I applied in-person. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Sumner County Sheriff (Gallatin, TN) in Sept 2011
Interview
You'll apply for the interview, pay a $20 fee to take a civil service test. Its basically common sense. Pass that, you'll take a psych evaluation. If you pass that, they'll put you on a roster ranked off your test scores. Then you wait until they get to you.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
There aren't any hard questions, they really tend to hire just about anyone.