Had my background interview today and I think it went horrible. I felt like I was being chastised and judged the whole time. I have a clean record I don’t even have a speeding ticket. The only red flag I have is that I have had lots of jobs since college, due to me quitting or changing jobs due to course load or finding better opportunities. Mind you I was never fired but I have left jobs without 2 weeks notice or quit jobs in weeks that I didn’t like. (All part-time college jobs when I was younger).
I also was criticized for not staying in the field I graduated in why wouldn’t I stay in that until my application for law enforcement was complete and why would I go back to a serving job if I was making a salary before. (Hated the career and the workplace wasn’t a good fit so I decided to leave).
I even felt like he his definitions were different than mine and it made me felt like I was lying on my background even though I didn’t. I also told him I don’t remember people’s name from jobs I had in high school (I used LinkedIn/ did my best to find names).
I honestly feel so bad about this because, I know I’m a good person who wants to be in law enforcement, college grad, hard worker, goal orientated, athletic, good values. never did illegal drugs other than MJ (legal in CA). I can’t go back and change my employment history in college and I ended up not liking the career I graduated so I decided to leave. I already passed the written, physical test, board interview, poly, now this i think is going to dq from the application process now.
Comments
It’s a lot of money to train someone. You’re going to have to deal these kind of questions with any department you apply to
Understand that the background isn’t supposed to be easy, but you’re not alone in having to go through it.
Job-hopping should raise red flags to any potential employer. Law enforcement agencies have to invest a significant amount of capital into every hire, so it’s probably a ln even bigger red flag to them than other professions.
I’m a BI and I do agree that job hopping is definitely a red flag for me, but also depends on the circumstances. I don’t look at jobs you held while you were in school the same as after you graduated and were expected to act like a responsible adult. I had lots of jobs growing up for a variety of reasons, its now unexpected.
That being said, the interview was just today, chill TF out and wait to see what happens instead of getting all spun up. The investigator’s job is to question you and find out the reasons you did the things you did. If the rest of your background is otherwise unremarkable for red flags, it’s probably not too likely this alone would DQ you. If for some reason it does, move on to the next department and apply again.