongly about working there. (It's a whole different hiring process at that point.) At that point you may decide that you want to work in Victoria on Vancouver Island because you're done with snow - anything is possible.

Add speed to your journey if you are willing to defer your preferred service and apply to larger services right away.

Ideal Candidate Timeline

If all the stars align, the process with an ideal candidate is 4 - 6 months from time of application to signing the contract. Are you surprised? It takes time to go through the multiple stages of the hiring process and you can be dropped at any point in time.

How to Improve the Outcomes

My job is to ensure you don't make the common mistakes at any point so that you're presenting well and controlling what you can control. Otherwise, the process can be literally YEARS if a candidate is trying to get it on their own. That's a lot of good salary pay going to waste just because of not knowing when to ask for help.

Right now, I have two candidates that have not invested in themselves despite saying repeatedly that they will, and those two candidates have literally been hammering away by themselves for over 6 years. Time is running out for them. What's interesting, is they will email every few months updating me on their plans ... but they don't purchase the programs. Invariably, they let me know they were unsuccessful because they weren't prepared!

You Don't Know What You Don't Know

There's a saying, 'You Don't Know What You Don't Know'. In other words, how are you expected to have the same level of knowledge as myself, an expert after 21 years? Ensure you invest in yourself and at least get the right help through my programs as a minimum. If you want to go further, personal coaching is available as well.