SFPD Testing

[williampenn]

[QUOTE=D_G77;3262273]Since there's a few of us newbies to the process here, would anyone who's gone through the Oral care to share their experience? I've heard from a few people that it was very fast (15-20 min) and only 5-7 questions. Is it heavier on scenario or personal questions?[/QUOTE

Both-be prepared to answer scenario questions as well as some personal questions about yourself.

[williampenn]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10180[/ATTACH]

Hopefully some of you will be getting this notification (obviously names and dates will be different)

BTW, don't get hung up on your rank, your rank means almost nothing...

You could be ranked 38 and never get the call or you could be ranked well above 150 and get a call from your BI congratulating you...

Good luck!!

This letter only goes out to those who have been selected for the academy.

[JoMi]

This letter only goes out to those who have been selected for the academy.

Any idea when the hiring board is scheduled to meet?

[Chrissy75]

This letter only goes out to those who have been selected for the academy.

Boy, you are a sharp one.

Like I said earlier,

Hopefully some of you will be getting this notification for one of the many upcoming academy classes

(obviously not 221)

[williampenn]

Boy, you are a sharp one.

Like I said earlier,

Hopefully some of you will be getting this notification for one of the many upcoming academy classes

(obviously not 221)

Obviously not as sharp as you with your misleading info.
Anyway, those who get picked up in the upcoming hiring meeting will receive one of these letters 2 weeks prior to the start of the academy.
Good luck to all of you.

[Chrissy75]

Obviously not as sharp as you with your misleading info.
Anyway, those who get picked up in the upcoming hiring meeting will receive one of these letters 2 weeks prior to the start of the academy.
Good luck to all of you.

Please tell me how my 1 post contains "misleading info"?

So how many years have you been with SFPD?

You seem to know how the hiring board operates and makes it's decisions. How is that? How many boards have you sat on? Tell us what happens during the board. Do you think it's your BI trying to plead your case to rest of the members? I'm sure we would all like to know.

How do you know what background investigators look for?
Tell us what a BI considers to be an ideal candidate when they're sifting through hundreds of packets?
Military? College Graduate? Self-Sponsored Academy?
Do you think being an intern puts you above the pack?


You're the jackass handing out misleading info, not me...

[williampenn]

You sound vaguely familiar--I think my desk is right next to yours...

Please tell me how my 1 post contains "misleading info"?

So how many years have you been with SFPD?

You seem to know how the hiring board operates and makes it's decisions. How is that? How many boards have you sat on? Tell us what happens during the board. Do you think it's your BI trying to plead your case to rest of the members? I'm sure we would all like to know.

How do you know what background investigators look for?
Tell us what a BI considers to be an ideal candidate when they're sifting through hundreds of packets?
Military? College Graduate? Self-Sponsored Academy?
Do you think being an intern puts you above the pack?


You're the jackass handing out misleading info, not me...

[supramkiii]

You sound vaguely familiar--I think my desk is right next to yours...

To all readers, I have no affiliation with williampenn but have been a member of this thread for some time. He has alot of good information and is pretty accurate in his postings regarding the process and what to expect. I don't know who he is or what his job is but know he has a wealth of information that has been 99% accurate thus far. I myself was in the testing process that began Oct 2011 and I'm going through the process again in an attempt to extend my list in case I'm not selected before my current list expires. Yes, it's that competitive and be prepared for a long stressful process.

[mamol]

Hello,

I didn't score very well on the test and my rank is 96. Does anyone know if I have any chance of actually making it to the academy? I'm thinking about withdrawing from the process...

[baby-hippo]

@ baby hippo, well at least I made it into the top 2,000.

Looks like I'm top 300. At least for now, no idea who the military points will affect.

[Joe Civilian]

I'm in the top 100, but I think at 300 you probably are still doing good. I'm not too worried about military points changing things up too much because didn't the email say that only people who can still submit them are those who are submitting "outside" scores and who didn't actually take the test with SFPD? I also believe the email said they have until Wed Apr 10 at 1700 to do so, so my guess is that there won't be a huge number of people who meet this requirement in the first place and that some of those who do probably won't get the form turned in by this Wednesday, so the impact on the rest of the list should be minimal. I'm speculating here but that's what comes to mind. I think the physical will probably wipe out a pretty good group up and down since you will have people who not just can't pass it but who won't even show up. And then you have people who took this test to see what their options were (I'm looking at you laterals) and some of them may in the end decide to stay in their current jobs. Also, I was surprised to see the eligible list was so relatively short given the sheer volume of applicants that was reported this time.

[JoMi]

I sent in additional medical test to the SFPD Dr. My question is, do they send another letter in the mail notifying you that you have been cleared?

[Joe Civilian]

Also, a few people mentioned that your t-score really won't affect you that much in terms of getting hired because they look at other factors. I'm not sure what to make of this since I thought the written t-score is supposedly "weighted 100%". Obviously a good placing on the list doesn't matter if you lie about a conviction or have a terrible work history/awful credit or other issues that come up during background, but do they start looking at people first who are lower on the list and then keep moving up in people when they eliminate those who are not suitable due to the aforementioned reasons? I have also heard about an integrity inventory. Does SFPD still use something like this and is it pass/fail or is it something scored? A lot of good information on this board. Thanks everyone.

[RBurgundy]

@Jomi they probably won't send you a letter confirming your successful medical clearance, mine didn't-I found out from my BI off hand a few weeks later. You should follow up w your background investigator. No news is probably good news.

@Mamol I wouldn't totally give up, you may still have a chance if they end up extending E-129 an additional year. No one really knows for sure how this process works and maybe we're wrong about how they process people. If you live in the city there's no harm in continuing your application. But, if you're looking for advice, I would say to be realistic about the situation and pursue other job opportunities. If you're not in the top 1000 I doubt they'll ever assign you a background investigator (I could be wrong tho). You may get lucky and they'll call you out of the blue one day and it will be freakin' awesome. But that call prob won't be for at least a year and may not even happen. If you live out of state and have to pay $$$ to fly in for this stuff, then yeah, if I were you I would withdraw. But if you live in the Bay Area don't withdraw! Continue the process but lower your expectations. This kind of goes into what Joe Civilian was saying...

[RBurgundy]

@Joe Civilian: from my understanding your T-score/eligibility list spot is VERY important and essentially dictates who gets to move forward, the posts on this forum that say otherwise seem highly suspect to me. The only people I know who made into the academy recently had extremely high T scores plus the SFPD backgrounds people have mentioned off hand that's it's "pretty much all the about your score on the test" to see if you get to move forward and into backgrounds. Whether they use a "banding" system or go straight down the list or if there is some cherry picking for skills and when exactly other factors come in to play is matter of debate. I have some theories (you can look at my past posts) but in the end all we have are educated guesses. I would just encourage people to please cite your sources when you post. Assumptions and theories welcomed, just make sure to add that you're making a guess or inference and perhaps what experiences you're basing them off of. Seriously, thanks to all for posting. Oh, and last year we took the integrity inventory when we did the written...they did not share how or when they would use the data...they may have nixed that test all together this year, I have no idea. Eventually if you get to move on in the process you take a BUNCH of multiple choices test about personality, IQ, and mental state. How much and to what extent they use this info is a secret. Some of the tests seemed like they could be useful others struck me as a bit silly. But it's a process : P Unless you hear voices or have a horrible/mean personality I would not worry about these tests.