Interview Questions HELP!

[DeputyMarshal]

One of the panel member stopped him and said, “I don’t want an answer out of one of those books.! I’ve heard these same book answers from candidates all week long.”

Nor do we want cut-and-paste postings from other websites.

One of our officers was on an oral board for a big city. Several boards interviewed 965 candidates. His board interviewed 135 candidates over a period of 10 days. Imagine you were this officer and it is the fifth day of interviewing. You have just come back from lunch where the city has wined and dined you. You’re tired and you know you have another five days of interviews ahead of you.

http://www.thefirefighterexam.com/interview.html

One of our officers was on an oral board for a big city. Several boards interviewed a total of 965 candidates. His board interviewed 350 candidates over 10 days. Imagine you were this officer and it is the fifth day of interviewing. You have just come back from lunch where the city has wined and dined you. You're tired and you know you have another five days of interviews ahead of you.

http://www.fireprep.com/don_t_be_a_c...idate__fi.html

One of our officers was on an oral board for a big city. Several boards interviewed 965 candidates. His board interviewed 135 candidates over a period of 10 days. Imagine you were this officer and it is the fifth day of interviewing. You have just come back from lunch where the city has wined and dined you. You’re tired and you know you have another five days of interviews ahead of you.

http://www.eatstress.com/bestarticle.htm

One of our officers was on an oral board for a big city. Several boards interviewed 965 candidates. His board interviewed candidates over a period of 10 days. Imagine you were this officer and it is the fifth day of interviewing. You have just come back from lunch where the city has wined and dined you. You're tired and you know you have another five days of interviews ahead of you.

http://www.firehouse.com/topic/caree...nique-or-clone

And there are more...

If you're going to insist on spamming the forum, could you at least come up with some new material instead of regurgitating the same drek, word for word, over and over again?

[JayDudley]

Problem???

DeputyMarshal.... I think what Captain Bob does is not against firehouse.coms web site rules. As stated previously by the web master of this site he does not break any rules......you however are at least consistent.

[DeputyMarshal]

I think what Captain Bob does is not against firehouse.coms web site rules.

It's called spam. For whatever reason, the rules just don't seem to apply to CaptSpam or CaptSpam Jr. Bribes? Kneepads? Both? Who knows.

[JayDudley]

Spam???

One man's spam is another man's savior....I think you need to just let it go.

[JOHNCAN2]

One man's spam is another man's savior....I think you need to just let it go.

Couldnt have said it better myself

Deputymarshall its not working, turn the page already

[BigNozzlePumper]

Dang Fire Marshall chill out man. Sounds to me like he is within the regs. I guess you have forgotten how hard it is to get this job, and a lot of the people on this site (especially this thread) are volunteers wanting to go paid (myself), students, and other hopeful canidates. I take all the advice I can get. When I get home and start preparing to ETS from the army, I plan on buying Capt. Bob's product, as that is the time I will be exploring the options and opportunities of trying to get onto a paid department. Bottom line: Don't hate the player, hate the game man.

Capt. Bob, thanks for your advice on this thread. Keep it coming.

[CaptBob]

Why Do You Want to be a Firefighter?

Again, a quick check in this forum and you will see that agencies are hiring again. You certainly don’t want to waste any opportunities if you’re selected to participate in a testing and hiring process.

Why Do You Want to be a Firefighter?

This is one of the toughest questions to answer without sounding like a Clone.

There was a point in your pursuit that sparked your interest. It might have been during a class, ride along or a life experience where your mind went click; that’s it. This is what I want to do in life. My life is not going to be the same until I get that badge. When did this happen? That’s your “Nugget” signature story no one else can tell. Once you have the board hooked into listening to you, you can use those other “Clone” answers to caboose your answer.

I don’t have any courses or certifications to become a firefighter. Can I still find a personal nugget story that could be relevant and interesting to the oral board without sounding like a clone? H. Barrow

Yes. Use your personal life and job experiences, i.e. customer service, sports, responsibility, working as a team, commitment, challenges, a degree where you learned how to learn, etc. and relate them the job of a firefighter.

I asked a candidate who was testing for Oakland one day why he wanted to be a firefighter. He gave me the typical “Clone” answer, “It’s giving back to the community, public service, helping others, blah, blah, zzzzzzzzzzzz.”

