Firefighter Hiring Process - The Oral Interview

The single most important component of virtually every firefighter exam that you apply for is the Oral Interview. Most fire departments consider your Oral Interview score to be 100% of your final ranking on the hiring list. This is usually your first interview with the fire department, and it usually consists of anywhere from two to seven individuals that are asking you a series of questions, the same questions they are asking of the other candidates. Individuals that are usually on this initial oral interview are firefighters, engineers, captains, battalion chiefs, human resource (HR) / personnel department representatives, and possibly representatives from the community such as community leaders, retired individuals, and ordinary citizens.

I recently had the opportunity to be a rater for my department's entry-level Firefighter/Engineer-Paramedic hiring process. While I cannot give specific feedback to candidates, I am able to provide general feedback. Even if you did not interview with our department, there is still some very valuable information I can share with you. Learn from the good and not-so-good candidates that we interviewed. CLICK HERE to download "Oral Interview Preparation Tips" - it will be worth your time and effort to read the information I have compiled.

The best resource I have come across in regards to improving your oral interview scores and gaining a better understanding of the Oral Interview process is Fire Captain Bob's website: CLICK HERE - you can literally spend hours on his website, gaining valuable information about what to expect in the oral interview and how to improve your scores. One of the best items on Captain's Bob website is his section on "30 plus basic oral interview questions" where he lists the most commonly asked oral interview questions.

There is a new firefighter oral interview book out now that every firefighter candidate should own! Smoke your firefighter interview, by Battalion Chief Paul S. Lepore, is an excellent resource that should help the future firefighter candidate better prepare themselves and improve their scores for the most important phase of the hiring process, the oral interview. I recommend this book to anyone that is pursuing a career as a firefighter; it is something I wish I had available to me when I was testing for the position of firefighter!

Paul Lepore is a Battalion Chief with the Long Beach Fire Department in Southern California, where has worked since 1986. Chief Lepore has conducted hundreds of entry-level interviews as well as served as a rater for several Captains’ promotional exams. He has conducted numerous seminars to coach and mentor both promotional and entry-level candidates alike. He also founded EMS Safety Service, Inc., a first aid and CPR training corporation that certifies over 100,000 students each year.

Smoke your Firefighter Interview contains 330 pages of quality information to help you receive the highest score you possibly can on the oral interview portion of a firefighter examination. Virtually every fire department requires the entry-level candidate to successfully pass an oral interview where you will be asked a series of standardized questions by anywhere from three to seven raters. Since the oral interview usually accounts for 100% of your total score (and resulting placement on the hiring list), it is imperative that you get your hands on as much information as you can that pertains to firefighter oral interviews.

Chief Lepore wrote this book for individuals who are interested in pursuing a career with the fire service. The majority of his book is made up of a series of questions and corresponding answers that are designed to familiarize candidates with situations and scenarios that typify life in the fire service. His goal in using the question and answer format is to help candidates think about the reasons they are interested in joining the fire service while preparing their responses to questions that will be a part of the interview process.

Smoke your Firefighter Interview is intended to provide candidates with a strong foundation on how to approach the more common scenarios and themes that come up during the interview process. It is important to note that although the book has been reviewed and endorsed by dozens of fire service “experts,” it’s still only one source of information. It is critical that each candidate analyze each situation, read the rationale for the answer, and develop his/her own thoughts and ideas. The candidate may not always agree with his approach to handling a situation, but at least they will have an opportunity to digest most of the common scenarios before the interview.

To view some of the favorable comments made by people that have already purchased this book, CLICK HERE. These comments were made on the bulletin board of www.firecareers.com

To order a copy, or for more information, you can either call 800-215-9555 or go to the website: www.smokeyourffinterview.com – with the holidays coming up, this book would make an excellent gift for any future firefighter!

There is a new firefighter career preparation book out now that every firefighter candidate should own! The Aspiring Firefighter’s Two-Year Plan, by Paul S. Lepore, is an excellent resource that should help the future firefighter candidate better prepare themselves and improve their scores in all phases of the hiring process. I recommend this book to anyone that is pursuing a career as a firefighter; it is something I wish I had available to me when I was testing for the position of firefighter!

Paul Lepore is a Battalion Chief with the Long Beach Fire Department in Southern California, where has worked since 1986. Chief Lepore has conducted hundreds of entry-level interviews as well as served as a rater for several Captains’ promotional exams. He has conducted numerous seminars to coach and mentor both promotional and entry-level candidates alike. He also founded EMS Safety Service, Inc., a first aid and CPR training corporation that certifies over 100,000 students each year.

Chief Lepore wrote this book for individuals who are interested in pursuing a career in the fire service. Whether you are just starting out your pursuit to become a firefighter or you are a testing veteran that has not yet been hired, this book is for you!

To order a copy, or for more information, you can either call 800-215-9555 or go to the website: www.aspiringfirefighter.com – with the holidays coming up, this book would make an excellent gift for any future firefighter!

