Just recently graduated a full time MPTC authorized police academy as a self sponsor last week. I have a bachelors and an associates degree in criminal justice, military experience as an MP, multiple years in the private security field and now a full time police academy under my belt. I have applied to every campus/hospital and non-civil service department with job openings with still no word back. Looking for advice on what to do next and how to get on the job as a patrol officer. I am wondering if there is any way an academy trained person can bypass civil service and land a spot on a department. Is there an exception for that? Or if I do land a job at a university or hospital as a police officer, does that make me eligible to lateral transfer. Feel stuck in my situation and looking for any opportunity.
Bypass civil service? No. Hopefully you took the civil service exam and have residency somewhere. Did you try and network with non-civil service folks in your academy? Every self sponsor in my academy (many years ago) had a job by the end with one of the non civil service departments that had someone in the academy. Don't despair, civil service will be gone in no time with the police reform bill. If I were you, I would take your academy diploma and get the hell out of Massachusetts to a more police friendly state.
Hey I was you back in 2016. Apply to every dept, every posting, send the resumes and cover letters to every posting, take every police exam. Go to the CivilService page if you took the most recent exam and check off on as many town and cities as possible you can get cards from anyone within the two years the test is eligible. I probably went on about 30 interviews and took me a little over a year to find a part time job and almost two years to find my full time job. Reapply to depts even if they told you no once before. I got hired at my PD the second time around through an exam. Don’t be afraid to reach out to the PDs and ask to speak with a patrol officer to get some insight into the PD (I had a LT from a Small dept get mad I didn’t do that) be up to date on community policing and all this social justice hullabaloo I’m sure there will be many questions in that. Oh also stay in shape most PDs have a separate cooper standards PT test. As Bloodhound, stated I went with 15 self sponsors in my academy, half had jobs by the time they got out and the other half (me) didn’t but eventually we all found jobs so just stay strong and if you truly want it you’ll get on. if you (or anyone) want to PM me I can go into some further info from here. Hopefully this helps you a bit.
you can’t “bypass” civil service but if you’re on a civil service list you can jump to the top if you’re within the number of ppl they are hiring. For example if you’re #5 on the list and they are hiring 6, the PD can reach down and start you on FTO immediately since you have the academy. They others will still get the job and may still be senior to you after they complete the academy. You can’t take someone’s spot for a job but if it’s within the limit they are hiring they can move you forward.
How would you go about having a dept. move you forward? I am currently on a city list at #9, went through the process last year and they were about to send me to an academy in early spring of 2020, but during the background check they realized I missed the mandatory year of residency before the civil service exam by 23 days so I had to withdraw, which led me to my current situation. Would I be able to reach out to that dept. now with the full time academy done and see if they can hire me regardless of the residency? Given I have lived in this city for 2.5 years now, just don't have that full year before the exam.
Is there any sort of preference full time academy trained persons get on civil service lists? Find it odd that is not a category on the lists. Should be able to go straight to the top if you have that done.
Well if you got bounced for resident stuff then technically you can’t get it until next test. So you’re not #9 anymore unfortunately.. And there was rumors of an academy trained list but that never happened because it’s Massachusetts and why would it make sense.. there’s a paramedic list why can’t there be a academy trained list but I digress..
He's kind of fucked trying to lateral to another state without one to two years of FT experience though.
If you are young, get out of MA and get thee to a community in a Red State where the folks and the political establishment still appreciate and support their cops. Apply, do the testing, and get hired first, and yeah, you will likely have to do another Academy, but so what..... you’re young and you will breeze through it! (Assuming you have the right attitude.) And virtually everywhere else, it won’t have to be self-sponsored Academy, you’ll be hired and getting a paycheck while in the Academy. ......... Just some advice from an Old Guy that left MA and headed west 43 years ago, has seen a lot of changes in police work in my over four decades as a cop and can no longer recommend it as a career in any Blue State.
The PD that denied you due to residency issue may consider that failing a background, or falsifying your application to civil service. "Only 23 days" still means you weren't eligible and lied when you claimed residency status. Some desperate small department may take you due to your academy, but if one of my background investigators presented this info to me, it would be a no thanks. Sent from my SM-G986U1 using Tapatalk
I have a very similar background to yours and I graduated in April. Got my first conditional offer a few weeks ago. It's not a good time to be looking for work for anyone. Things might be getting better soon, but it might be a while.
Right now its pretty much going to be a waiting game that's on when and if the department decides to start processing new hires. Police hiring on a good day often moves at glacial speed. The fastest process I ever had was 4 months. The longest was 2 years. Totally forgot I applied to that one till I was contacted clear out of the blue. So standby to standby.
Curious. Why won’t the department that sponsored you hire you ? You had to know someone to get a full time sponsor. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