I stopped him and asked, “What really got you interested in being a firefighter?” He said, “Oh, well I grew up in Oakland, but moved to Shasta during high school. After graduation I went to hotel management school in Reno. That didn’t work out, so I moved back to Oakland and started going to Chabot College. I met an old friend who was in the fire science program. We ended up over at his house. His father was a captain for Oakland. They got me all fired up, I signed up in fire science, got my firefighter 1, became a medic and I’m currently a federal firefighter.”

I just sat there amazed. I asked him if he had ever used this (his signature) story before? He said no. You gave me the “Clone” answer and you had this beauty sitting here? He polished up the story and practiced it with a voice recorder. He works proudly for the City of Alameda.

Another candidate remembered he had the Gage and Desoto dish and cup set from the TV series Emergency. His mom had a picture of him in front of the TV as a kid eating off it when the show came on. He took that picture to his orals. Did it work as part of why he wanted to be a FF? He works for San Jose Fire.

After a written test I asked a group of six candidates why they wanted to be firefighters. They were amazed that what they thought was unique was only a “Clone”. After I worked with one in the group with his signature story of why he wanted to be a firefighter, the rest of the group used the formula to put together their own too.

I have yet to find a candidate who doesn’t have signature stories. The problem is they don’t know how to use them. You might not know yours today. But, after reading this, you will have some aha’s in the next few days.

[Theaxemancometh]

You got your first badge. Nobody else can get it for you and, if they did, you wouldn't deserve it.

And so you got your badge without the help of anyone?? You never inquired with anyone about the how, the when, the who, the what, the where and the why of getting hired?? You just walked in off the street, filled out an application and took an interview and got hired...right?? It's apparent that ALL who've posted here, are sick of your drivel, and would appreciate it much if you would just leave! As some great poet once said: "...You don't have to go home, but you got to get the HELL OUTTA HERE!!"

If you have a personal problem with CaptBob, why don't you PM him, instead of attempting to impugn his passion for helping people (something I've NOT seen you do!!) in the public theater of this web site, where you're obviously are begging for an audience! You won't get many here to co-sign on your hate and discontent. You don't help others with your rants against CaptBob, you only confuse those that are diligently and ardently pursuing the answers, that are numerous, but don't always pass the litmus test. I know he charges for some of his material. But how is he different from anyone who has taken the time to package information and sell it. Duh!! It's the same principle used by many that have built this great capitalist society: IT'S CALLED BUILDING A BUSINESS!!

Why don't you turn over a new leaf, if you're so inclined? Why don't you do what CaptBob is doing but do it better?? Help more people! Hell...generate some income of your own by marketing your experience and knowledge of getting hired, if that's possible. But stop poisoning the process with your negativity! In the eyes of potential new firefighters, you give all firefighters a black eye!
Worse than that you come across as one of the lowest forms of mankind: A HATER. And I know you're a better man than that!

"The Axeman"
____________
"Purpose, Truth and Passion Yields POWER AND DOMINION IN ACTION!!!"

[sierra83]

I used Capt Bob's program and Captain Rob's coaching and scored a 99% on my first interview. Thank you to both of you.

[CaptBob]

Openings

How long do you think you have once you walk into the oral board to hook them into listening to your stuff? Many guess 2, 3 and 6 minutes. You have 32seconds. In that first 32 seconds of your oral board you come in with what’s called the “halo” effect.

In the blink of an eye in that first 32 seconds the board is checking your appearance (the strongest nonverbal statement you can make is what you wear), choice of words, inflection, voice, eye contact and body language. If you open with a clone answer, you’re dead meat. There are six other areas in the oral board where you can recover, but don’t count on that happening. Once you see the glaze come over the oral board’s eyes, you’ve lost them and they won’t come back. Trust me. Please open using a signature story about yourself (see Stories Get Badges posting in this thread).

Candidates have about a 20-minute opportunity for a 25+-year career. The ultimate goal is to have the least amount of distractions in your oral board. Everyone has his or her opinions. It seems once a person gets hired, they quickly forget how hard it really was to nail that badge.

As well-meaning as some people are, I don’t believe anyone wants to be responsible for a candidate not being able to complete their pursuit for a badge. What might have worked for one candidate doesn’t mean it will automatically work for others. As our son Captain Rob says, “They’re going to tell you how to do it they are you. They’re not you!”

