JANUARY 23, 2012 - HANDED IN APPLICATION
Today I handed in my application for LRPS. It took me a little longer to get everything together this year compared to last year. I was getting nervous the whole time before I handed in my application that I would miss the deadline. This year took longer because I was working while I was in school and my life was much busier than last year. I also had to get new reference letters from the college as well as my transcripts and diploma from the college to prove I graduated with enough credits. After getting all of that done and filling out countless pages of the application, I was ready to hand it in. Don't I look so excited?
My excitement sputtered a little bit when I got to the station to hand in my application. Constable Borthwick, the recruiting officer, wasn't in so his assistant Brette Gibb came out to take my application. She told me they had just closed the posting last week, so it looked like I had missed it by a few days. She said she would talk to Cst. Borthwick and see if he would be willing to squeeze me into this batch of applications. I sat around for a while and hoped that he would be willing to let me continue on in this years application group.
One step I didn't have to complete for this application package was the entrance exams. Because I took and passed the ACT (Alberta Communications Test) and the APCAT (Alberta Police Cognitive Abilities Test) last year, I didn't need to take them this year. Those exams are valid for five years.
FEBRUARY 3, 2012 - RAN APREP
I got a phone call a week later saying there was a spot open for running the APREP (Alberta Physical Readiness Evaluation for Police). The APREP is the physical testing portion of the application process. It involves running a series of laps and completing two fitness stations and a body drag, all while wearing a 15 lb belt to simulate the equipment police carry with them. Here's a video of the APREP because I know lots of people have never heard of it or know what it's all about.
In order to pass the APREP, you need to complete the obstacle portion of the test in under 2:10. This time around with running the APREP, I scored a time of 1:24. I was pretty happy with it. It's only a couple seconds faster than last year, but an improvement is an improvement.
FEBRUARY 10, 2012 - PERSONAL DISCLOSURE INTERVIEW
I had my Personal Disclosure Interview (PDI) today. Constable Kisinger was the officer who conducted this interview. Last year it was Cst. Borthwick, but he wanted a neutral interviewer to conduct my PDI this year. The interview went great! Cst. Kisinger said I nailed the questions I needed to answer for my next interview and I felt really good about this interview. The interview was pretty quick, but there wasn't much stuff to go over on my disclosure.
This interview consists of sitting down with an officer and going over every question on your personal disclosure form to make sure all the information is up to date. Here's a copy of the personal disclosure form for those of you who have never seen one. Just for kicks, you should go through it and answer some of the questions. They will literally know about EVERYTHING from your life between the disclosure form and your application.
MARCH 7, 2012 - CVSA EXAM & BEHAVIORAL DESCRIPTIVE INTERVIEW
The CVSA is a truth-verification exam they use to ensure you've disclosed everything to them and you're not hiding anything. For my interview, we went through my disclosure form again and talked about anything else I might have overlooked or forgotten about since the PDI. That took about an hour or so. After that, the Staff Sergeant who was doing my test hooked up a microphone to my tie and he asked me selected questions from my disclosure. The CVSA measure the different waves in a person's voice to detect stress when answering questions. The Staff Sergeant who did my test said he was satisfied with my answers, so I'm guessing that's a good thing!
The BDI interview is an interview in front of a panel to test you about situations in your life where you've had to demonstrate certain abilities. There are 11 core competencies LRPS have that they ask questions for. For example, they could ask, "Tell me about a time you had to adapt quickly to change and remain effective in your tasks." That's not the actual question, but they are set up like that. The like you to use the STAR method to answer the questions. That means telling them about the Situation, the Task which needed to be complete, the Action you took to solve the problem, and the Result of your actions.
My interview only took 35 minutes yesterday! I was really happy with my interview because I felt like I had a lot of recent experiences to use for my answers. The funny part about the interview was other than only having three people on my panel versus four last year, every member of the panel was the same as last years. As I was invited into the meeting room where the interview took place, I shook their hands and told them I remembered them both from last year (the third member was Cst. Borthwick, just like last year). As I answered questions and looked around the table, I noticed all of them were filling out every line, plus more with my answers for each question. I hope that means they had a lot of good things to say about my answers.
When I finished the interview, Cst. Borthwick told me he would probably call me on Monday to tell me if I am continuing on in the process or not. I'll just have to sweat a little more and hopefully get that good phone call on Monday!
The next step in the process is the psychological evaluation. I actually have that scheduled in for today at 2:00 PM. This exam isn't too hard - it's a true/false test of over 500 questions which is designed to determine if you are psychologically stable or not. I didn't have any issues with this test last year, so I don't foresee any problems with this one. I'll write another post about how it went this year after I'm done it today.
Thanks for the support for those of you that know I'm applying for the police service here in Lethbridge. My biggest support has been my wife, Nysha, and I really can't express how much I appreciate her standing next to me in every decision I've made in pursuing a career in law enforcement. She's an amazing wife, mother and my best friend. I wouldn't have been able to get to where I am without her.
The steps left after my psych test today are a follow up psych evaluation by a psychologist, a full medical check, a home visit, and background checks. After today's test, my follow up meeting with the psychologist and the home visit, I'm essentially done my part in applying for LRPS and the ball is then completely in their court. I'll keep you guys posted on the next steps.
1 comment:
Thanks for your post. I'm praying that everything works out for you and that you're able to get on with the police! You're an amazing guy and they'd be lucky to have you!
Post a Comment