Podcast Episode 06 – Multiple Police Applications At The Same Time

G’ day, everyone. Russell here from Prime Motion Training.

Thanks for joining me again for this episode of Let’s Talk Police Applications. This is episode number six, and today I want to talk about applying for more than one police organisation at the same time. Now, this might not affect you, so to respect your time, you may not want to bother listening to this if you have no intentions of applying for more than one police organisation.

But it’s not that uncommon where applicants will apply for their home state’s police force or service and then put in an application with another state. And there’s a number of reasons why people might do that, and there’s certainly some pros and cons and different things about doing that that you might want to be aware of. So hopefully this episode is helpful for you if you are in that situation. Let’s dive into it and make a start.

All right, so the first thing is can you actually apply for more than one police organisation at the same time? So multiple police applications. And the answer is yes you can. There’s absolutely no reason why you couldn’t apply for a position with every state and territory and the Australian federal police all at the same time. Yeah, of course there’s lots to consider if you were applying or you intend to apply for more than one state. I mean, the first thing of course is the location. Where do you live?

That’s obviously going to be the most convenient state or territory to apply for. But it may be that you live in one state, you grew up in another, or you’ve got family in another state, and you would be more than happy to pack your bags and move to that other state if your police application was successful in that other state. So that’s not an uncommon situation for applicants where they would be quite happy to live in either state because of those sort of family ties.

One of the downsides, I suppose, is that each application on its own is pretty lengthy. They’re challenging processes that you need to go through, and police applications are really competitive. So to be able to really commit yourself to one state and then do the same thing with another state is a pretty big ask. There’s a lot to a police application that requires a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of preparation if you’re going to do it properly, if you’re going to be competitive.

And to be able to really focus on one application would be a hell of a lot easier than trying to do that across two or three applications particularly at the same time. So something to keep in mind in regards to that though, I guess which offsets that a little bit, offsets that challenge somewhat, is that although each application is different, it’s a different state, they might have a different process, the processes are very similar.

And if you just think about the basics of a police application, you’re going to do some sort of academic assessment, whether it’s an exam or in the case of New South Wales for example, you might need to go through a short university course, but there’ll be some type of academic assessment that needs to be done. There’s also a fitness test and a medical assessment. So that sort of fitness, medical can essentially be considered as one.

You’ve got to meet those fitness and medical requirements as you do with the academic assessment. There’s also generally some type of psychometric assessment, which makes perfect sense if you’re going to be working as a police officer carrying a firearm and all the responsibility and authority that comes with that position. So you’re going to have to do a psych evaluation of some description. And generally there’s an interview, a job interview.

Most states will have a panel interview and those basics, exam, fitness and medical, psych and panel are similar across each of the different states. An example of how things might be a little bit different could be that for a selection panel interview for example. It could be that in Queensland, if you’re applying there, your panel interview is a little bit more like a presentation where 10 minutes before your interview you’re given some information or some questions and you would then present answers to those questions to the panel.

Other states are more interactive where they’ll ask you a question, you’ll give an answer, they might ask for some clarifying points, et cetera, much more like a traditional job interview would be. From a fitness point of view, there could be an obstacle course as opposed to some sort of generic fitness assessments like push-ups and [inaudible 00:04:35] tests and prone hold or sit-ups, those kinds of things. The exams tend to have reasoning things, like abstract reasoning, verbal and numeracy. There might be some type of writing task, et cetera.

So look, there’re different applications, but there’s a lot of similarities, which means going back to that last point that although they’re very competitive, they’re challenging, they’re lengthy and difficult applications, because of the similarities, often you’re building skills for one application that are very relevant to another application. And look, we’re helping about 400 applicants at the moment around the country and we’ve probably got about six or seven who are actively pursuing multiple states at the same time.

So the next thing that we might want to think about if we just move on from that now is what do you do if they ask you in an interview for one state, “Have you applied for any other police organisations?” Now that’s a fairly unusual question to ask because again, the overwhelming majority of applicants won’t be applying for more than one state or territory. If they ask you that question, there’s a very good chance that somehow they may have already become aware that in fact you are applying for other states or territories.

