Applying for a department lead role

What this is

Department Lead applications are how you put your hand up for a command-staff role inside one of our departments — Tennessee Highway Patrol, FBI, Nashville PD, Nashville Fire, or the Department Management oversight tier. They're for members who've already been around long enough to know the department from the inside and want to help run it, not for entry-level hires.

When applications are open, a banner reading Department Lead Applications · Open sits on top of every page. Click it to start.

Before you apply

Don't waste your own time. Make sure you tick all of these first:

• Your Discord is verified — Roblox account linked via /verify. See the verification guide.
• You've been active inside the department you're applying to for at least 14 days.
• Clean record — no active warns, bans, or open tickets against you in the last 30 days.
• A working microphone. Command staff run sessions and brief on voice; we don't accept text-only leads.
• You're willing to attend the weekly leadership sync (one short voice call per week with Department Management).

If any of those don't apply yet, finish them first and come back. The form will reject you sooner or later if they're missing, so save the round trip.

Step 1 — Sign in with Discord

The Open Applications button on the /applications landing page hits our bot's /auth/discord/start endpoint. That kicks off Discord OAuth with the identify scope only — we don't read your DMs and we don't read other guilds.

After you approve, you're sent back to the site with a signed session cookie (tnrp_session, httpOnly, SameSite=Lax, 7-day rolling expiry). That's the only cookie the apply flow needs. If you sign out, it's deleted immediately.

Step 2 — Get verified

If you're signed in but haven't linked Roblox, the landing page won't show the department grid — it'll push you to run /verify in the Discord server. Do that, finish the OAuth dance, and come back to /applications. The site auto-finalizes: as soon as both Discord and Roblox are linked on our side, the next page load (or refresh) drops you straight into the picker. No "click here when done" button.

Full walkthrough lives in the verification guide.

Step 3 — Pick a department and role

Once you're verified, you'll see a grid of department cards — THP, FBI, NPD, NFD, Department Management. Click one and you get a list of the roles that department currently has open (typically Captain, Lieutenant, Sergeant; varies per department and per intake).

Pick a role and the multi-step form opens. The form is three steps: essays, availability, review. Your progress is saved to the session as you move forward, so if you close the tab and come back within seven days you'll land back on the step you were on, with your answers intact. Hitting Back inside the form is safe too — it doesn't wipe what you've written.

Step 4 — Fill out the essays

There are three required essay questions:

1. Why this role? — what specifically pulls you toward Captain of THP vs. just "a leadership role somewhere." Be specific.
2. Experience — relevant background. ER:LC time, prior staff roles on other servers, real-world leadership, whatever's honest. Don't pad.
3. Why should we choose you? — your case. What you'd actually do in the first month.

Aim for one to three paragraphs each. We're not counting words — short and sharp beats long and waffly, but a one-line answer to "why should we choose you" tells us you didn't take it seriously.

Below the essays, an availability section asks for the days/hours per week you can realistically commit, your timezone, and whether you can make the weekly leadership sync. These fields are optional but heavily weighted — if you can't make the sync, say so, don't hide it.

Step 5 — Review and submit

Step three is a read-only review of everything you've entered: department, role, all three essays, availability. Edit any field by hitting Back; nothing is locked until you press Submit.

When you submit, two things happen at once:

• You're redirected to /applications/success with a confirmation page and your application ID (write it down — it's how you'd reference your app if you needed to ask about it later).
• A branded embed lands in the department's private review channel inside Discord. Department Management and the relevant department leads see it; nobody else does.

What happens after you submit

Council reviews applications on a rolling basis. Expect a reply within 3 to 7 days — usually via Discord DM, sometimes via @mention in a department channel if DMs are closed. Keep both open during the review window.

A few practical notes:

• You can withdraw at any time before a decision by DMing Department Management. No penalty, no record kept.
• You can only have one pending application per (department, role) at a time — the database enforces this with a partial unique index. If you want to re-apply for the same role, your previous app needs to be either decided or withdrawn first.
• You can apply to multiple departments in parallel, just not the same role twice.

Common questions

Can I apply for multiple departments? Yes. One role at a time per department, but nothing stops you from having an open THP application and an open NFD application simultaneously. We do read both, and we will notice if you're spraying applications without thinking about fit.

What if my Roblox isn't linked? Run /verify in the Discord server. Once both halves are linked, the apply flow auto-unlocks on your next page load.

Do I need a microphone? Yes for any command-staff role. We don't make exceptions on this — leading a session over text doesn't work.

Will my answers be public? No. The embed posts only to the department's private review channel. Department Management and that department's existing leads see it. Nobody else.

Can I edit after submitting? No. Once it's in the review channel, it's frozen. If something material changed (availability shifted, you want to add context), withdraw and re-apply.

If something goes wrong

• "Not verified" — finish verification and reload the apply page.
• "You already have a pending application for this role" — withdraw your previous one via DM to Department Management, or wait for a decision.
• "Signed out" — your session cookie expired. Click the Discord sign-in button again; your half-filled form is still saved server-side under your account.
• The page hangs on the OAuth redirect — try once more in a fresh tab. If it still fails, post in #help with the time it happened so we can pull the auth log.
• Anything else — open a ticket in #support and tag Department Management. Include your application ID if you have one.