Firefighters have a challenging job that takes strength, commitment and motivation. In a firefighters job interview, hiring managers try to assess the individuals mental, emotional and physical preparedness for this position. Reviewing common fire department interview questions can help you prepare for this evaluation. In this article, we provide several fire service interview questions with example answers for you to review.
- Tell us about yourself.
- Why do you want to be a firefighter? …
- What is the job of a firefighter? …
- What have you done to prepare for this position?
- What are you bringing to the job?
- Why do you want to work for this city or agency?
- What do you know about this city or agency?
How to answer: “Tell us about yourself…” | FirefighterNOW
Why Interview Questions for Firefighters
Don’t get me wrong, being a career firefighter comes with a lot of perks. Great pay, lots of time off, pension, benefits and the list can go on.
However, if this is your only reason for wanting to get into the fire service now is not the time to bring that up.
Before I move on with this section let me make one thing clear. A lot of candidates email me asking me if their reasons for getting into the fire service are acceptable.
As long as your reasons aren’t illegal, immoral or an attempt to hurt anyone or anything– don’t let anyone tell you your reasons aren’t good enough or aren’t the ‘right’ reasons.
You’ll hear a lot about the brotherhood of the fire service and reference to service/sacrifice and alike. While this is all true, we all arrived here for different reasons and on different paths, and your reasons are exclusively yours.
An easier way to approach questions about your why is to think about what in the fire service initially attracted you to it.
For some people it’s the constant change and never knowing what’s going to happen that day.
For others it’s a specific event or person in their life that affected them so much that from that point on they knew the fire service was for them.
For me, I had a background in soccer and played in the pros for a couple years. When I stopped, I realized what I missed the most wasn’t necessarily the game, but the camaraderie of being part of a team.
The fire service was the closest thing that I knew of that matched what I was looking for.
Be careful though, questions about your why are easy to mess up with cliché answers.
I want to help people, or I want to give back to the community, are probably the most common answers any interview panel has ever heard.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but make sure you have some kind of unique story as to what sparked that interest.
Here are some examples of common questions asking why you are there, and how to answer them properly.
This is a question I can almost guarantee you will get in some form. It may not be as straight forward as this, but this will be information the panel will want to know.
Whether you have a lot of reasons or one or two they should fit a few criteria.
First, if you have a cliché answer that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You just have to be able to back it up with something unique and memorable.
If your sole answer is I want to help people, or I want to give back to my community you won’t be doing yourself any favors.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but you will blend in with everyone else that has the exact same answer.
Second, as I said before, your reasons for wanting to work in the fire service are for you alone to determine, and whatever your reasons, they’re not bad.
However, as I’ve also said before in this article don’t mention anything about pay, benefits, time off or anything else similar to that. Even in a joking manner this will not be looked upon as funny and will reflect very poorly on you and your chances of getting hired.
Finally, when you answer this question, tell a story. There have been many books written about the power of story and the impact it has on communication, but this is the key to being unique and memorable.
Now, don’t get me wrong just because you’re unique and memorable doesn’t mean you’ll get hired; there’s a lot of other things you must do and need to fall into place for that.
Don’t forget, people remember stories, especially when they resonate with them.
For example, a couple years ago, I was working with a candidate helping him prepare for his upcoming interview. I asked him, why do you want to be a firefighter?
He proceeded to tell me that a long time ago (when he was a teenager) his father had passed away from cancer.
While his father was going through chemotherapy and treatment he was having all kinds of other health related issues.
One night, his father took a turn for the worse. It was the middle of the night and his mother called 911. He remembered the firemen coming to his home being kind, empathetic and caring for his father as if he was their own.
He was so impressed that complete strangers would come to his home in the middle of the night, put their own lives on hold just to take care of someone he cared about.
From then on, he knew he wanted to be a part of something like that.
What he didn’t know was that when I was a teenager, I went through an almost identical experience!
My father passed away from cancer, and I watched complete strangers do their best to care for him. If I was on the hiring panel for his future department, I wouldn’t hire him solely based on having a similar experience, but I can guarantee you I would remember him and his name!
Think about your own life and what you’ve seen and experienced. It could be as simple as witnessing something years ago or knowing someone that impacted your life, and you just never forgot it.
So, when was the first time you noticed the fire service? What sparked your first interest?
This can be such a tough question! Especially when it’s a city or area you’re not from and know nothing about. Let’s clear a couple thing up.
One, this question isn’t going to make or break your chances of employment with a particular department.
And two, every firefighter out there knows exactly how competitive it is to get hired.
Every officer on that panel knows that you have probably tested at every department you could and would be just as willing to accept a job offer from a neighboring city.
If you’re from that area and it’s your hometown or had some kind of great experience in this particular area, this question is easy for you to answer.
But what about the rest of us that may have never even been to that city except to drop off our application? What are you supposed to say?
A good answer starts with you researching as much as you can about the area.
What about that area do you like or are you attracted to?
Make a list of these things and hold on to it. Maybe you know someone in that area or maybe there is some other kind of personal connection to that area. That would also be good to include on your list.
Whatever you do, don’t lie and certainly don’t say something to the effect of it pays well.
Like with everything else, answering this question properly begins with you doing your research on the city/district and department to which you are applying.
These are two tough questions. Questions that I have personally received in every interview I have had.
For the first question, are you on any other fire department hiring lists? This question is best answered by being honest which in most cases the answer is yes.
As I said before, every person on that panel knows how difficult and competitive it is to get hired, and most if not all of them would give any candidate the same advice of testing as much as you can.
They won’t hold it against you that you are doing everything you can to achieve your goal of being a career firefighter, and if they do, trust me, that’s a place you don’t want to work.
The second question, if you were called by another city would you leave for that department?
In my opinion, this is a bit of a loaded question.
Going through the hiring, on-boarding, and training process is really expensive. The tests (physical, written, polygraph, psychological etc.) all cost way more than most people realize.
After that, if you’re hired they need to spend more money for your gear, your salary, your benefits and so on.
Once you’re hired they’re spending even more money on you training, maybe paying someone overtime for other training and more.
If a department hires you they have already invested a significant amount of money into you and your success with their department.
If you tell them flat out that you are going to leave at the first opportunity what do you think that would do to your chances of employment?
You need to ask yourself, what’s your goal? If your goal is to get hired and become a career firefighter, you should answer accordingly.
Because, the truth is, you have no idea if another city is going to call.
This is a typical interview questions. It’s designed to find out what kind of drive, determination and vision you have.
This is a good time to talk about your passion for the fire service, and how this is where you see yourself for the rest of your career.
Do you have any ambitions to expand your role through other specialties and training such as rope rescue, hazmat or water rescue?
Do you have any aspirations to move up through the ranks in a fire department?
If so, talk about those things.
Take a minute to write these things down and start using them as talking points for your answers.
Finally, here’s a video that goes over what to expect and how to answer why questions.
How would you help improve the fire department’s public education programs?
Public education and fire prevention are important responsibilities for a fire department. This question gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your familiarity with this role. Interviewers are interested in thoughtful, well-educated candidates who will contribute to the continual growth and improvement of public education programs.
Example: “Ive always been impressed by the fire safety programs presented at the elementary schools. Id like to see these expanded to serve other groups as well, such as our local cub scouts. Many of the scouts in our community are homeschooled, so this could help educate some of the children who wouldnt get the chance to participate in these programs otherwise.”
Common firefighter interview questions with example answers
The following questions are common in firefighter interviews:
