Sad but true. My personal favorite is when the town doesn't even post the position anywhere that's easy to find if at all.Translation = They’ll hire who they want, exam scores are meaningless, and you’ll have zero recourse if you score 100%, but they hire the son of the town manager’s best friend’s landscaper’s cousin, who scored a 62%.
Good “luck” everyone! 😆
Well how else are you supposed to scam $100 per applicant?It’s too bad these towns having banded together and did what a lot of towns did in eastern CT - offer one test for a bunch of departments. It would be better for everyone. Well ALMOST everyone.
That doesn’t sound a whole lot different than CS though. The point of leaving CS is to make things easier through the hiring process and not so slow and tedious..It’s too bad these towns having banded together and did what a lot of towns did in eastern CT - offer one test for a bunch of departments. It would be better for everyone. Well ALMOST everyone.
Actually, almost every town in the state is part of one of three different law enforcement councils that offer 1 collective tests for their participating departments: The CT Law Enforcement Council, which covers most of the Eastern CT departments, The South Central Criminal Justice Admin., which covers departments in the New Haven area, and the CT Police Chiefs' Association, which covers the rest of the state including the UConn PD. The State Police, Encon Police, and most of the university PDs (minus UConn) use a different test, and most of the biggest towns and cities (Hartford, New Haven, Stamford, Bridgeport, Waterbury, etc.) do their own as well. Pretty much all the departments accept the CHIP card though, which is nice.It’s too bad these towns having banded together and did what a lot of towns did in eastern CT - offer one test for a bunch of departments. It would be better for everyone. Well ALMOST everyone.
Each town can retain their own process - but this limits it to ONE written test for an applicant. Not 40 tests for 40 depts.Think of it like the PAT - one test but every town uses it as a PART of their processThat doesn’t sound a whole lot different than CS though. The point of leaving CS is to make things easier through the hiring process and not so slow and tedious..
That and helping family members get on.. but mostly the first part.
Right, one test for multiple munis. That’s exactly what I meant by saying it’s not a whole lot different than CS.Each town can retain their own process - but this limits it to ONE written test for an applicant. Not 40 tests for 40 depts.Think of it like the PAT - one test but every town uses it as a PART of their process
There are 2 kinds of standardized tests for employment, general aptitude and specialized knowledge. In Massachusetts, Civil Service (and most non-CS departments) use a general aptitude exam, which measures just that, general aptitude.Hot take: I don’t know that a written test is all that important anyways. I guess when you have more applicants to weed through, it helps whittle down the numbers, but other than that I don’t really get it. Down here, it’s pretty much unheard of to do a written test. My department used to do them, but we found that the tests meant almost nothing, and we learned a lot more about if someone was right for the job through interviews, background investigations, and work history/references than we ever did from the written tests. Those sections would weed out anyone that deserved to fail the test anyways (like if someone is basically illiterate) and they’d provide more valuable insights than the test did.
I don’t know, I know some really smart people who completely bombed that 2021 CS exam.There are 2 kinds of standardized tests for employment, general aptitude and specialized knowledge. In Massachusetts, Civil Service (and most non-CS departments) use a general aptitude exam, which measures just that, general aptitude.
The entry exam for the armed forces (the ASVAB) is also general aptitude, with your score determining which military jobs you qualify for. I served with a guy who was relatively well-spoken, very nice guy, great sense of humor, and had great decision making. The problem was, he could barely read at a 4th grade level, and his ASVAB score qualified him for the Infantry only.
Here in Mass, the only agency I’m aware of that has a specialized knowledge exam is the state environmental police (essentially state game wardens), there’s a reading list and you’re expected to know fish & game laws, habitats of wildlife, etc.
My point is that written tests, while not the be-all, end-all, can be quite useful in the hiring process. Hiring someone with a 4th grade reading ability, because that never came out in the interview or background processes, would be a huge waste of time and money, since the police academy is so reading-intensive.
Being “smart” doesn’t necessarily equate to being a good cop. Someone who panics when faced with a general aptitude test, or bombs it because they overthink every question, is not someone I want backing me up in a violent situation.I don’t know, I know some really smart people who completely bombed that 2021 CS exam.
Maybe that’s the case, but your comment I replied to was implying that the general aptitude test would weed out people who may be on the not so bright side.Being “smart” doesn’t necessarily equate to being a good cop. Someone who panics when faced with a general aptitude test, or bombs it because they overthink every question, is not someone I want backing me up in a violent situation.
Agreed. When I was an FTO, I had a probationer who had two different Master's Degrees. She was very smart to talk to and was excellent at writing reports. However, she couldn't recognize danger even when it literally walked right up to her, twice.Super intelligent isn't always a desirable qualification for a job like LE.