Your personal appearance and first impressions.......
Normally I'm pretty laid back and I comment when I feel it is either appropriate, useful, funny or in BAD taste.:D Today is one of those days I feel inspired to comment on what I just saw a little while ago.
Our EOC is conducting interviews for sheriff/fire dispatchers and the number of applicants is fairly extensive. The starting salary isn't the best in the world, but they're fairly reasonable with raises, health benefits etc. so a prospective dispatcher applicant has a good start even if they decide to move on to a larger agency/EOC.
All of us who read the forums on Real Police have seen questions regarding how a person should dress when they go to an agency for an interview. Well this morning I have seen two applicants who right off the bat have given me a bad impression.
First was a male applicant in his twenties; he started off with a good haircut, but it went downhill from there. He was wearing a black t-shirt with the name of some bar on the front. Instead of pants he is wearing cutoff jeans with holes in several places and if that isn't enough he was wearing a very old pair of sneakers with soles that looked as though he was about to walk out of them as he strode along.
Second was a female in her mid thirties; she started off by having unkempt hair (it's windy, but there is a ladies restroom just off the elevator lobby) which looked clean enough, but had definately been sent everywhere by the high wind. Her blouse looked as though she had slept in it the night before and her slacks looked like she had spilled something on them recently. She wore high heeled shoes and unless my eyes were playing tricks on me one shoe had lost it's heel or what I will call a tap. You know the small piece of leather on the end of the heel. This caused an uneven walk because of the differences in height. Who knows she may have lost it just before she came in for the interview so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.
Bottom line, both of these applicants would have lost "points" in my book for their careless dress.
Folks if you're going for a job interview dress to the "nines!" This is your shot to make a good impression and remember if an interviewer starts with a bad assessment of you before you can even open your mouth your chances for hire are reduced.
Great Advice. For my most recent LEO interview, I wore a tailored, navy blue pant suit (blazer with matching slacks) with black heels. I put on very little makeup and made sure my hair looked perfect. They told me I rec'd 10 extra points because of my attire. I am now 2 steps away from a job with this LEA :D
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Great Advice. For my most recent LEO interview, I wore a tailored, navy blue pant suit (blazer with matching slacks) with black heels. I put on very little makeup and made sure my hair looked perfect. They told me I rec'd 10 extra points because of my attire. I am now 2 steps away from a job with this LEA :D
There you go guys and gals Feisty is living proof that if you "Dress for Success" it can pay big dividends.
You actually CAN judge a book by it's cover !! I make an instant eval of a person by the way they are DRESSED. I can be changed by later talking to them BUT no amount of conversation makes up for a BAD looking applicant.
Get a haircut/style the day before, wear a new or just cleaned and pressed suit/ dress , go easy on the makeup/cologne/perfume , guys-loose your facial jewelry , girls , go with small earrings.
If you want to be considered for a professional position, LOOK like you actually could be such a person.
I've always been told to "Dress to Impress" or "Dress for Success".
If someone isn't professional enough to wear the proper dress attire during a job interview, then.. well.. McDonalds probably doesn't mind if you show up wearing torn up jeans to the interview.
I had to write another comment or two for my thread. Wednesday (5/24/06) morning and afternoon we had a total of four law enforcement applicant interviews. One didn't show up; one showed up dressed to the nines and the other two dressed as follows:
App #1-Needed a haircut, mustache and beard poorly kept, baseball hat, polo shirt with stains, blue jeans with holes in the knees and sneakers with a smell so bad, my horse would have broken down the door trying to get away.
App#2-T shirt with the name of a bar on it, blue jeans with holes not only in the knees, but just about everywhere else. No belt so guess where the jeans were resting in relation to his hips and the ever present sneakers with no socks.
To prospective applicants reading this I want you to know this is not the way to get a job much less a job in law enforcement. The first guy was so bad the command staff didn't want to waste their time conducting an interview. The second guy was almost on a par with the first he just didn't have the added aroma of dirty feet!
