Hi, everybody.
My name is Richard McMunn, from the career guidance company, How2Become.com, and in this
video, I'm going to give you the very latest tips and advice on how to prepare effectively
for the all-new police officer competency-based interview.
Now, things are changing within the selection process to become a police officer, so for
those people who are going to a competency-based interview, 2018 onwards, this will apply.
So, make sure you got a pen and some paper, and take notes of the hints and tips that
I'm going to give you.
And then, at some point during this video, I'm going to tell you where you can get further
information to help you be fully prepared for the new police officer interview.
So, the interview, same as before, will last for approximately 20 minutes in duration.
You're going to get asked four initial questions and you've got five minutes to answer each
one.
Now, five minutes doesn't seem like a long time, but it is, so you should make sure before
you go to the interview you have your responses prepared, okay?
Now, the interview questions are sample ones that I'm going to give you now.
I'm not saying these are going to be the exact ones; that would be wrong of me to do that.
But based on my own experiences of working in the emergency services recruitment and
also being involved in developing core competencies for these kind of roles, these are the kind
of questions I recommend you prepare for in addition to the ones that you'll prepare for
following your own research and the information that I'm going to give you at the end of the
interview.
So, when you go in to the interview.
Make sure you dress smart.
You may be invited to give a handshake.
If you do, make sure it's a firm handshake and look the interviewer in the eye, obviously
not aggressively, but politely.
When you shake their hand, give a good, solid first impression.
So, when you enter the exam room, make sure you dress smart, you sit up straight in the
interview chair.
These questions that you're going to get asked are based on your past experiences, and that's
a key, important note to mention at the early stage of this video.
Write this down: you have to come up with sample responses based on your past experiences,
okay?
So you can't make them up.
They actually have to be specific examples that you've been in.
So if I was to say to you - and this isn't the question, by the way - but if I said,
"Give us an example of when you've worked as part of a team," okay, you'd have to give
a specific situation that you've been in the past where you've worked with other people
as part of a team to come up with a successful solution, a successful outcome, and that's
the important part.
I'll also tell you during this video how to structure your responses.
So, it has to be a specific one.
What you don't want to do, and many people do this when responding, is they say, "Well,
if I was in a situation when I was working as part of a team, this is what I would do..."
That's no good, okay?
You will get very few marks for that kind of response.
Make sure it's specific, something that you've been in before.
Now, following the questions, the interviewer will ask you the question, you will respond,
and then be prepared that you may get asked probing questions, okay?
Now, probing questions are, for example, "How did you demonstrate fairness in that particular
situation?"
Because you're going to be assessed against all of the competencies and values for becoming
a police officer, and you can find out what they are in a separate video that I've created
for you.
So, "How did you demonstrate fairness in that particular situation?"
So the assessor, the interviewer, might be looking to probe further to get that information
out from you.
Also, a probing question might be, "What did you learn from this experience?"
So if you tell them about a situation where you helped someone to overcome a difficult
situation, they might say, "What did you learn from that experience?"
Okay?
So be prepared for probing questions.
"Would you do anything differently if the same situation arose again?"
That's an example of a probing question.
That's a difficult one, because you might think, "Well, no.
I wouldn't do anything different because I think I handled it well."
If you were going to say that, then you should say to the interviewer, "I assessed my performance
following the situation and I looked into it, and I felt that I'd handled it well.
However, I am always looking to improve, and if something did occur where I thought, 'Well,
I could do that better,' then I would be open to that."
Because then you're open to change, you're open to developing yourself as an individual,
and that's important in the role of a police officer.
"How did the other person react to what you said or what you did?
How did they react and how did you feel about that?"
So be prepared for, potentially, lots of probing questions.
And again, when I tell you where you can get additional information, we will help you prepare
fully for those.
So, let's have a look at some sample police officer competency-based interview questions
based on your previous experiences.
Like I said, these are not the interview questions that you're going to get asked.
These are the ones that I've come up with for you based on my experiences of this kind
of interview, okay?
And don't forget to do further resource...sorry, further research with the resources that I'm
going to give you, and come up with your own sample responses as well, and sample interview
questions.
So, first question.
"Describe a situation where you have helped or supported either an individual or a group
of people."
Okay, so, I'll say that again.
"Describe a situation where you have helped or supported either an individual or a group
of people."
And again, think about probing questions.
How did the other people get involved?
Did you work as part of a team?
What was the reaction of the individual or the group following the manner in which you
supported them?
Second question, "Describe a situation where you have demonstrated empathy towards an individual."
Okay, so remember that the police core competencies are based on values.
So, "Have you ever demonstrated empathy?"
And don't just come up with a fictitious scenario.
You have to actually have been in that situation.
"Describe a situation where you've demonstrated forward thinking."
Okay.
When you've been creative or forward thinking, and that might be, I would suggest, in a work-related
situation where you've come up with an innovative solution to a problem or you've been creative.
Okay.
So, you've taken the lead, you've thought about, how can we resolve this difficult situation,
and you've been forward thinking in your approach.
That's really important in the role of a police officer.
Next question.
"Describe a situation when you've come up with a creative solution to a problem."
Very similar to the previous one.
The next one, "Describe a situation when you've helped somebody to overcome a difficult situation
or a challenging problem."
Okay.
So, do you know anyone in a work situation or outside of work where you've helped them
overcome a difficult situation or a challenging problem?
What did you do?
What did you say?
And also, what was the outcome?
And whilst on that, and I mentioned this at the beginning, there's a certain technique
that I recommend you use while preparing for your responses to the interview questions,
and that's the STAR technique.
So, write this down.
First of all, explain what the situation was that you were involved in, then explain what
had to be done.
That's called the task, okay?
So situation and then the task.
What did you have to do or what did others have to do in order to achieve a successful
outcome?
The third part of the STAR technique is action.
What action specifically did you take and what action did other people take?
And then finally, R for result.
What was the result?
My advice is to make sure that the result, the outcome, is a positive one.
It's a successful one.
So, based on the initial situation.
So if the question was, "Describe a situation where you've helped or supported either an
individual or a group," you'll explain the situation, the task, what did you have to
do to get to that successful outcome, what action did you take and then what was the
result.
The probing question might be, "Would you do anything differently next time?
How did the group or the individual react?
Did you have a debrief at the end?
Would you do anything differently?"
So, that's a very brief introduction to the new police officer interview competency-based
kind of sample questions.
If you want to learn more and accelerate your learning forever and be fully prepared, click
the link directly below the video and it will take you through to a page where you can get
an excellent resource, and this resource has been helping people lots recently to successfully
pass the selection process.
We're confident that it will help you prepare fully for the police officer interview.
Finally, please, I'd very much appreciate it if you gave the video a thumbs up, and
that will motivate me to do more videos for you.
Please subscribe to the channel, and if you have any questions at all about either a police
officer interview or the entire selection process, please put the comments that you
have, or the questions, below the video in the comments section.
Also, if you want me to do another video for you, please put it in the comment section.
Thank you very much for watching.
I wish you all the very best in your pursuit to becoming a police officer.