Since oral board scores are calculated in hundredths of points (82.15, 87.63, 90.87, etc), bad or incorrect information can place a candidate less than one point out of the running and put them out of the process. I have seen this all too often.

Question:

I just had an oral where I was asked to tell them about myself, my training and education. I proceeded to “dump the whole load”. Two questions later I was asked “What have you done to prepare yourself for the position of firefighter.” I was stumped. I had just told them every¬thing and now had nothing to say without reiterating. My question is: How do I differentiate the two questions especially because I don’t know what I will be asked.

Reply: One of the worst things you want to do is reiterate in the body or closing of your oral board. Sometimes the raters make errors in asking or combining more than one question at a time.

This might help: The dilemma is, “Shall I have a short or long answer for the typical opening question ‘Tell us a little about yourself’?” Remember “a little”. This is just an ice breaker question to get you comfortable in the chair. A one-minute or less answer about you and your hobbies is all that is needed here.

What’s real important to understand here is your opening answer is usually not scored! Either is the closing statement. That’s right; there is generally not a box to score the answer for an opening or closing statement.


They don’t need your name (they already have it) and NEVER tell them your age. A “Nugget” here: If they look baffled after your short answer, ask if they want more. They usually won’t.

Most candidates make a big error on this opening question by dumping the whole load on why they want to be a firefighter, what they have done to prepare, why this city and on and on. That’s not what this question is about. It’s only to get you comfortable in the chair. Then, when the panel starts asking why you want to be a firefighter, what have you done to prepare and the other standard 30 possible oral board questions (see sample question list above) you have to reiterate what you have already said. You lose valuable time and points here.

When some candidates start talking in an oral, it’s like going on a journey. There may be no final destination. Most panel members aren’t packed for the trip. I asked a candidate to tell me a little about himself one day. I stopped him 12 minutes later somewhere in Montana. I said you have just used up 12 minutes of a 20-minute oral. What do you think we have time for now?

[CaptBob]

Scenario Questions

Do you think you have what it takes to answer all situation questions correctly? . . . answer this (in less that an hour)?

What would you do as a rookie firefighter? Your captain asks you to come in his office to review your final evaluation of probation. You notice a smell of alcohol on his breath. How would you reply?

This is a perfect example how you can be fooled on a scenario question. Again I believe there are only 30 oral board questions. They can be disguised in hundreds of different ways. This is one of the disguises for drinking on the job, which is number 12 on our 30 plus list in this posting.

Here is a simple way to break a disguised question down. Dissect the question down to its simplest term, one word, of what the question is really about (i.e. stealing, drugs, drinking, etc.). Once you have removed the disguise, you can place it in one of the 30 plus oral board questions you already have answers for.

One way to help you do this is picture a piece of paper in your mind 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.

If true, you don’t deviate . . . you go straight up to a supervisor. On the right side of the line is anything to do with getting along with others; you will go to great lengths to work it out before going to a supervisor. If you can decide what side of the line the question belongs, you have a better chance of knowing how to answer the question.

So take off the disguise that this is your captain. Dissect the question down to its simplest form; one word. What is this about? Right, drinking. What side of the line is this on? Right or left. If it’s on the left side of the line what do we do? Drinking is not tolerated. Right again. Ask questions to determine if your suspicions are correct (are you drinking?). If so, you go straight up (why don’t we go to our supervisor) no matter who or what rank is on the other side of the table; and stick to your answer no matter what. YOU WILL NEVER BE WRONG! TRUST ME!

Here’s another way this question can be disguised:

You go in the locker room and see a fellow firefighter drinking something that looks like alcohol. What do you do? The clone, soap opera answer would be: I would try to get him into the day room, play cards and try to smell his breath; or I would have him go home sick, or have another firefighter come into relieve him.

These are all soap opera answers. Unfortunately they are taught in fire academies, books with suggested answers and fire technology programs. They will make you a Clone candidate. Don’t go on this journey. They are insulting to the oral board. You will loose valuable points here. We are intelligent beings on the other side of the table. Give us credit for that. Don’t start a soap opera. Ask a question that would verify your suspicions and give a direct answer; not a soap opera.

Understand that if the oral board fires up a question that sounds like drinking on the job, it’s going to be about drinking on the job. If it’s a question that sounds like taking drugs on the job, it’s going to be about taking drugs on the job; It’s not going to be aspirin. If the question sounds like it’s about stealing on the job, it’s going to be about stealing on the job. If they fire up a question that sounds like sexual harassment, that’s what it’s going to be about or they wouldn’t bring it up.