Becoming a Firefighter: the Complete Guide to Your Badge! by "Captain Bob" Smith, retired - Hayward Fire Department.

Another book that will help you become a firefighter is by Fire “Captain Bob,” and is titled Becoming a Firefighter: The Complete Guide to your Badge!; I have to say it is worth your time, money, and effort to purchase and read. Captain Bob has put together 159 pages of information on various subjects such as:

Applications
Resumes
Written Tests
Physical Agility Tests
Oral Board Preparation
Attire to Wear to the Oral
The Oral Interview
Oral Board Coaching
Station Visits/Ride Alongs
Speaking Skills
Sample Thirty Plus Oral Board Questions
Chief’s Oral
Medical Examinations
Polygraph Examinations
Background Failure Appeals
The Fire Academy
Being a New Rookie

Since 100% of your score in obtaining a firefighter’s job is in the oral board, what are you missing that’s keeping you from gaining a badge? The job interview is the most misunderstood and least prepared for portion of testing. There are countless candidates with great credentials, that can’t present their package at the interview. If you can’t present the package, you don’t get the job….period! Never! Ever! To quote Captain Bob, “Nothing counts ‘til you have the badge…nothing!”

This book should be in every firefighter candidate’s resource library, I highly recommend it! To find out more information about the book, including cost and how to order a copy: CLICK HERE

Additional information courtesy of Captain Bob relating to improving your oral interview scores:

We encourage candidates to lace their answers with personal life experiences. Since no one else can tell a candidate’s life experience stories they can’t be placed in the mold of a profile. They become unique, fresh and convincing. In a recent fire academy half the recruits were candidates who went through our program. You couldn’t tell one from the other in the oral board because they were using their own stuff. Not a profile robot “clone” of everyone else.

If you have all the education, experience and the burning desire to get that badge, you’re not getting hired, having to cool your heels in another position waiting for that next opportunity (not a bad ideal), you have be asking yourself why?

You can talk all you want about what we do here, how you want it or think it should be, but the candidates you are reading about in our material are a lot like you. They simply got positive results by putting simple techniques into action. The big difference is they figured out how to maximize the points in their oral boards, are now riding big red and taking home a pay check.

Here’s how they did it. Since oral board scores are calculated in hundredths of points (82.15, 87.63, 90.87, etc), the goal is to keep building on a few hundredths of points here on this question, a few hundredths there on that answer, gaining a few more hundredths with their signature personalized life experience stories at the appropriate time, delivering the all powerful “Nugget” answers that no one else can tell, and pulling away from the parrot salvo dropping clones.

Before the clone candidates realize what has happened, these candidates have added on extra points to their score placing them in a position to be invited to the chief’s interview where they get a real shot at the badge. Just being 1 to 2 points out of the running can decide whether you will go forward in the hiring process or not.

The toughest thing for candidates to do in an oral is to be themselves on purpose. Your stories establish a natural bridge between you and the panel. When you're yourself, you become conversational because you are on your own turf. This alone can lower the stress and the butterflies. Every one has butterflies. The trick is to get all the butterflies to all fly in the same formation than can make the difference.

Stories are more than facts. If you can recreate the excitement, emotion, the color and magic to relive the actual event, you will capture the interest and a top score on that question. A big part of getting this job is convincing the oral board that you can do the job before you get it. Stories are convincing and can demonstrate your experience, even if they’re not fire related.

One reason stories work effectively is because they go directly to the brain and entertain. They do not require the mental processing of more formal nonfiction writing. Stories have heart and ring true.

Collect illustrative stories as you are collecting facts, quotations and other information for your signature stories.

Practice those stories with a tape recorder. Condense them down to a couple of minutes or less. Don’t go on a journey. The oral board is not packed for the trip. You won’t have time and it’s not appropriate to use a signature story for every answer. Tell the story. Make the point. Move on. Once you answer an oral board with a signature story, you can marry the rest of your answer with those clone answers you have been using. Try it and see the amazing difference.

“Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.”—Joseph Pulitzer, (1847-1911) American journalist.

I was coaching a candidate one day and a candidate was giving me those clone answers why he wanted to be a firefighter. I stopped him and had him rewind the videotape of his life to where he first got the spark to be a firefighter. He said, “Oh, I’m from South America. When I was growing up, we lived with my grandfather who was the fire chief of the city. I got to go with him and be exposed to the who department.”

I asked if he had ever told that story in any of his oral board interviews? He said, “No”. Why not? I will bet you big money you are a clone candidate right now. But, I bet you also have some personal signature stories that could instantly change your interview scores.

I was doing private coaching session with a candidate. He was telling a story about being a federal firefighter in Yellowstone when it burned. The story was not too exciting the way he was telling it. I had to stop and ask, “It sounds like you were trapped?” He was. Now he tells that story and the hairs start standing up on the back of your neck. You’re trapped with him. You can smell the smoke and see the embers dropping around you. Does this story make a difference? Please say yes.

