u/Hollander_21

I graduated from a Criminal Justice diploma program in April 2025 with the ambition of becoming a police officer. At the time, I wasn’t entirely sure which agency I wanted to pursue, and I was told by many people that police agencies value life experience and often look for applicants who are a little older and have some life experience under their belt.

After graduating, I decided to build that experience. I got my security license and started working a security job over the summer. Luckily, I was eventually able to get on with hospital security, which I had been told was valuable experience for policing because of the exposure to de-escalation, dealing with people experiencing mental health crises, making arrests, responding to calls, and handling stressful situations.

After working there for a while, I decided to apply to the RCMP in November 2025. I made it through all the stages of the application and was even told by the officers conducting my interviews and polygraph that I was a strong applicant and had the experience and qualities they were looking for to make it to Depot.

Then came the psychological assessment.

I felt like it went fairly well, but yesterday I received a three-year deferral. I wasn’t given a specific reason for the deferral, which obviously made it even harder to process.

I posted about my situation on r/AskLE and received a lot of genuinely helpful advice. A lot of people encouraged me to apply to municipal agencies rather than letting this setback stop me from pursuing policing.

I’m absolutely devastated because I genuinely thought I was in. I felt like I had worked hard, built the experience I was told I needed, made it through every other stage, and was right there. Having someone put a three-year blocker between me and something I’ve worked toward for years really sucks.

I know I’m not the first person to be deferred, and I definitely won’t be the last. I’m trying to look at this as a setback rather than the end of the road.

For those of you who graduated from a Criminal Justice program, were deferred, and still wanted to pursue policing: what did you do afterward? Did you apply to municipal agencies, continue building experience, or take a different route?

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s been in a similar position and eventually made it into policing.

I should mention I’m 24 years old, worked other industries working with people.

I’m so defeated and sad right now and words can’t even describe what I’m feeling.

It was a dream of mine to be a police officer and I went to school taking a Criminal Justice diploma (not the best idea I know) and graduated last year, I then didn’t really know which police agency to apply to so I decided to take on some security jobs to gain more experience as I was told from many police agencies they value life experience and realized police agencies wanted more out of me. So I took up security, I worked security at the G7 summit alongside RCMP and they sold me on how good of a career that is. I still held off on my application cause I heard about deferrals being common, so I then went into Hosptial security as I was advised that was the best type of security that can translate into policing and even was told by my employers on that job that they have many of them go onto policing.

I also have other life experiences like working in various industries and am 24 years old and worked many jobs that involve working with people.

Anyway, when I applied which was October of 2025 I managed to make it all the way to the psych evaluation and even was told during the suitability interview and polygraph that I make a good candidate and have the necessary traits. Just today, I get a message saying I was not successful during the pre employment psych evaluation and that I can’t reapply till 2029.

I’m so devastated and confused as I was super confident up until this point and heard of other deferrals happening at the suitability stage and such. I don’t even know why I was deferred??! Am I a clean slate? No but who is?! Like I’ve done marijuana and shrooms in my lifetime but never kicked any puppies. Like I’m so damn frustrated I was right there and it’s gone.

I’m defeated rn and genuinely don’t know what I’m gonna do, it’s likely I’ll get deferred by other police agencies. I work a job where I deal with mentally ill people and never lash out.

If anyone can offer insight thanks.

Edit: Just like to add I really do appreciate the support from everyone on this subreddit. You don’t know me, but offer your advice and experiences that make me feel a lot better. There’s a reason why many of you are police officers with all the compassion and support you have to offer!! Keep it up.

I imagine it would be firefighting. Being that CPS and other police agencies in Canada are short staffed.

Four years ago I bought all new Thermador appliances for my new home. Cost me over 20k. I thought buying high end meant they would function well and last a long time. Oh, was I wrong. First my hood fan started cutting out for no reason. After several months it started getting worse so I called a service company and they told me I needed a new control board that would cost me $1200. I tried to get Thermador to at least cover the cost of the part but they replied no because it was past the two-year warranty mark. Yes I said, but such a high-end appliance should not stop working after just 4 years. I tried to escalate but in the end they replied no and said this was their final decision (not even an email, just a message on my phone). Then about a month later, my Thermador gas oven stopped working. It wouldn’t light. I can understand igniter not lasting forever, but I hardly even use my oven. This cost me $500 to repair. Also, at the same time, my Thermador dishwasher door insulation just fell out of the bottom one morning. Not a big deal because its just for noise but again not what you would expect from a high-end appliance. So, in summary, please don’t make my mistake and buy Thermador. Complete rip off and while they do look good, they won’t last and you will be stuck with outrageous repair bills. I have to say honestly that Thermador is the worst consumer company I have ever had the displeasure to deal with. Very costly mistake on my part. I don’t usually write reviews but I really felt I needed to warn people

I’m a little nervous to say the least. But both excited as well, as it’s finally come to this stage and it’s been a while.

I work hospital security and have multiples stories to share as well as with other security jobs, how do I success at this stage and prepare best? Do they use the STAR method? Any other resources that helped you succeed?

I’m a little nervous to say the least. But both excited as well, as it’s finally come to this stage and it’s been a while. I

work hospital security and have multiples stories to share as well as with other security jobs, how do I success at this stage and prepare best? Do they use the STAR method? Any other resources that helped you succeed?

Patience.

It’s always been patience. Now, I know I might be speaking too early for the Habs, but look at how they keep proving others wrong and such. I know it’s only Game 1, and they’re playing a team that has recurring demons in the Conference Final, but looking at this team, they are DEEP.

And the key thing is that they drafted and developed. Obviously, they got a lot of good players in the later rounds like Dobes and Hutson, but the key thing is that they were patient. They didn’t give up any draft picks or prospects at this year’s deadline like we did when we had those two good years in 2021 and 2024, and they waited for their prospects to pan out, signed them young, and didn’t risk taking on any veterans.

This team is destined for contention and might be the ones to actually end the drought, if I must say.