3 Things That Helped Me Pass My Police Exam Oral Board Interview

The process to become a police officer was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever endured. And of the entire process, the oral board interview was likely the most stressful part. 

I prepared for my police oral board interview for months. And when I walked out of that room, one of the Sergeants told me that in his nearly 25 years of service, he had never seen anyone do as well as me in that “hot seat.” 

Now, it was bad enough that over 400 applicants were jockeying for 1 open position. But add to that the fact that the department I was applying to had never hired a minority officer ever before, and the pressure was magnified tenfold. There were people in the town who were literally working to make sure I did NOT get hired (I found this out after I was hired).

As most who are applying to become a police officer knows one of the most difficult and arguably most important phases of the police examination process is the oral board interview. 

A police oral board interview typically involves the police applicant entering a room and sitting in a chair (the “hot seat”) facing anywhere from five to seven high ranking police officers from that agency. Mine included a Captain, multiple Lieutenants and multiple Sergeants. Some smaller agencies might include the Chief, but this is highly unlikely. 

From my over 20 years being involved with the police, I’ve come to learn that the primary objective of the police oral board exam interview is to see how you do under pressure. Yes, they want to see how you respond to certain questions. But you must remember, at this point you’re not an officer and thus have no obligation to know anything about the law. Therefore you must know that any questions they ask of you are to get to know your personality and to see how you do under pressure. 

That said, here are the three things that helped me ace my police oral board interview and lead me to become the first ever minority officer hired in the history of my police agency; against all odds.

Number 1: It’s A Game - Remain Calm - Don’t Break

You must know that this is a sort of game. Their goal is to apply pressure to get you to crack. Your goal is to take the pressure and remain cool, calm and collected. Knowing this prior to walking into that room and sitting down in that chair likely saved me. This phase is what sealed the deal and led to me getting hired. 

During my oral board exam they threw all sorts of crazy accusations and scenarios at me. They held up a file folder and asked me to tell them about the “felony” I had been charged with. Never happened. 

They insisted it was “on my record” and kept waving a manila folder around in the air as if it contained the “evidence” supporting their accusation. But it didn’t; it was an empty folder. 

Over the course of this roughly ten minute charade, I remained calm and simply said, “Sir, with all due respect, that never happened.” Finally, after about ten minutes, one of the Lieutenants chimed in and said, “Ok, ok… let’s move on.” And that was it. 

Later on they asked me what I would do if I pulled a car over and noted the smell of marijuana as I approached. And upon getting to the vehicle I noticed that my mother was the operator of the vehicle. They point blank asked, “Would she be under arrest?” 

My response was, “Yes.” They immediately jumped up screaming, “You’re a liar. You would arrest your own mother?” There was back and forth banter among them for a few minutes or so as they accused me of being full of shit. It was intense. I wanted to speak but I remained quiet. Then, they allowed me to speak. 

I calmly responded, “No. My supervisor would arrest her. Because that’s who I would call to the scene as soon as I recognized the conflict of interest at the scene.” And once again, they immediately quieted down and said, “Ok. Let’s move on.” 

This madness went on during the entirety of my 3.5 hour oral board; the longest oral board examination in the history of the department (and longest one I’ve ever heard of to date). And through it all, I simply maintained my composure, never got upset or flustered and responded with zero emotion. Even with them screaming at me calling me a liar, I never broke. I never stumbled. And they recognized this. 

As a police officer, you are surely going to encounter similar stressful situations while on the road. How you compose yourself and handle them can make or break you. What they were doing wasn’t personal. They were just trying to break me to see how I would hold up in the real world. And I showed them exactly what they needed to see. 

Number 2: Make Yourself Look Good In a Back Handed Manner

One of the things people have the hardest time with is praising themselves in an interview. Most operate in the extremes when it comes to this. And it seldom works out for them. 

A common question you’ll hear in a police oral board exam is, “What are your strengths?” Or, “What are your best qualities that make you right for this job?” Or, “Why should we pick you?” I would say that 99% of people screw this up. 

