Cold Calling

[loki18]

Anybody got any tips for cold calling departments regarding reserve or part-time work? I am going to graduate the academy on March 24, and am looking to put out some feelers in the local departments that are small and operate mostly with reserve and part-timers. I was going to send letters to the chief...
Any thoughts on the success of this strategy? Any other suggestions? World be greatly appreciated.
Thanking you in advance,
LOKI:

[RustyMN]

This is an excellent idea. It shows the department's that you have initiative and work ethic. Explain to whomever answers the phone what you are looking for and what you are interested in and then go from there. Be prepared for some (maybe many) to just tell you to wait until they post an ad, but you will likely get what your after if you keep at it.

Sending cover letters and resumes, is also a great strategy.

Hope this helps.

Rusty

[kirch]

Your situation is one I found myself in less than 3 years ago. I have a decent FT job but wanted to get into LE. I found an academy that allowed me to attend night school twice a week. It took a year to get through the normal 10-week curriculum, but it allowed me to do it while still bringing in a paycheck.

My FT job is in sales and I always approach a job search like I'm selling myself. And cold-calling is an integral part of just about any selling process.

I started the process about halfway through my academy. The first step was research. I talked to many officers I knew in the area and asked for their advice. I found out what issues local departments dealt with when it came to PT help. And I got references from them as to which departments would be good prospects.

Then I listed every department within reasonable driving distance from my home. I made sure I included all LE -- universities, state patrol, DNR, etc. Then I started making calls.

When calling a department I would ask to speak with the person responsible for hiring new officers. Once I got the person on the phone, I would explain that I was looking for a position as a part-time officer and ask if their department hired them. This allowed me to 'separate the wheat from the chaff', so to speak.

Once I verified that a department did, in fact, make use of PT officers, I explained my situation. While discussing what I was looking for, I made sure to bring out the qualities that I believed (from my research) would be my strongest selling points -- my age (mid-30s, so I had some 'life experience' behind me), the fact that I was primarily looking for work on nights, weekends and holidays (shifts that I knew always needed filling) and that I was looking for long-term PT work (and that I wasn't looking to work there just long enough to get the experience to be hired by another department for a FT job).

From my list of about 20 departments, I ended up getting interviewed by 6. From those 6, 3 wanted to hire me. I picked the 2 that best met my needs and went with the first one that offered me a position.

I was hired a month before I finished the academy.

PM me if you want further details.