1
My road to the City of London...
Posted by
Giraffe
,
06 August 2010
·
350 views
Well as some of you may know, I've applied to join the City of London Police as a regular. To my delight I received a letter this week confirming that I have passed the final interview. Hurrah! 
All that is left is my medical and fitness, both of which I know won't be an issue. I don't know how long the wait will be for a start date, and taking into account what happened to the 2,000 Met Police applicants who got knocked back recently (even though they had passed every stage), I am well aware that sometimes things can go wrong particularly in the current economic climate.
What surprises me the most, is the fact that I have got to this stage so quickly and on my first attempt. I first applied to the Surrey Specials when I was 18 and got knocked back twice, before finally getting through on my third try. The great Lord Vader was actually one of my assessors, as he was a Section Officer (now a S/Sgt) at the time. I also unsuccessfully applied to the Prison Service last year - I got knocked back by a really small amount at the assessment centre. The bit that I failed on with the Prison was the role plays. For the normal (adult) role plays I got
Non – Verbal communication - A+ ; Suspending Judgement - B+ ; Showing Understanding - C ; Assertion - A+ ; Exploring & Clarifying - C ; Respect for Others - C+
For the juvenile role play I got the following:
Non – Verbal communication - A+ ; Suspending Judgement - A+ ; Showing Understanding - A+ ; Assertion - A+ ; Exploring & Clarifying - A
I failed because the Respect for others grade had to be a B (I got a C+), even though I suspect that my overall score was probably higher than average.
As a backup plan I have now re-applied to the Prison Service (as they have only just re-opened recruiting, and have my assessment centre with them on 11th August at Holloway in London.
Back to the police; I had been reluctant to keep any sort of time line on my City Police application, as each stage I got to I genuinely thought would be my last. So here is my application experience to date:
10 February 2010 - I see a thread pop up in the Regulars Zone about the City of London Police (here). I have considered applying to the regulars on a couple of previous occasions, and half completed the forms and then giving up half way through. I was not keen to join my current force (Surrey) for a couple of reasons - firstly if successful with Surrey then I would only really want to work as a Neighbourhood officer (NSO) on my current area, something that is fairly unlikely to happen unless I'm very lucky. Secondly Surrey is one of the first forces to have adopted the 'PLC' method of recruiting - in a nutshell you pay (currently over £1k) to do a law course at college in your spare time. Once you are on the course you can then apply properly to Surrey. The rest of the recruitment process is the same - application, assessment etc - so you could then get knocked back at any of those stages even though you've spent a lot of time, money and effort for a qualification that cannot be used outside of policing.
The Met I believe are also introducing this type of method of recruitment, and other forces are also considering it. The sheer cost of the course would make it significantly more difficult for me to join, and knowing that this may be one of the last opportunities to join the police in the old fashioned way, I didn't want to pass this opportunity up.
Also, the City would be a fantastic force to work for - I work within a fairly small force already where everybody knows each other, something that I don't think you would get as easily in the Met.
15 February 2010 - 09:00 and the recruiting line opens. I try from the outset and get an automated message each time advising that I cannot be connected due to the volume of calls. Luckily all the calls came out of my free minutes and it wasn't costing me. My mobile also keeps track of how many times I called the number - after a whopping 111 attempts and over three hours later I get through! I'm one of the lucky ones to get an application pack. Within an hour of getting through the line is closed – all 500 packs they have available have gone.
The pack arrives the following week, and the form is pretty big – 16 pages in all. There are four big competency based questions as well as other questions such as why I want to be a police officer and why I have chosen the force that I have.
I spent hours at my desk each evening after work going through them, trying to think up examples. I would type up my answers onto a blank word document on my computer, and then made multiple photocopies of the pages so I could write them out in draft. In the end the finished product was that I used up all the available space to get my messages across, without going over. I then kept a photocopy of my completed application form, and signed and dated it on the 2nd March.
12 April 2010 – A little over a month after submitting my application, I receive a letter inviting me to the assessment centre, which will take place at the Met Police Training Centre in Hendon, North London. Within the letter was information about the assessment centre (known as the Westshire Centre pack), which I need to memorise prior to going to the assessment, as some of it will be relevant to the written exercises and role plays. Being honest, I hate assessment centres. The irony is that I really enjoy being an assessor for Surrey Specials, but hate being on the receiving end. I guess it does no harm to be on the receiving end of my own medicine once and a while.