They’ll either go overboard talking about how great they are and how much better they are than everyone else. Or, they’ll fear looking cocky and simply say something cheesy like, “I’m a really hard worker.” 

Seriously, ask yourself, who in history has gone into a job interview and declared that they are lazy and not a hard worker?

The key here for me was to make myself look good in their eyes without making it look like I was bragging about myself or trying to make myself out to be better than everyone else. My goal was to speak in a manner which made the people on the oral board “think that” without ever saying it. 

For example, throughout my police oral board exam, I would say things like:

“I would ask for help because that’s how I am.” 

“I would offer my assistance because that’s who I am.”

“I would stay on top of that because that’s just how I operate.”

“I could never let that happen because it would bother me too much.”

“I would have to do that because that’s why I’m applying for this job in the first place.”

“I would have to do that because it would annoy me if I didn’t.”

Slowly but surely I was painting a picture for all the men in that room of the kind of person I was without ever telling them directly the kind of person I was. I never had to overtly say I am this or I am that or I am great because X. 

On the contrary, I would just keep folding statements like the ones above (and many others) into my responses and dialogue. It was gentle but consistent. And by the end of the 3.5 hours, I had subconsciously created an image of the kind of man I was in their minds without me ever having to outright say “I’m the best” or “I’m the greatest.” 

Number 3: Put Yourself Down In The Best Way Possible

One of the most difficult questions to answer in most any job interview is “what is your worst quality?” And when it comes to the police oral board interview, it’s no different. However, when applying to become a police officer, you must be very careful how you answer this question. It could literally make or break your entire application process and potentially your career. 

Once again, most people screw this up by going to either one extreme or the other. They’ll either admit to a truly negative trait that makes them look really bad. Or, they’ll say the old, “I really can’t think of any negative traits about myself.”

Even worse are the ones that outright say, “I don’t have any negative qualities.” This is a massive red flag for many reasons. First, anyone who actually believes that is crazy. We all have our good and bad characteristics. Second, even if you think you don’t have any bad qualities as a human being, declaring that out loud makes you look like a narcissist. 

What I did here to not fall into either trap was to sporadically knock myself…but in a positive manner. For example, when they asked me what my worst quality was, I told them it was that I was OCD when it came to finishing projects. I told them that I had a serious problem of needing to finish things I start and had a hard time moving on to something else while leaving the first thing unfinished. 

Now, as I said this, I truly spoke as if it was a serious problem; a really bad thing about myself. But the sentiment of most everyone on the oral board panel was, “that’s not such a terrible thing.”

Additionally, periodically throughout my oral board interview, I would slip in little digs at myself. For example, when completing a long-winded response to a question, I would end with an apology saying, “Sorry…I get carried away with the details sometimes because I don’t want to leave anything out. It’s a problem. I know.” Their response was, “No no. It’s ok. We appreciate the detailed response.”

I intentionally did little things like this throughout the entire police oral board interview to show them, in a roundabout way, that I had flaws or negative qualities; but these flaws were the ones that I was indirectly declaring about myself and they were never really anything “bad” per se. 

Once again, the police oral board interview is a game. They are trying to get to know the kind of person you are and your character by asking you a series of questions; not so much to see what you say but more so to determine the kind of person you are. 

From the moment you sit down in that chair they are painting a portrait of you. And every word that comes out of your mouth creates another brush stroke on the canvas. At the end of the oral board, they will all step back and observe the portrait. Your job is to ensure that when they step back, they are looking at the Mona Lisa. 

I can go on for hours about all the other strategies I used during the process of getting hired as a police officer at one of the most prestigious departments in the country. But we’d be here all  night. 

Drop a comment below if you have any specific questions. My team will do their best to get them to me so I can respond. If you’re part of my chat group, message me over there.

Best of luck to you on your journey. 

Respectfully,

Suresh Madhavan