Group Interview

[fftraining618]

Greetings everyone,
I have a group interview coming up next week. I was just wondering if anyone had any tips on how to approach these kinds of interview and what is expected in some of these answers. I thought about buying the book Smoke your Fireman interview, but I wasn't sure if that was a waste of money or not. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[adam015]

Wear a suit.

Be clean shaven and clean cut.

Dont say "uhhh".

Usually they sit you down and start with the 1st person, have him answer first and move down the line with the same question. Then the 2nd person answers first and goes down the line and so on until they are done asking questions. Its usually good because you have some time to think about you answer but when its your tuen to answer first you gotta be spot on.

Best of luck!

[FyrnResQ]

Good luck.

Now that the election is over, Davlin is already talking about laying 72 city workers off, come March 1st when his new budget kicks in.

I wouldn't wanna be a Springfield resident right now...

[CaptBob]

A common group interview is where they bring in 3 candidates and ask them the same questions. Sometimes you only have a minute to give your answer. If you’ve been practicing with a hand-held recorder your answer is probably longer. The “Nugget” on these timed questions is to only deliver the key bullet points of your answer.

You can find more oral board tips on the current Firehouse.com thread:

http://www.firehouse.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117336

Some agencies use Leaderless Group Discussion for entry level and promotional testing.

In this exercise, several, if not all, the candidates are placed in a room and given a topic to try and solve. Many candidates are of the impression all you have to do is force your way in taking control of the group and keep it. This is not true because the purpose of the exercise is to see how you interact with others in this environment with problem solving. There are many ways to make the right impression:

It can be as simple as volunteering to be the recorder or timekeeper to keep the meeting going. As the timekeeper you can announce that someone’s time is up and redirect the meeting to someone else. As the recorder, you can interject with the points you interpret the person speaking is trying to make with your own twist.

If someone hasn’t voiced his or her opinion, you can say, “We haven’t heard from Don yet. I’d like to hear what he has to say.”
If there is a white board in the room. You could change the direction and dimension by getting up and putting major points on the board and calling on others’ for input.

For the introvert or the person who has a problem getting into the discussion, wait until a number of people have spoken. Then, pick up your pen or pencil and wave it around to gain the floor. Reiterate what several candidates have said about a topic to and bring about a solution with, “If I understand Joyce and Phil, they feel a seniority list should be used for overtime. And, Don and Karen think an employee should be able to work down in rank if needed for overtime. If we use both ideas, we have a solution could be obtained with a policy that covers the selection of employees for overtime. Is everyone in agreement?

You let everyone work themselves up into a frenzy then make a conclusion of the ideas to solve the problem. It’s like a dark horse that’s running last in a race. As you come around the clubhouse turn, you come from behind the pack, go to the whip and win. You can do this several times during the discussion to finally get everyone to agree.

Donna gave one of the best ways to score high in this arena. As candidates were jockeying for position, she stated, “Since the combined IQ around this table is greater than any one person, I would like to go around the table and hear every ones’ idea on this situation. It brought the almost out of control candidates, who were trying to jockey for position, and the raters to a screeching halt. Donna got full agreement. As she called on each of the candidates around the table, she had the recorder post the major points on the white board.

As the last person finished, Donna had the best ideas from the group in a logical sequence to gain approval for a conclusion. Subtly, Donna had taken control of the discussion by becoming the facilitator, gaining major points, allowing everyone to participate, and obtaining a consensus for agreement.

Jim used this formula and called us after the results of his assessment center were official. One of his competitors said it was torture having to sit through the leadership group discussion with Jim who was far more prepared than we were. Jim was shocked the next day by being number #1 by over a point his first time out for captain.