Audio Version
Summary
In this episode of ‘Let’s talk police applications’ the main points of discussion are:
- This is the most common question I’ve had from police applicants over the past 17 years
- There are concerns that applicants are conscious of
- There are other concerns they may not even be conscious of
- The seesaw assessment
- The most important thing at the end of the day
Transcription
G’day everyone. Russell here from Prime Motion Training. Thanks for joining me for episode number five of Let’s Talk Police Applications.
So, in this episode, I want to share with you the most common question I get from police applicants. And over the last 17 years working with more than 6,000 police applicants, there’s been a lot of questions about a lot of things. So let’s look at the most common question I’ve had, and it may be helpful for you if you find yourself in a situation where you might ask the same question. Let’s get into it.
Okay, so let’s dive straight into it. The most common question I get from police applicants is, “Will this affect my application?” Now of course, there’s generally context and content around a situation first, which then leads to that question being asked. Now, that situation may be that the applicant has some sort of traffic related history. Maybe they’ve had some speeding fines or they’ve lost their licence at some point in time and they explain the situation and then ask that question whether it’s likely to affect the application.
Now the first thing is that everything affects your application, but of course we want to know to what extent is it likely to have an impact. It may be that there’s some criminal history involved, and the question is, “Will that affect my application?” Yes, of course it will, but timing also becomes relevant. If something has happened, whether it’s a traffic related or criminal related 15 years ago, it’s less likely to have a negative impact than if it happened 15 months ago. So timing is important to be able to answer that question as well.
The other thing could be medication. Maybe an applicant is taking some sort of medication or has done in the past and they’re worried about that impacting their chances of success, and that’s understandable, but we’ll get to the answer to all of those points shortly.
Previous injuries, they’re another concern for applicants. Maybe you’ve had an injury that required some sort of surgery and you’re concerned that that might have a negative effect on your application.
Another big one is mental health. Maybe you’ve had some counselling at some point in time and that’s been categorised as mental health and you’re worried that the mental health issue might affect your application. But all of these things will have an effect, but again, it’s to what extent is it likely to be a negative effect or impact.
What you can do if any of these situations actually affect you is to submit what’s generally called a Voluntary Disclosure Form.
A Voluntary Disclosure Form, you’ll often see it as just VDF, so Voluntary Disclosure Form can have several names depending on the state and territory that you might be applying for, but generally, what they are is an opportunity for applicants to complete a form with that content and context, and of course the question, and submit that to the recruiting people.
Now, they won’t go into great depth to assess your situation. They will do that when your application is underway and you progress to that particular stage in the process. But what they will do is give you just, I guess, a surface assessment and an indication about the chances of your situation having a negative effect on your application.
Now, if they can see that will have a huge effect and you’re unlikely to be able to succeed, they’ll generally say that. They’ll let you know, “Look, based on the information that you’ve provided, it’s unlikely you would be successful with an application.” And if they say that, well, it’s pretty much game over unless you’re prepared to go away and get some really extensive information. If it relates to an injury, for example, you might have to go back and get multiple letters and reports and scans and build up your own case to go back to them and present that, hoping to be able to influence their decision.
For the most part, they’ll just give you that indication. It won’t be a yes or no definitive answer. And what they’ll say to you is that it is just an indication and that they won’t be able to give you a definitive answer until you actually reach that stage of the assessment or of the application process. And that’s fair enough because they don’t want to spend time digging into people’s situations when they haven’t even applied yet. There’ll be plenty of current and active applications that need that same attention, so naturally they’ll get the attention first.
Do the positives outweigh the negatives?
Everything affects your police application – everything!
Okay, so we’ve talked about some of the things that are pretty common where applicants might ask whether that’s likely to affect their chances of success.
There are plenty of other things though that will affect your chances of success. Now, obviously, any scores that you achieve through different assessments along the way will have a big impact, but other things like your communication skills, if you ever need to talk to the recruiting people on the phone, the way in which you communicate will impact on their impression of you.
And certainly in terms of responding to emails from the recruiting people, this needs to be done properly. You got to be very careful about just replying quickly and not taking the time to read over it multiple times. Check the spelling, check the grammar, have someone else read it. “Hey, does this make sense?” And just make sure that every communication you make with the recruiting people is to the highest possible level, because if it’s poorly worded, it doesn’t even make sense, the grammar and spelling is terrible, that will certainly affect your application because it’ll make a poor impression.
The other thing is be prompt. If they send you instructions or requests for information or whatever they’re requesting, get it back to them promptly. Important that you get things back in a timely fashion.
And of course, these things need to be done accurately. If they’ve asked you to complete a form and you’ve missed half the form, or again, the spelling or the punctuation is terrible, or what you’ve added is out of date or anything like that, it will negatively affect your application. So accuracy is very, very important as well.
As is appearance. If you have to front up to a fitness test or an exam or a medical assessment or an interview of any kind, whether it’s with the recruiting people or not, the question I often get around appearance is, “Hey, Russ, do you think I need to wear a tie for my, whatever it might be, interview or medical assessment or whatever?” And I never say yes or no. My answer is always, “Well, that will depend on what impression you’re trying to make.” I think making a good impression at every opportunity is really helpful and will have a positive effect on your application.
Now, here’s one that I’m sure you are conscious of. If you’re not, you certainly need to be, and that is your social media presence, your online presence. This is generally the true you. And when they compare that to the application that you’ve submitted and the person that you want them to think you are, if it’s not consistent with your social media profile, you could have some problems. So be really, really careful about what you do on social media because it could certainly come back to bite you right square on the backside.
The other thing is references or referees. Obviously, when you provide a reference, you want it to be a quality reference from someone who has some type of authority or good standing within the community. Maybe a school principal, your local GP that you’ve seen for the last 20 years or someone like that, someone who’s known you for a long time, knows you well and has some sort of standing within the community.
You should be involved in that reference that they write too. Rather than just forward it on without even looking at it, you want to make… I mean, this is for your application, so if you feel as though that needs to be rewritten in certain sections or “Hey, whoops, there’s a bit of a spelling mistake here,” then don’t be afraid to ask them to adjust it. A reference is important. It carries weight, so we want to do it properly.
At the end of the day, these individual things will either be positive or negative, and it ultimately comes down to that, I guess, that seesaw analogy or assessment where we want the positives to outweigh any negatives that may be present through your application.
And don’t stress if there are some negative aspects. No one’s perfect. Certainly no police applicant is perfect. So there’s likely to be some things that are not overly positive for you. And if that’s the case, we need to provide as much information about that negative as we can to make the recruiting people’s job a little bit easier to do their assessment. And of course, we want to overload the positives about your application as best we possibly can.
So don’t stress too much about negatives, but get sorted, get organised with and get as many positive elements into your application as possible.
At the end of the day, no matter whether it’s a medical related issue or an exam score that you’ve achieved, whatever it is, all of these things will affect your application. Everything. Everything you do affects your police application, and the combination of all of these things will produce a final applicant score, and that final applicant score is vitally important because it determines your chances of success.
All right, guys, well, as usual, I hope that was helpful for you. If you do have any questions about today’s chat, feel free to reach out. Otherwise, I look forward to chatting to you again in the next episode. In the meantime, take care and keep your foot on the grass.
To answer the question, will this affect my police application?, the answer is yes. The real question is to what extent, and will it have a positive or negative affect?
Do your best to have the positives outweigh the negatives to help you maximise your final applicant score. Sing out if you have any questions!
In the meantime, keep your foot on the gas!
Cheers
Russ.