If they fire-up these questions, take off the disguise ask questions to verify what you suspect, decide what side of the line it belongs on and then take action in fantasyland. Don’t be like so many candidates by starting a soap opera.

[CaptBob]

Strengths and Weaknesses

I was going over some questions for interviews, and I was hoping someone could help me with an answer. What are good answers for the question; what are your strengths and weaknesses? What are some bad answers? — John

Reply: Let’s start with what your answers are first.

O.K. If asked those questions I would probably respond with something like; My strengths are education, willingness to start from the bottom, my diverse background in fields other than fire fighting, and the fact that I have experience but am very adaptable to my current surroundings. My weaknesses are occasional tunnel vision, excitability, and no full-time experience. There are probably a thousand faults but you get the point. Where do I go from here? John

First understand that if we start giving answers, everyone would clone them and they would lose their value. I encourage candidates do use their own answers, reflecting their personal life experience.

This question can be asked in many ways, i.e.: What attributes do you think a firefighter should possess, or what qualities, what strengths etc. I think you can come up with better strengths. Education, starting at the bottom and a diverse background are not really strengths. They are what you’ve done to prepare for the position. Areas relating to loyalty, honesty, and being dependable etc. are strengths.

When you’re deciding a weakness, use something that might have been a weakness, but you have already done something to correct it i.e., you had a problem speaking in front of groups. You have improved this situation by taking a public speaking class or joining Toastmasters.

Since firefighters are in a living environment, we would not be looking for someone with occasional tunnel vision and excitability. No full-time experience is not a good choice for a weakness either.

Got a call from a candidate who lives in Washington now and his oral was in 4 days. Joel got his Firefighter 1 from an academy in Southern California. He said it hasn’t helped much trying to get a job. He has now been a medic for 8 months with no luck in testing. In the most pathetic monotone voice he said this is the department he really wants to work for and (with absolutely no enthusiasm) he will be one of the 15 hired.

He asked if he could run one of his answers on what a negative is for him that his firefighter buddies and other friends helped him work out. Sure, shoot. Joel said a negative for me is my past. Even though I got a DUI and some other minor stuff, that’s not who I really am.

I couldn’t believe my ears. Uh, Joel that answer would only open a can of worms. Don’t use it.

Joel said, OK how about this one. Another negative for me is my paramedic skills. This job will help me improve them. Again, I couldn’t believe my ears. Yep, that’s the guy we want to hire, the one with the poor medic skills. Can’t use this one either.

As already mentioned, everyone becomes an expert when they get hired. The answers Joel worked out with some firefighters and friends were definitely not helping but hurting him. The bigger problem is he didn’t even have a clue. This was just one answer. How bad were the others?

I would like to say this was an isolated incident. But we encounter these bad answers on a regular basis. It is especially painful in an actual oral board where we see the candidates die a slow death one question after another. Then the candidates wonder why they don’t get hired. This is an area where we try to keep candidates from stepping on the land mines.

After a little probing, we did find a negative Joel could use that he was working on to improve.

[LionHart]

It works

Capt. Bob,

Three months into probation and I'm happier than ever because I am wearing a badge again every day I'm at work. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you and the valuable skills I learned from your package. I was a fulltime firefighter before and had suffered some setbacks with department layoffs. I thought I knew how to get hired, but I didn't know how to prepare properly for a new assault on the testing process. The Gold package is full of tips, tricks, and "nuggets" that I used to get my badge. If anyone doubts the program, the proof is in the badge that I wear and the countless other individuals who have contacted you for help and now wear the badge. If anyone asks me, I send 'em your way, because it works, and nothing matters until you get the badge, nothing! Thanks Capt. Bob!

Sincerely,

AJ

And to add, Capt Bob went out of his way to help myself and another one of my friends when we were both laid off of a dept. He got us both the info we needed and it didn't matter when or if we could afford it. He helped a couple brother firefighters out. That's real class in my book.

[jmal]

"what is one of your weaknesses?"
I like to turn a bad thing into a good thing, by adding "being too organized".
-maybe this is bad response, if so let me know.

Jmal

[JayDudley]

Correct

I feel that if you can turn a weakness into an asset your way ahead of the game.....