Are appointments set or scheduled?

[chansencc]

Hi all!

I am in the very beginning stages of trying to get hired on with one of my local police departments. I am scheduled to take the written and physical tests this coming Saturday. My question is regarding the next steps in the process. Are the oral boards, psych, poly, etc. dates set for you or can you work with the recruiter at scheduling them? Not rescheduling, but rather, explaining which dates I will just be not able in any capacity to make - hoping that I can schedule around this. I ask because I will be doing a fair amount of business travel in the next 3-4 months and the dates are not negotiable. My current employer doesn't yet know that I am looking into LE, so it is quite difficult to refuse the travel dates that keep getting handed to me. Even if they were aware, I doubt they would let just oblige anyway. This is international travel as well, so a couple of the trips are quite lengthy.

Any input would be terrific.

Thanks!

[Samuel]

Call THAT department and ask...

[GoDirectly2Jail]

For us, the dates are the dates WE select, not the applicant. We, may offer an alternate date from time to time, but in general, we expect the applicant to want the job enough to make it work.

We ARE talking about a job that can cancel your vacation, or call you in for an emergency at a moment's notice after all. If an applicant is difficult to deal with regarding scheduling before they even get the job, then how hard is it going to be to get them to show up when all hell breaks loose. We have enough applications every day that we can affort to toss the ones that don't want to play ball.

[chansencc]

Thank you for the input! I will certainly be calling the departments that my test scores are being submitted to. I suppose I should have thought about that before guessing. I probably should have also thought about the busy time at work right now. While I understand GoDirectly2Jail, especially as it pertains to those that try to rearrange everything to accommodate a vacation or other personal schedule. I would hope that there could be some, not a lot, of flexibility as it pertains to your current career. Yes this is definitely something I want, and I am quite devoted to getting a job in LE - but I am also devoted to the small company that has been very good to me and I can't simply flake out on them without notice or explanation. Just like I wouldn't flake out on my department if all hell brakes loose as you mentioned. Thanks again for the input! I hope this doesn't put a damper on things but I'm glad you pointed this out to me. I can't do much about the sudden travel however so I will just have to pray it lines up without any overlap.