After the Tests…

…continued from Wednesday’s post.

Once the three tests were completed, and I knew I had passed, I was eager to learn about the next steps in becoming a 911 Operator. Little did I know that I was just about to be affected in a way I had never imagined.

The greeter left the room with tests in hand and returned with nametags for the three of us that had successfully “made the grade” thus far. She explained that the Human Resources Manager would soon be joining us and indeed she did. The HR Manager set up a CD on a boom box, hit the run button, and left the room. For the next 8-10 minutes we listened to four real-life recordings of 911 calls.

We got a true sense of what we might deal with on any given call. One call was particularly disturbing – one I will never forget. We actually heard the sound of a woman facing death and, in fact, she did die.

Whoa.

The HR Manager returned and explained that she plays these calls to all 911 Operator candidates. And she advised that if any of us found the calls troubling us over the next few days then we may want to reconsider our decision to go forward in the selection process. We may have the necessary fortitude for the job.

We learned about the next steps in the process – and there are many. The fourth and final test includes watching a videotape with an operator at a console taking calls. The operator plays through 38 scenarios and provides four responses to each call. Our job would be to select the operator’s best, and most appropriate, response to each scenario.

Also, while watching the video we would be taking notes about such things as phone numbers, descriptions of suspects, details about cars – and the second part of the test would be depend upon those notes we took. Could we correctly identify a phone number or describe the height of a suspect and so on.

If we passed that test, we would be invited in for a first interview with the HR Manager and two other managers who would use behavioral interviewing questions. Passing that would mean that a comprehensive background check would be completed on each of us. And if we had a clean record we would then go to the Kirkland Police Department for a Computerized Voice Stress Analysis – a polygraph-like test that determines by our voice whether we are lying or not. It was stressed that the goal was to measure our integrity and that we should not lie. We were also told that the questions would be very probing and probably make us feel very uncomfortable.

A group psychological evaluation was next on the list and we learned that sometimes the whole group failed at this point. Several short tests are given and a one-on-one interview is held with the forensic scientist that runs the psychological evaluation. The scientist rates each candidate on a scale of “very suitable,” “highly suitable,” “fairly suitable,” and so on and the HR Manager uses this information to make her cuts.

If, after all of that, a candidate is still in the running, they have a second interview with the Executive Director and the Operations Manager. Following that would be a physical exam – their interest is in getting a baseline audiogram to determine if they need to provide an amplification device and to have a defense for any future Labor & Industry claims if an operator claims their hearing has been damaged by their work. Lastly, and it probably goes without saying, a drug test would also be performed.

And there’s more. More about the job that I’ll share next time. Right now I’m still thinking about those real-life calls I heard…