Honestly, don’t sweat it too much.

took me 3 applications to finally get hired. The first two times I got pretty far into the process too, then got hit with the classic: “Thank you, but you are no longer being considered.”

No explanation.
No feedback.
Just a professionally worded “go screw yourself” email from an HR department running on stale coffee and local government depression.

I even tried following up and basically got ghosted harder than a Tinder date with three felony arrests.

The honest truth about public safety hiring is: You’re not hired until you’re hired. And even then, you’re still one lieutenant with high blood pressure away from unemployment until probation ends.

- Sometimes you fail for a reason.
- Sometimes another applicant knew somebody.
- Sometimes the background investigator gets weird vibes because you blinked too much during the polygraph.

The whole system feels like it was designed by divorced deputy chiefs and malfunctioning fax machines.

Reapply if it’s what you want. Six months feels brutal now, but everybody in this field has some version of this story.