The assessment date was set for 7th May.
7 May 2010 – some of you may remember the 7th May, as it was the day after the General Election. As I am on the train at the crack of dawn heading up to Waterloo I wonder to myself who is more nervous - me, David Cameron, or Gordon Brown, all in effect fighting for our careers. On the tube up to Colindale station I notice that the further we get north, the fewer passengers there are. As we are within reach of Colindale, I spot a smartly dressed chap sat on the next row of seats to my right, reading through what looks suspiciously like a Westshire Centre pack. I look to my left, and there is a smartly dressed young lady doing exactly the same.
As we approach Colindale I approach the young lady and say ‘Are you…’, and before I finish she replies ‘Yes, and you?’. ‘Yes’, I reply again, ‘and I think that bloke down there is too!’. The smartly dressed chap notices us and comes over. We all shake hands and make the usual small talk about how nervous we all are.
As we walk down the road in the direction of the training school, we spot a couple more smartly dressed recruits and go to the entrance to Hendon. The security guard on the gate advises us that we are about 45 minutes early, and points us in the direction of a nearby greasy spoon. The small talk continues and, although I should be starving, the last thing I can think about is food.
As we enter, I notice the café is full of smartly dressed young men and women, all of whom are also there for the assessment. I wonder if the security guard is working on commission from the café. I chat to just about everybody in the café, and discover that majority are serving Specials or PCSOs, and only a minority appear to have no policing experience whatsoever. I eat toast; I drink tea; we leave.
On arrival at Hendon we are signed in and then asked to wait in a side room. A television is on with the political pundits all discussing the potential implications of a hung parliament. It is good in a way as it gives everyone something to talk about. After a while three assessors enter the room and split us into ‘syndicates’ of eight. We are each given a sticker with our syndicate and candidate numbers, which must be on display at all times.
My syndicate goes in for the written first. I complete the two written exercises in the time given and am not really sure one way or the other how I think I did. We then stay in the same room, and then take our written (different to the previous written tests) and numerical reasoning tests, which has multiple choice answers. The numerical one came first, and I only managed to answer about two thirds of the questions. I completely lost track of time and my heart sinks – at this point I’m convinced I failed.
We then move onto the written test, and get three practice questions. At this point I feel really de-motivated, but tell myself that I may not have failed, and to carry on giving it my best. The assessor tells us the answers to the practice questions and one of my answers was incorrect. If I wasn’t deflated enough lol…
When it comes to the actual test, I have enough time to recheck all my answers, and I’m as sure as I can be that I have answered them with what I believe to be the correct answers. I try to imagine what one of my regular Sgts would do in those situations, and think, ‘yeah, that’s what he would do’, and that kind of backed up my answers.
We then moved onto the roleplays, before doing the competency based interviews last. I try to be as relaxed as possible throughout, but still have the maths test in the back of my mind, and still think that I have failed. In all bar one of the roleplays I used up the full five minutes allowed. Unlike my prison officer assessment, all of the assessors were very friendly throughout. The end of the day comes, and all I can do is go home, put my feet up, and try not to think about it.
28 May 2010 – I’ve been waiting all month for my result, and am aware that I will know the outcome imminently, as one of the other candidates had told me that HR had told them that we would receive letters at the end of the month. I had to get up early that morning anyway as I was due to give evidence in Court over an arrest that I made last year. I go to Court and was quite nervous, but the defence was rubbish and not surprisingly the defendant was found guilty. When I get back to the police station I switch my mobile phone on and have a text message from one of the other candidates to say that he’d received a letter confirming that he’d passed the assessment centre. The office was full of PCSOs who were on their lunch. I couldn’t wait any longer and called my landlady, who fortunately was at home, and I asked her to open my mail for me. I passed!
As soon as I got the magic words our all the PCSOs started cheering and clapping, I was lost for words as I honestly thought I’d failed in the maths part. When I got home that evening to check my results, I saw that they marked the maths with the written reasoning test and given them an overall grade of ‘B’, so I must have done fairly well on the written reasoning to make up for the maths!
