- Why Do You Want to Work in This Industry? …
- Tell Us About Yourself. …
- What Do You Think of Your Previous Boss? …
- Why Are You Leaving Your Current Role? …
- Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years? …
- What’s Your Greatest Weakness? …
- What Salary Are You Looking for? …
- Why Should I Hire You?
Are You A Future Fire Service Leader – Firefighter Oral Interview Preparation
What would you do as a captain in this scenario: Your battalion chief asks you to come in his office to review your final evaluation of probation and you notice a smell of alcohol on his breath. How would you reply?
If its on the left side of the line, what do we do? Drinking is not tolerated. Ask questions to determine if your suspicions are correct — “Are you drinking?” If so, you go straight up. “We go to our supervisor no matter who or what rank is on the other side of the table.” Stick to your answer, no matter what. You will never be wrong.
One way to help you do this is to picture a piece of paper with a line drawn down the center. On the left of the line are issues dealing with ethics, such as stealing, drugs or drinking. With ethical issues, you ask appropriate questions to determine what you suspect. In the scenario outlined earlier, it was your battalion chief smelling of alcohol.
You dont deviate, you go straight up, take action or go to a next level supervisor. On the right side of the line is anything to do with getting along with others; with these, you will go to great lengths to work it out. If you can decide what side of the line the question belongs, you have a better chance of knowing how to answer it.
1. Tell us about yourself. 2. Why do you want to be a firefighter? When did you decide on this career? 3. What is the job of a firefighter? Are you qualified? 4. What have you done to prepare for this position? 5. What are you bringing to the job? 6. Why do you want to work for this city or agency? 7. What do you know about this city or agency? 8. What do you like to do; what are your hobbies? 9. What are your strengths and weaknesses? 10. What would your employer say about you? 11. What are the attributes of a firefighter, and which is the most important one to you? How would you handle the following scenarios? 12. Drinking or drugs on the job. 13. Stealing on the job. 14. Conflict with another employee. 15. Irate citizen. 16. An employee crisis at an emergency. 17. Sexual harassment. 18. Racial situation. 19. Conflicting orders at an emergency. 20. An order that could place you in great danger or be morally wrong. 21. What do you say when you dont know an answer to a question? 22. Are you on any other hiring lists and what would you do if another city called you? 23. When can you start if we offered you the job? 24. How far do you want to go in the fire service, and where do you see yourself in five years? 25. What are the quality traits of a firefighter, and which one is the most important to you? 26. Have you ever been in an emergency situation? If so, tell us what you did. 27. What word would best describes you in a positive and negative way? 28. How do you handle conflict? 29. Why would we select you over the other candidates? 30. Do you have anything to add? Understand that if the oral board fires up a question that sounds like drinking on the job, its going to be about drinking on the job. If its a question that sounds like taking drugs on the job, its going to be about taking drugs on the job — and its not going to be aspirin.
51 Firefighter Interview Questions
Let’sstart with a list of questions. Then, we’lladdress the different types of questions and how to answer each. Here are 51 firefighter interview questionsyou can be sure you’ll encounter along with their respective category:
It’simpossible to know exactly what you will be asked prior to an interview. Even though most interviews have the same general questions and follow the samegeneral format, every department is different and puts different amounts ofimportance on different information.
Ontop of that there may be impromptu questions you may be asked that are sparkedby something you say.
Forexample, one question I encountered in one of my interviews that caught me offguard went something like this. “Imagineit’s the end of your career, what would be one achievement you would be proudto have completed?”
Notsomething you typically prepare for, but it was still a great question!
Thatbeing said, even though it’s impossible to prepare for every possible questionyou can get asked, but what you can do is prepare for different types ofquestions and have answers prepared.
Who Interview Questions for Firefighters
Aquestion I can almost guarantee you will get at some point during yourinterview (usually at the beginning) is something like “So, ______, tell usabout yourself.”
Prettyobvious what they are asking, but what they really want to know is yourbackground.
Sure,they’ve run a criminal background check to see if you have been arrested and have probablytalked to your references, they know the basics.
But,what they really want to know is, in your words, what kind of person you are,what makes you tick, how do you spend your time, what have you achieved, whatare you proud of, what outlets do you have for stress, etc.
Thisis obviously important information for them to know. After all they maybe inviting you to be a part of their family. They want to know as muchinformation as they possibly can before they offer you the job.
Thisis a prime opportunity to tell them your story, your achievements, your beliefsetc. No matter how great your background, experience or resume is it’simportant to remain humble.
It’sgood to be proud of your accomplishments and experience, but few things are asoff-putting as an arrogant person.
Aslong as your answer includes relevant information to the question being askedyou should be on the right track.
Aswith most of the questions you will encounter during your interview, it isimportant to keep this brief. Try to keep your answers under a couple ofminutes max.
Usually,this is asked at the very beginning of an interview. If that is the case, itis important to take a minute and thank the panel for their time and theopportunity to interview with them.
This will go a long way and showsrespect for them, their time and the department.
Asfor the question, try to keep it brief. As with all the other questionstwo minutes should be plenty of time to touch on the highlights.
Thepanel isn’t asking you for your life story, but rather they want to know moreabout you. As long as your answer is relevant to you it should befine.
Thingsyou’ll want to focus on are your education, relevant experience for the job anda brief story of what got you from where you were to what brought you in frontof the panel.
Ifyou’re a candidate who is relatively young (under 23) talk about what you didin high school.
Anyacademic accomplishments would be acceptable to talk about, or any kind ofoutside group or organization that you were a part of.
Itwould also be good to talk about any sort of related job experience.
Theseinclude things like EMS/fire experience are obviously the best but what otherskills or experience do you have that could be valuable to firefighting?
