I have an Oral Board coming up next week. I have been getting a lot better with my score each time. I feel that I am good with any type of situational question that they will throw. I just want to throw some sample questions and answers (not specific) that I have. If anyone could comment that would be awesome!

What qualities do you feel a police officer should possess?
I want to say an officer should possess a diversified set of qualities to handle any situation that he/she comes across. This makes flexibility a desireable trait. Then go on to mention the common ones: common sense, integrity, good decision making, being alert, level headed, good role model and team player.

What have you done to prepare for this career/what is your background and experience?
I obtained a BA in criminal justice and went on ride alongs with a police department. I assisted in documenting evidence. I will mention that I knew this career was for me. My background is only being a manager in culinary operations. So I will just mention that I dealt with the public extensilvely, handled customer complaints, worked in a busy/fast pace environment, etc. I completed a police academy and spoke to many officers in regards to what it takes to succeed in this profession and bought study guides to assist me. I work out and make good moral decisions. (Again, this is just an idea of what I want to talk about, not specific sentences).

Anything in regards to what duties/assignment I expect to be assigned I will just reference things police officers do.

Why should we hire you?
I will just make a short statement referencing my passion and dedication for this career and committment to succeed.

If they ask why I want to be a police officer, I do have a unique life experience so I think that is a good thing.

Anything in regards to my strengths I want to include flexibility since I was tasked with a lot of assignments as a manager and had to be willing to mulit-task or drop what I was doing to handle something more important (I know police officers have to be willing to do this).

If I am asked about my character/personality/what others would say, I will tie it into the qualities I already mentioned as that makes sense to me. If a police officer should possess x,y,z that it would only be fair to demonstrate I have x,y,z.

Thanks for any help! I realize more questions may come up but I feel real good about my answers and as long as I am on the right track with these questions I think that will help me to stay calm and confident when responding to something new.

Also what about skills? Would you say attention to detail, writing, and communication skills are best to mention?

Honesty and integrity are standard answers, but are good ones. Being able to interact well with all types of people is another important quality. Good judgment and decision making skills are important. Being detail oriented, good communication skills, and good writing skills are very important.

In addition to what you have done to prepare yourself such as earning your BA and going on ride alongs, maybe expand on that and give a couple examples of how doing so helped prepare you. Putting yourself through a police academy and preparing for police tests and staying in shape are also good answers. I would leave the part about making good moral decisions out for this question. For experience, telling them about your managerial skills and your responsibilities interacting with the public and employees is a good idea.

For your strengths, if you are a fast learner, get along well with others, and are good at multi-tasking and prioritizing, tell them this. Also, you should let them know that you are the type of person that always wants to learn as much as you can and always work to improve whenever possible.

If you are asked why they should hire you, tell them that you believe that you would make a good officer, and are willing to work hard and always give 110%.

Great, thanks! I will definitely keep these suggestions in mind when I am going over my answers.

I think adding an example will be a great idea. Maybe for my college education and I can just mention I took subjects related to criminal justice and gained knowledge about how the criminal justice system is organized and how it works

I know for my ride-alongs we responded to a suicide case and that was the first time I saw a dead body. I remember a lady in the building approached me and asked what happened and I just told her the situation was still be investigated and we couldn't say anything at this time. I remember observing a DUI arrest and a Field Sobriety Test. Doing ride-alongs was awesome.

I incorporated the answers mentioned above, so thanks again. Just one last question in regards to leadership. I used my managerial experience as a good leadership example but I have been thinking, being a manger is a position so leadership is required.

When I was in high school and college I often took the initiative into helping students who were struggling in my math class. Would this be more relevant? I can go into a little more detail about it for the interview.