So as very general rule across the entire application journey that you’ll go on, of course you should just be upfront and open and tell the truth with things like this. There is no negative aspect to you having more than one application as long as you answer the question the right way. Now, what’s the right way to answer that question? Well, firstly, honestly. And what’s a positive way to answer that? I think a good way to answer the question, “Have you applied for multiple states?”

You would be honest, “Yes. I’ve also applied for South Australia police.” And they might ask you, “Why do you have multiple states active at the same time?” I think saying something like, “As committed as I am to applying for Northern Territory police, I understand that it’s a competitive process, it’s very challenging. And whilst this is my first preference, I’m realistic in that it may not work out how I hope it does. And if that’s the case, I think it’s just sensible to have a plan B. if I’m not successful with my police application with Northern Territory, I would certainly look at continuing the application with South Australia.”

So it’s something along those lines, letting them know that you’re sensible enough and realistic enough to understand that your first preference may not work out and a plan B is just the sensible thing to do. Now of course they might ask you, “Well, which is your preference?” And of course you’re going to tell them that the one that you’re sitting in is the preference for you. But you’ll have to think about why that one is the preference for you if they ask. So, “You’re applying for South Australia as well as Northern Territory, which is your preference?”

Well, obviously Northern Territory is if you’re sitting in a Northern Territory application interview. And they might say, “Why is Northern Territory a preference for you over your South Australian application?” And you’re going to have to give them some genuine reasons for that. It may be that, “I live in Northern Territory, I love it here. This is where I’d like to stay, but I am prepared to move if required, if necessary.”

And with something like, “Well, why would…” A question like, “Why would you be prepared to move to South Australia?” You might say something like, “I grew up in South Australia” or “I’ve got family there” or “I have friends in South Australia” or “Look, I’ve always wanted to visit South Australia and I think it’s a great place and I know I’d be more than happy to move there if that’s what was necessary for my police application.”

So I think some of that information might be helpful. I hope it’s helpful to answer those pretty awkward kind of tricky questions around which one is a priority for you, why have you applied for multiple states, why would you want to go there and so on. You really have to give that some thought because around this whole issue of having more than one application in place, certainly for those applicants that I’ve worked with over the years who are doing this, it’s that question in a panel interview or those questions in a panel interview that can create the most stress for applicants who are applying for more than one state.

And their concern is that, “If I tell Queensland police that I’m also applying for Victoria Police and Western Australia police, that it might come across or might look negative for me and my application for that particular state.” It’s not necessarily the case. Again, it comes down to how you answer that question.

All right, and so the last thing I want to talk about in regards to having multiple states or this whole issue of police forces around the country, and that is in regards to lateral transfers.

And I often get this question, “If I apply for South Australia police and I’m unsuccessful with my application, but I’m successful in Western Australia police, can I then transfer from Western Australia back over to my original state?” And the answer is there’s no… Well, no, you can’t just transfer. There’s no lateral transfer agreement or arrangement between the states.

Now having said that, of course if you are an experienced police officer and you apply for another state, there may very well be a slightly different application process for those applicants who already have policing experience that is current, or even police officers who have since resigned and maybe it’s been a few years since they resigned from the police force and they’re applying for another state now, or for that matter, even reapplying for the state where they were originally a police officer.

There might be a slightly different process from, let’s say brand new applicants applying. It tends to be a little shorter. They tend to focus a little bit more on your existing or previous policing experience. And so there is a pathway for you to change states and take I guess, the credit of your existing police experience to that other state. And it will be beneficial and help you get through a new application.

All right, guys, so that’s probably enough to gabble on about in regards to the whole issue around multiple states applying for different states, being asked, which is a priority, how do you handle those sort of questions, things around the differences between the states and territories and that issue of lateral transfer and how that might all work. So I hope you found that helpful. If that is a situation that you find yourself in or certainly if it’s one that you’re thinking about putting yourself in.

Either way, regardless of how many applications you have going at any one time, you need to have a really competitive final score so that when they compare you to other applicants in the same process, they’re more likely to offer you the position over other applicants if you have a competitive score.

So as I always say, your final applicant score is the most important thing that we need to focus on as you’re going through one or many police applications.

All right, guys. Well, thanks for spending some time with me again today. I hope you found that helpful. I look forward to chatting to you again soon in the next episode of Let’s Talk Police Applications. Take care.