25 June 2010 – I receive another letter from the City of London Police. In a nutshell they’ve had more people pass than they have vacancies, and because of this all those who’ve passed the assessment centre will return for a final interview, again competency based but rather than four questions like the interview it will be six, for each of the six competency areas (+ communication which is assessed throughout). I go through my results from the assessment centre to help decide which competencies I did well on previously, and which ones had room for improvement. I know that the competition by now will be very tough and am determined to succeed. In the end I come up with completely new examples for all bar two of the competencies ‘Resilience’ and ‘Team working’, where I stick to my existing examples. The interview is set for the 9th July.
9 July 2010 – I get up early. As with my assessment centre; I had everything prepared the night before to make my job in the morning as easy as possible. My landlady had her screaming grandkids round, so I caught the bus into Kingston, and had a big breakfast in one of the cafés, going over my notes once again. I then travel up to the City and find another café around the corner from Snow Hill Police station where I park my bum for the next two hours, going over all my notes again whilst drinking a rather unhealthy mix of coffees and milkshakes (but they were the seriously good milkshakes!).
When I arrive for my interview there are three other candidates who are due to be interviewed at the same time as me. Two were Specials (one Met, one Essex) and the other chap was a PCSO with the City (he was due to start his shift from the same police station shortly after his interview!).
When we are called in I am sat in a small room with a lady from HR and a Police Inspector, both of whom were armed with clip boards. I was told (as had been previously mentioned in the letter) that I could have up to five minutes per question, and that afterwards I could ask any questions I had about the role. It was over before I knew it – I was in and out of there in less than twenty five minutes and waited outside for the other candidates. The next candidate was out over ten minutes later, and the last one came out nearly twenty minutes after me. This made me wonder whether I had put enough detail into my answers, but as it later turned out both of us passed (he text the other day to let me know).
4 August 2010The long wait is over – I’m aware that the letters have gone out and I call my landlady to ask her to open my post, and to my complete shock I’ve passed. Even as I’m typing this I still can’t quite believe it. There is still the medical and fitness to go, both of which I have undertaken as a Special and am not concerned about.
In other news on Monday I passed my Special Sergeants exam, with 13/15 correct answers. Well, that’s about it from me for now – I’m having a police free weekend this weekend and will be back to normal next week. Thanks once again for reading!
Giraffe
P.s. – Just to finish off, here’s a couple of City of London pictures for you to look at…
All that is left is my medical and fitness, both of which I know won't be an issue. I don't know how long the wait will be for a start date, and taking into account what happened to the 2,000 Met Police applicants who got knocked back recently (even though they had passed every stage), I am well aware that sometimes things can go wrong particularly in the current economic climate.
What surprises me the most, is the fact that I have got to this stage so quickly and on my first attempt. I first applied to the Surrey Specials when I was 18 and got knocked back twice, before finally getting through on my third try. The great Lord Vader was actually one of my assessors, as he was a Section Officer (now a S/Sgt) at the time. I also unsuccessfully applied to the Prison Service last year - I got knocked back by a really small amount at the assessment centre. The bit that I failed on with the Prison was the role plays. For the normal (adult) role plays I got
Non – Verbal communication - A+ ; Suspending Judgement - B+ ; Showing Understanding - C ; Assertion - A+ ; Exploring & Clarifying - C ; Respect for Others - C+
For the juvenile role play I got the following:
Non – Verbal communication - A+ ; Suspending Judgement - A+ ; Showing Understanding - A+ ; Assertion - A+ ; Exploring & Clarifying - A
I failed because the Respect for others grade had to be a B (I got a C+), even though I suspect that my overall score was probably higher than average.
As a backup plan I have now re-applied to the Prison Service (as they have only just re-opened recruiting, and have my assessment centre with them on 11th August at Holloway in London.
Back to the police; I had been reluctant to keep any sort of time line on my City Police application, as each stage I got to I genuinely thought would be my last. So here is my application experience to date:
10 February 2010 - I see a thread pop up in the Regulars Zone about the City of London Police (here). I have considered applying to the regulars on a couple of previous occasions, and half completed the forms and then giving up half way through. I was not keen to join my current force (Surrey) for a couple of reasons - firstly if successful with Surrey then I would only really want to work as a Neighbourhood officer (NSO) on my current area, something that is fairly unlikely to happen unless I'm very lucky. Secondly Surrey is one of the first forces to have adopted the 'PLC' method of recruiting - in a nutshell you pay (currently over £1k) to do a law course at college in your spare time. Once you are on the course you can then apply properly to Surrey. The rest of the recruitment process is the same - application, assessment etc - so you could then get knocked back at any of those stages even though you've spent a lot of time, money and effort for a qualification that cannot be used outside of policing.