The reason for the interviews were because on paper these applicants looked pretty damn good, but when you come in looking like these guys you might as well cancel the interview. If you're not serious about putting forth the effort to make a good first impression then don't waste the time of the agency administrators. This is a job goal that has many, many hurdles; keep that in mind the next time you go for a job interview whether it's for a law enforcement job or some other field.
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"In the eyes of a speechless animal, there is a wisdom that only the truly wise can understand"
I think it's sad that people actually have to be told this. If they don't have enough common sense to dress professionally on their own, do you really want to let them in on that little secret? ;)
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"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." - Confucius (551-479 B.C.)
To be 100% honest with you, professionalism asside: I want the best 'dispatching' dispatcher not a model. I don't get a chance to see what dispatchers look like while working and neither does the public, but if they suck, can't talk, etc; that can get one of us killed.
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Don't even get me started on some of our dispatchers. We'll be assigned sectors, and 1/2 the time we'll be shown as available, and central won't give me the jobs in my sector. 1/2 the time they don't get us out on the jobs that we put us out on. Some are good, but some are horrible.
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DONLON
I mean, we're getting killed for these people and they don't even appreciate it. They think it's a big joke.
Don't even get me started on some of our dispatchers. We'll be assigned sectors, and 1/2 the time we'll be shown as available, and central won't give me the jobs in my sector. 1/2 the time they don't get us out on the jobs that we put us out on. Some are good, but some are horrible.
Respectfully, please let's not turn this informative thread into a dispatcher-bash.
There will always be idiots in every field. If problems are that common place, then it is more likely the Supervisors, Directors and specifically, SOPs and training that need to be changed. That and minimal requirements and what is looked at in an applicant can make or break a PSAP/Dispatch center.
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-james
RIP Officers Shelton and Clark, 3/31/07
"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us. What we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal."
To be 100% honest with you, professionalism asside: I want the best 'dispatching' dispatcher not a model. I don't get a chance to see what dispatchers look like while working and neither does the public, but if they suck, can't talk, etc; that can get one of us killed.
My interview, I went in in a dark suit with a blue shirt and tie, shined shoes, etc. I was told there was a dress code because we also work the front counter (small department, 15 sworn officers, 6 civ employees). I was told that what I normally wear is acceptable by the Chief, I went to him before I started my first shift and asked it it was ok. I wear clean newer looking jeans (any rips or tears I replace them), polo shirt, clean shaven, and I have a pair of tennis shoes I use only for work. I won't go on about what the others wear, but it's not up to dress code and they still work there. They are great dispatchers, but one or two of them don't present a professional appearance to the public.
I wish the dispatchers at the dept where I work got a uniform allowance and had uniforms to wear instead of ruining our own clothes. But then I've only been there 2 years and am still the low man on the totem pole. One man in a female dispatchers world.
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PVPD124 9-1-1 is for life threatening emergencies ONLY!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Samuel
I challenge you, like I challenge everyone else who would like to tell us what we should be doing and how we should be doing it - PUT UP OR SHUT UP. Join up (if you can) and see how well YOU do. :mad:
Last edited by PVPD124; 04-14-07 at 03:16 AM.
Reason: Corrected a spelling error
First of all... quite the resurrectiopn of a tired old thread.
Next, how do you ruin your own clothes wearing them in an office? Come on, man... it does not compare to an officer getting AND NEEDING a clothing allowance!
FWIW, I don't get a clothing allowance (though I tend to be paid a little better than most local LEOs). I don't just hang around an office, maybe running the risk of spilling coffee or a little lunch on my clothes. I go out and about chasing fugitives all over God's country... and they tend not to hang out in the nicest of places.
Uniform allowances are for jobs that require unusual wear and tear on clothing. Most office jobs don't. That is whay you don't see banks or retail stores giving out clothing allowances... not to mention, you wear the same clothes to work that you wear everywhere else (by your own words).
...ok, sorry for the rant, but a uniform allowance just sounded silly.
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Your personal appearance and first impressions.......
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