Excaliber wrote: Another approach to your post academy employment would be to seek initial hire as a reserve, which is usually easier to get than a full time post.
Everyone that I ever knew who went thru an academy without a job waiting for them ended up doing reserve until they got on with a dept. No matter how bad you do if you pass you can eventually get a reserve gig and if you don't screw anything up you will get a full time job after you work for a while, but don"t expect it for quite some time afterwards. You almost certainly will need some other job after the academy for 6 months to a year before getting on full time. Now what you might want to do is get the jailers job and then have the sheriffs dept pay for your academy and you will get a guaranteed opening in the sheriff's dept. You only want a job as a jailer in the county system otherwise it does no good for getting a LEO job. That and the fact that the time spent as a jailer does count on your benefits and retirement if you stay with the sheriffs dept.