The Met I believe are also introducing this type of method of recruitment, and other forces are also considering it. The sheer cost of the course would make it significantly more difficult for me to join, and knowing that this may be one of the last opportunities to join the police in the old fashioned way, I didn't want to pass this opportunity up.
Also, the City would be a fantastic force to work for - I work within a fairly small force already where everybody knows each other, something that I don't think you would get as easily in the Met.
15 February 2010 - 09:00 and the recruiting line opens. I try from the outset and get an automated message each time advising that I cannot be connected due to the volume of calls. Luckily all the calls came out of my free minutes and it wasn't costing me. My mobile also keeps track of how many times I called the number - after a whopping 111 attempts and over three hours later I get through! I'm one of the lucky ones to get an application pack. Within an hour of getting through the line is closed – all 500 packs they have available have gone.
The pack arrives the following week, and the form is pretty big – 16 pages in all. There are four big competency based questions as well as other questions such as why I want to be a police officer and why I have chosen the force that I have.
I spent hours at my desk each evening after work going through them, trying to think up examples. I would type up my answers onto a blank word document on my computer, and then made multiple photocopies of the pages so I could write them out in draft. In the end the finished product was that I used up all the available space to get my messages across, without going over. I then kept a photocopy of my completed application form, and signed and dated it on the 2nd March.
12 April 2010 – A little over a month after submitting my application, I receive a letter inviting me to the assessment centre, which will take place at the Met Police Training Centre in Hendon, North London. Within the letter was information about the assessment centre (known as the Westshire Centre pack), which I need to memorise prior to going to the assessment, as some of it will be relevant to the written exercises and role plays. Being honest, I hate assessment centres. The irony is that I really enjoy being an assessor for Surrey Specials, but hate being on the receiving end. I guess it does no harm to be on the receiving end of my own medicine once and a while.
The assessment date was set for 7th May.7 May 2010 – some of you may remember the 7th May, as it was the day after the General Election. As I am on the train at the crack of dawn heading up to Waterloo I wonder to myself who is more nervous - me, David Cameron, or Gordon Brown, all in effect fighting for our careers. On the tube up to Colindale station I notice that the further we get north, the fewer passengers there are. As we are within reach of Colindale, I spot a smartly dressed chap sat on the next row of seats to my right, reading through what looks suspiciously like a Westshire Centre pack. I look to my left, and there is a smartly dressed young lady doing exactly the same.
As we approach Colindale I approach the young lady and say ‘Are you…’, and before I finish she replies ‘Yes, and you?’. ‘Yes’, I reply again, ‘and I think that bloke down there is too!’. The smartly dressed chap notices us and comes over. We all shake hands and make the usual small talk about how nervous we all are.
As we walk down the road in the direction of the training school, we spot a couple more smartly dressed recruits and go to the entrance to Hendon. The security guard on the gate advises us that we are about 45 minutes early, and points us in the direction of a nearby greasy spoon. The small talk continues and, although I should be starving, the last thing I can think about is food.
As we enter, I notice the café is full of smartly dressed young men and women, all of whom are also there for the assessment. I wonder if the security guard is working on commission from the café. I chat to just about everybody in the café, and discover that majority are serving Specials or PCSOs, and only a minority appear to have no policing experience whatsoever. I eat toast; I drink tea; we leave.
On arrival at Hendon we are signed in and then asked to wait in a side room. A television is on with the political pundits all discussing the potential implications of a hung parliament. It is good in a way as it gives everyone something to talk about. After a while three assessors enter the room and split us into ‘syndicates’ of eight. We are each given a sticker with our syndicate and candidate numbers, which must be on display at all times.
My syndicate goes in for the written first. I complete the two written exercises in the time given and am not really sure one way or the other how I think I did. We then stay in the same room, and then take our written (different to the previous written tests) and numerical reasoning tests, which has multiple choice answers. The numerical one came first, and I only managed to answer about two thirds of the questions. I completely lost track of time and my heart sinks – at this point I’m convinced I failed.
