“it was your coaching that made the difference…”

Carole,
I passed my second try at Phase 2, and I know it was your coaching that made the difference. I walked in my first time over a year ago with confidence that my prior job experience was more than enough and failed. I walked in this time, humble but ready to share more of myself and be genuine, and as you already knew, that made all the difference.

I gave them as much as I could in my first question to include my five points in case I didn’t have an opportunity later; as it turns out that was a very good move. I definitely had to morph almost all my answers. Only one question did I have to pull a story that I had not previously prepared.

Again thank you.

———————-
Since the federal government’s hiring process can take up to two years, and the fact that you can get disqualified at any time during the various phases, I’m applying with as many agencies as I can.

I’m excited to share that an opportunity presented itself to me in the private sector recently that I hadn’t even considered before, working at xxx’s world headquarters in their Security Operations division.

I applied and was invited to interview and was able to utilize all of the same interview techniques we worked on. 

After a month of waiting, I was offered the position on Friday! There are so many different jobs there, including internationally, that I can use my education and federal internship experience with that I’m excited to see where this takes me while I’m continuing with the federal agency hiring process.

Who knows, it could end up being a path I want to stick with for my career.

Thank you so much again for everything!

Ideal Situation for Your Federal Law Enforcement Interview

Ideally, and believe me most are not ideal.

– you would begin to work with me after you have your date assigned. You would contact me 4-6 weeks – depending on your life’s schedule to get the materials to begin your preparation.

– ideally, you would take a week or two to get prepared and then contact me for our first session. You would send me your stories to critique.

– ideally, in our first session we would go over the “Why this Agency?” and “What makes you qualified – what you bring to the position?” questions. We would go over story-telling techniques and tips.

– ideally, after the first session I would send you the 5 points that I have summarized and written, (depending on which package you purchase) or you will write your own 5 points. Your 5 points will be your roadmap to answer the big questions – “Why this Agency?” – and “Why do you think you’re qualified?”

– ideally, you would take a week or more to prepare using the tips and techniques you have learned from our first session.

– ideally session #2 would be one to two weeks or so prior to your actual interview.

Now, all that to say that the greater majority of my clients have not had “ideal situations.”

I have coached with as little as three or four days and still have helped people pass. This is not my preferred manner – but sometimes that’s what life deals.

I will support you through email – critiquing anything you send me after our sessions. Clients send me their written stories and I critique them.

I will tell you if you are ready after our two sessions – most of the time you will be ready. I only give straight-forward feedback.

My goal is to get you to pass the interview and I will do everything that I can to do just that. The rest will be up to you. The best way to prepare answers to Behavioral Questions is to have prepared stories.

• Think about how you interact with others in the workplace, in school, or in other work-like activities. Think about the way you worked with others on group projects or on teams, and how you worked with supervisors or professors.

• Think about how you have typically handled assignments, your approach to completing them and how you handled problems or obstacles.

• Think about the way you typically communicate with co-workers, professors, supervisors, fellow students, or fellow volunteers. Think about the way you tried to explain things to others or how you persuaded them to do something.

(source – FBI Website)