When you get a call from the HR department inviting you to interview for a corrections officer position, how do you feel? Happy? Elated? Excited? Nervous? Scared stiff?
You don’t need to worry about the interview if you’re a well-prepared, qualified candidate. Preparing for a correctional officer oral board interview is a lot like studying for a test.
You can review commonly asked questions, think about what you’ll say beforehand, and go in to do your best. If you prepare beforehand, the interview questions will seem routine and familiar. You’ll have answers on the tip of your tongue, ready-to-go.
According to the very popular ebook, Ace The Correctional Officer Interview, trying to wing it during your oral interview – just showing up and expecting to think of answers off the top of your head – is no way to prepare for a law enforcement interview.
Below is a list of commonly asked corrections officer interview questions, and how would you answer each question?
Tell us about yourself.
Whether you are interviewing for a correctional officer position in the state, county or federal level this will be the first question that you’ll probably be asked. Just give a brief background in about three sentences. Tell them what colleges you graduated from, military experience if you have any, what kind of certification you have if any & your working experiences, and why you’d love a career in corrections.
The raters on the panel will want to know if you have thought about your future, and have a plan to get where you want to go. You should have both short and long range goals. A good short range goal might be to secure a position as a corrections officer, and then join the specialized set team, and later senior supervisor.
Long range goals require you to picture yourself, and where you would like to be, 10 or 20 years from now.
Things to know about the corrections officer interview & Situational Questions:
There will be a lot of questions concerning your character so be prepared to answer some pretty concentrated situational questions. Also there will be questions concerning inmate manipulation tactics so familiarize yourself with that and how you’ll handle it when it happens.
If you want a more in-dept look inside the correctional officer interview with tons of sample questions with best answers visit Ace Your Correctional Interview.