We then move onto the written test, and get three practice questions. At this point I feel really de-motivated, but tell myself that I may not have failed, and to carry on giving it my best. The assessor tells us the answers to the practice questions and one of my answers was incorrect. If I wasn’t deflated enough lol…
When it comes to the actual test, I have enough time to recheck all my answers, and I’m as sure as I can be that I have answered them with what I believe to be the correct answers. I try to imagine what one of my regular Sgts would do in those situations, and think, ‘yeah, that’s what he would do’, and that kind of backed up my answers.
We then moved onto the roleplays, before doing the competency based interviews last. I try to be as relaxed as possible throughout, but still have the maths test in the back of my mind, and still think that I have failed. In all bar one of the roleplays I used up the full five minutes allowed. Unlike my prison officer assessment, all of the assessors were very friendly throughout. The end of the day comes, and all I can do is go home, put my feet up, and try not to think about it.
28 May 2010 – I’ve been waiting all month for my result, and am aware that I will know the outcome imminently, as one of the other candidates had told me that HR had told them that we would receive letters at the end of the month. I had to get up early that morning anyway as I was due to give evidence in Court over an arrest that I made last year. I go to Court and was quite nervous, but the defence was rubbish and not surprisingly the defendant was found guilty. When I get back to the police station I switch my mobile phone on and have a text message from one of the other candidates to say that he’d received a letter confirming that he’d passed the assessment centre. The office was full of PCSOs who were on their lunch. I couldn’t wait any longer and called my landlady, who fortunately was at home, and I asked her to open my mail for me. I passed!
As soon as I got the magic words our all the PCSOs started cheering and clapping, I was lost for words as I honestly thought I’d failed in the maths part. When I got home that evening to check my results, I saw that they marked the maths with the written reasoning test and given them an overall grade of ‘B’, so I must have done fairly well on the written reasoning to make up for the maths!
25 June 2010 – I receive another letter from the City of London Police. In a nutshell they’ve had more people pass than they have vacancies, and because of this all those who’ve passed the assessment centre will return for a final interview, again competency based but rather than four questions like the interview it will be six, for each of the six competency areas (+ communication which is assessed throughout). I go through my results from the assessment centre to help decide which competencies I did well on previously, and which ones had room for improvement. I know that the competition by now will be very tough and am determined to succeed. In the end I come up with completely new examples for all bar two of the competencies ‘Resilience’ and ‘Team working’, where I stick to my existing examples. The interview is set for the 9th July.
9 July 2010 – I get up early. As with my assessment centre; I had everything prepared the night before to make my job in the morning as easy as possible. My landlady had her screaming grandkids round, so I caught the bus into Kingston, and had a big breakfast in one of the cafés, going over my notes once again. I then travel up to the City and find another café around the corner from Snow Hill Police station where I park my bum for the next two hours, going over all my notes again whilst drinking a rather unhealthy mix of coffees and milkshakes (but they were the seriously good milkshakes!).
When I arrive for my interview there are three other candidates who are due to be interviewed at the same time as me. Two were Specials (one Met, one Essex) and the other chap was a PCSO with the City (he was due to start his shift from the same police station shortly after his interview!).
When we are called in I am sat in a small room with a lady from HR and a Police Inspector, both of whom were armed with clip boards. I was told (as had been previously mentioned in the letter) that I could have up to five minutes per question, and that afterwards I could ask any questions I had about the role. It was over before I knew it – I was in and out of there in less than twenty five minutes and waited outside for the other candidates. The next candidate was out over ten minutes later, and the last one came out nearly twenty minutes after me. This made me wonder whether I had put enough detail into my answers, but as it later turned out both of us passed (he text the other day to let me know).
4 August 2010The long wait is over – I’m aware that the letters have gone out and I call my landlady to ask her to open my post, and to my complete shock I’ve passed. Even as I’m typing this I still can’t quite believe it. There is still the medical and fitness to go, both of which I have undertaken as a Special and am not concerned about.
In other news on Monday I passed my Special Sergeants exam, with 13/15 correct answers. Well, that’s about it from me for now – I’m having a police free weekend this weekend and will be back to normal next week. Thanks once again for reading!
Giraffe
P.s. – Just to finish off, here’s a couple of City of London pictures for you to look at…
