Fresh out of Standards

[DFRYER588]

I am a twenty year old male who lives in Orlando, Florida and I just finished standards last week and passed my state testing. I have already put my name out to every department in my area and I am just wondering if anyone has any advice as to what I can do now? I have my emt certification and ff cert. I also already have my Evoc cert. Any advice as to what else I can do to have a better chance of getting hired? Any advice will help . Thank You!

[CaptBob]

what else I can do to have a better chance of getting hired? Any advice will help .

Learn how to take a firefighter interview which is usually 100% of your score to get hired.

What most candidates do if they don't place high enough on the oral is go back and try to pack on more credentials. “Oh, I have to finish my degree or get through that academy” They do little to nothing in gaining the skills for the oral board, which is usually 100% of the score. If you don't do anything to improve your oral board skills nothing is going to change, you will never, ever see that badge. The oral board is for all the marbles. This is where the rubber meets the road.

You need a hand held recorder that goes everywhere your car keys go to practice your answers. You use a recorder to get your timing, inflection, volume, where to cut out material, get rid of the uh’s and other pause fillers, or to find out if you really sound like Donald Duck. You need to get married to your hand-held tape recorder. You need to hear what the oral board is going to hear out of your mouth. It’s narrows the distance between you and the badge you’re looking for!

Try this. Take 3X5 cards and write down your oral board questions. Practice your answers with the tape recorder. If you hear something you do not like when you play it back, turn over the 3X5 card and write it down. The next time you go after that question, turn over the card first and see what you don’t want to say.

Thirty-Plus Basic Oral

Board Questions

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 his city or agency?

8. What do you like to do? What are your hobbies?

9. What are your strengths? Weaknesses?

10. What would your employer say about you?

11. What are the attributes of a firefighter? What 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 don't know an answer to a question?

22. Are you on any other hiring lists? 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? Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

25. What are the quality traits of a firefighter? Which one is the most important to you?

26. Have you ever been in an emergency situation? Tell us what you did?

27. What word would best describes you in a positive way? A 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?

These questions can be disguised in hundreds of different ways. It's your job to take off the disguise and find the real question and have a "Nugget" answer to satisfy the oral board, get your best score on the answer and cause the board to go onto the next question.