Your Resume Will Not Get You Promoted
I recently worked with a client who was convinced their promotional competition had a significant advantage. The other candidates had served in SWAT, K9, Narcotics, and Investigations. My client had not. Same time on the job, but a less glamorous assignment history. They were certain that gap would cost them.
I hear this more than you might think.
Here is what I tell every client who walks in with that concern. Oral boards rarely ask candidates to lean on their resumes as a sole reason to be promoted. Impressive assignments make for a compelling career story, but they do not automatically answer the questions a panel is actually asking.
Someone with ten years in Narcotics and an undercover background has done extraordinary work. But does that experience explain how they would address low morale in their squad? A candidate with extensive tactical experience may handle a use of force scenario with precision, but does that same background prepare them to answer a community engagement question about a homeless encampment in a park?
Not necessarily.
The panel is not reading your resume. They are listening for what you learned from that experience.
The assignments that genuinely prepare a candidate for promotion are the ones that provided experience in leadership, community engagement, problem solving, interactions with command staff and city officials, department policy, planning and logistics, and working with mutual aid partners.
In my coaching work I teach clients that every oral board question can be filtered through three core questions the panel is really asking:
• Do you know what you are doing?
• Can you lead people?
• Can you do both in a way that supports your agency and its mission?
A SWAT operator and a community policing officer can both answer those three questions well. The panel does not care where your experience came from. They care what you learned from it and whether you can apply it on day one as a supervisor.
All experience is valuable.
It is your job to demonstrate why it matters.
This piece first ran in The Edge, my newsletter for law enforcement professionals. Subscribers get it first.
It goes out every two weeks and covers promotion strategy, career performance, and leadership. New subscribers also receive The Oral Board Edge, my guide to winning your next promotional oral board.
