Boards are fundraising to help the people of Ukraine via the Red Cross at this horrific time. Please donate and share if you can, you will find the link here. Many thanks.
Email received today from JoinPSNI saying applications will open on the 2nd November. Missed it 1.5% last year. Give it another blast! Hoping there won't be as many delays and lockdowns during this campaign! (Fingers crossed)
Since my teens, I have wanted to join the Police but ended up going to Uni and then following a career in Accountancy. My interest in the Police never diminishes and as time goes on I wonder would I be happier than I am currently with a greater sense of career satisfaction? I know it certainly will never be dull...
Is there much room for promotion? How are new joiners in their thirties viewed and could this be a hindrance to career progression starting slightly older? Do you have any sway as a single male with no children in where you're stationed? Is there much OT when you first start? I would have to take a salary cut and obviously, that can be difficult when you are accustomed to a certain lifestyle.
So many questions but unfortunately I do not know serving officers or feel comfortable wandering into a Police station and asking lots of questions.
I work with people who started their police career in their 40s, being in your 30s and a new police officer is more common than you’d think.
if you want promotion and work hard you’ll get it. If you work in a busy station you’ll get plenty of experience early on. I know someone who recently passed the sergeants process, they have been in the job for just over 3 years.
OT is dependant on where you work, in busier districts there is always OT to be done, quite often you’ll be detailed OT on rest days. The money is good but the novelty does wear off.. trust me. You’ll find people are always trying to get rid of OT so there’s plenty to volunteer for.
in terms of choice of district, it really depends on the needs of the organisation, not yours. Some people get lucky and some people get really shafted with travel distance etc.
Any tips for mainly the IST but also the recruitment process as a whole?
What's the job like in your opinion and is it what you expected before and during training? I've read a good amount of threads on here, however, most of them are a good few years old now so just wondering if much has changed work-wise and what the PSNI are like to work for now?
Also just wondering what the threat of the job is like to live with and if the personal security you are taught is adequate enough?
There’s no secrets to the IST, just don’t rush it and read the questions, it’s easy to miss-read something and lost marks on silly mistakes.
over all I enjoy the job, I work in a particularly busy district. Some days it’s the best job in the world and then there’s days you wonder why you bother doing it.
its mostly what I expected but the amount of mental health calls you deal with came as a shock to me. And domestics… plenty of domestics.
Training wasn’t as bad as people let on, read the material and pass the exams that’s it. The real learning comes when you go to district and start dealing with the public. It sounds cliche but it’s true.
the threat is always there, I was aware of it before joining so it wasn’t really a shock. Don’t drop your guard and always check your car etc. You put yourself at risk when you become complacent. I live in a mostly police friendly area anyway so I don’t worry too much. You always get briefed around security and always reminded to keep yourself right.
That information is great and is very informative.
Would you be able to disclose where there is the most operational need or is that not allowed? I'm aware that you can be placed anywhere in the country however would they really station you in the likes of Coleraine if you lived in Belfast? Would they help you relocate or is that your responsibility if that were the case?
What about driving? Is it preferred for you to drive to get to the likes of overtime elsewhere as well as your own station? How long do you have to be in the job before you are eligible to drive or is it just the case of applying for the driving course?
3 or 4 years to get a driving course? Do you mean if you do not already have a driver's license? Or do you mean that as a police officer you have to complete a further driving course to operate a police car?
Sorry I don’t check this often, this is my 4th/5th attempt, have never gotten past IST but got into a mainland force first time but want to get back to NI. Goes to show the difficulty and difference of PSNI recruitment vs mainland.