Aprofessional firefighter not only operates as a first responder but also has arole as a representative or emissary of the government entity.
Wereyou on a speech or debate team and are well-spoken?
Haveyou learned or enjoy auto mechanics?
Theseand other skills are secondary to the position but will be well thought of bythe interviewers.
Thesequestions trip up a lot of candidates, especially when asking about weaknesses.
Themost common sticking point I hear is that they don’t want to come off asarrogant talking about their strengths, and they don’t want to come off asincompetent by talking about a weakness.
We’llstart with the weakness, as this is usually more difficult to articulate.
Thefirst thing you need to understand is that everyone hasweaknesses. This includes every person you will ever sit in front of on ahiring panel.
Ahuge mark of maturity is being willing to admit a weakness in a givenarea.
Thatbeing said, there is no need to feel as though you will ruin your chances ofgetting hired by admitting to a weakness.
However,I would strongly caution and advise every candidate to be careful on exactlywhat weakness or personal struggle you choose to reveal to an interview panel.
Ifyou have a major character flaw or serious problem, the interview may not bethe best time to talk about that.
Now, I’m not encouraging dishonest or bad people to join the fire service, but I would be cautious about admitting to a very personal struggle.
Conversely,what I tell every candidate I speak to is to choose a weakness or flaw that isrelatively generic. One that a lot of people generally struggle with, butnobody can really look down on you for it.
Forexample, in all of my interviews I discussed my struggle with being able tostay organized.
Forvarious reasons, organization has always been a weakness for me, but in pastyears I have improved greatly.
Theability to be organized is one of those things that a lot of people strugglewith, but it isn’t a big enough weakness to be considered a serious characterflaw.
Afterall, can anyone really admit to being perfectly organized in every aspect oftheir life 24/7? I doubt it!
Finally,when stating your weakness, it is important to always state two things.
First,that you have been working on whatever it is, and have improved, and second youneed to state how or what you have done to improve.
Remember, words mean nothing; action is king. (This will be something we discuss a lot on this site, especially when it comes to taking responsibility for past mistakes such as a DUI or others).
Farfewer people have difficulty discussing their strength. This is usuallybecause everyone’s favorite subject is themselves.
Thisisn’t a bad thing, it’s just human nature.
Whendiscussing a strength, it’s important to not just state what it is, but provideproof of how you have demonstrated that strength.
Bothtangible and intangible strengths work well.
Forexample, if you have a lot of higher-level education or experience you can usethat as a strength. Most people would see advanced degrees or knowledgeas an asset.
Also,don’t be afraid to talk about intangible strengths as well. Things suchas patience, persistence and the ability to work in teams can be a hugestrength.
However,you choose to answer don’t forget that your ultimate goal with this interviewis to cast yourself in the most positive light as possible.
Firefightingcan be a very stressful career. Uncertainty, sickness, lack of sleep,danger, PTSD and a whole host of other issues will be present in every day ofyour career.
Withthe advancements in research when it comes to mental health, PTSD, depressionand other issues, the management of stress is becoming a bigger and biggerissue in today’s fire service.
Ifyou are asked this, or a question similar to this (What are your hobbies?What do you do in your free time?) the panel wants to know that youpractice healthy habits or have healthy outlets to relieve all of thestress.
Thesethings can include working out, hiking, being outdoors, yoga (yes, yoga!),fishing or really anything you may do that isn’t harmful to yourself or others.
The department doesn’t want to invite trouble, so they want to know your main outlets don’t include things like binge drinking, smoking, compulsive gambling, illegal drugs or anything else that can be considered unhealthy.
Inshort, the correct answer is, “I ask for help. Admit I don’t know andseek out the answer.”
Firefightingis inherently dangerous, and nothing’s more dangerous than someone pretendingto know what they are doing when they don’t.
Thepanel is looking to find out two things:
Thisis your time to shine. Sell yourself!
It’sparticularly important to exude confidence when answering a question likethis. It can be hard because you’re so nervous, but it’s critical thatyou answer in a way that is convincing.
Referencingyour strengths (tangible and intangible), your skills, experience and knowledgeall come into play.
Besure to keep it brief and touch on a few different aspects that you feel makeyou stand out as a candidate.
Thereare a few common mistakes I see all the time with prospective candidates.
Thefirst of these is being too wordy. This is especially common with thequestion “So _______, tell us about yourself.”
It’stough not to say too much because you want to fit as much in as possible togive them the best picture of who you are.
Remember,keep your answers to around two minutes max.
Makean outline of two or three points you want to touch on and when you practiceand speak only to those points. This brings up another important point,practice.
Youmust practice your answers before going into the interview.
Anothercommon mistake I see with candidates is repeatedly referencing negatives orbeing self-deprecating with your answers.
Iget it, a lot of people are uncomfortable with the idea of an interview andthey may try to downplay their strengths and confidence in an attempt to seemhumble.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to exude confidence not only in your words, but in the way, you carry yourself.
Finally, here’s a video that sums up how to approach and answer who questions.
Sonow it’s your turn. Use this list of practice questions to practice thequestions which are marked with a (who).
FAQ
What makes a good fire lieutenant?
How do you prepare for a fire interview?
- Come dressed in the appropriate attire. …
- Share your passion for firefighting. …
- Provide strong examples of previous experience. …
- Be honest about the challenges you faced. …
- Show your willingness to commit. …
- Talk about integrity and ethics. …
- Practice answering common interview questions.
How do you pass a fire interview?
- Dress Appropriately and Professionally. …
- Arrive on Time and Be Prepared. …
- Think About Your Answer Before Answering Each Question. …
- Research the Department and Position. …
- Learn About Yourself and What Makes You Qualified. …
- Apply Your Past Experiences When Answering Questions.
What are the top three priorities of a fire officer?