Case in point. I just talked to a candidate who was dumping only clone answers on the question “Why do you want to be a firefighter?” Then he realized he could begin his answer with a signature story. He remembered a story he could use about a prank being played on him when he did a ride along with his brother. He couldn’t believe the difference when he used this personalized signature story at his next oral board.

The story brought smiles and laughter from the panel members. Along with the calls they went on by the end of the day he knew this was the job that blended all his needs. He followed this story with his standard landmark clone answers. This was the first question on his oral. His answer made everyone more comfortable and the interview flowed a lot smoother than before.

Some say, “Captain Bob” how can you help so many candidates without making them into clones?” Good question. Simple answer. The real reason is nobody else can tell your story! Nobody! So the point here is not the question, but the answer. Start establishing your personalized stories. When you start lacing your answers with your personalized experiences is where you start to shorten that gap between you and that infamous badge.

Since 100% of your score in obtaining a firefighter job is in the oral board, what are you missing that's keeping you from gaining a badge?

The bottom line is that most candidates don't do enough interviewing to get good at it. This is also true for any job interview. You've got around 20 minutes for a 25+-year career. How are you going to stun the oral board panel to convince them to give you the badge over the other candidates?

In this and future issues of this newsletter you will be given tips, skills and the secret inside information on how you can improve your interview scores to put yourself in the best position to nail that badge!

The Problem is Poor Oral Board Skills!

Most candidates do poorly on their oral boards. The problem is most of them don’t know how poorly they are doing. I’ve seen it too often after being on over 100 oral boards. It’s the most misunderstood and least prepared for portion of the testing.

With all respect to the following comment, this is one of the most important clues why candidates have trouble in their oral boards:

“I recently had an interview, and I know my answers were great especially after hearing how another candidate answered them. He made the list, and I did not. Go figure!” Jed.

This is the problem! Most candidates think their answers are great, when they aren’t. If their answers were as great as they thought, they would make the list and get a badge. They listen to other candidates and firefighters who make them into clones. Have you noticed, that once a person becomes a firefighter, they are instantly the experts on how to get hired?

If you’re passing the written and agility, which are usually pass/fail, and you’re not placing high enough on the oral, that’s where the problem exists. 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.

Stop looking in the magnifying glass at others . . . and start looking in the mirror at your self. That’s where the problem is.

Candidates who get this far in the process usually get discouraged and tell me they feel like they have hit a wall. They don’t know what to do next. Some of their friends (with fewer credentials) have been hired. They’re frustrated and embarrassed. If it can work for the village idiot, it will certainly work for you.

This is an e-mail recently received from a candidate. This is how fast things can change:

I ordered your Gold Package Program. I did this after noticing many of your students successful testimonies on the bulletin boards. I have many certifications including Paramedic. The only hindrance that I found myself with was not passing the oral.

Since ordering your program, I was nailing the interviews. Getting hired over the auxiliaries at their own departments, and with a heck of a lot less experience. Your program and techniques helped me excel past the other candidates. I even had one city Fire Chief personally call me at home to set up a Chief’s oral, (had to decline, due to the fact that I was at orientation for another dept.). To make a long story short, nothing counts until you have the badge, nothing. For all of the candidates out there that don’t believe this, try passing and ranking #1 on orals with a stuttering problem . . . I did. Thanks Captain Bob — Dave

Remember: “Nothing counts ‘til you have the badge . . . Nothing!” Ask Dave

Has any what you’ve read made sense? Would you go on an African safari without a guide? Then why would you go to an oral interview without a guide? Would you cross a river without a guide to show you where the rocks are so you can make it across the river without being washed away? Haven’t you been beat up enough yet? We would like to work with you to turn things around. It’s been said that when the student is ready to learn, the teacher appears. Are you at this point now? We can help you wherever you are in the process. From the written test, physical agility, resume, oral board, background, psychological, polygraph to the promotional interview.

We can shorten the learning curve to the closest point between you and the badge. Like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, we’re not going to give you anything you don’t already have. We’re just going to show you where it is. There is a badge out there for you. You just haven’t seen it yet. We will show you how to nail it!

It’s a great feeling if you can be a part of the change in someone’s life. Multiply that by over 2200 badges throughout the United States and Canada and you will understand that this is our reward. My Fire Captain son, Rob and I have a great passion in seeing candidates get a badge. This is serious work.

“Getting the job of your dreams is like winning the lottery!” Jerry Price, Firefighter

"Nothing counts 'til you have the badge . . . Nothing!"

Fire "Captain Bob" Smith

How would you like to get ahead of the curve with the cutting edge interview skills to get that badge? Then you want to sign up to receive Fire "Captain Bob's" exclusive information rich FREE e-mail FireZine Newsletter by CLICKING HERE and scrolling down to "Free FireZine email newsletter."

Fire "Captain Bob" Smith is the author of the new book, Becoming a Firefighter — The Complete Guide to your Badge! He has coached countless entry-level and promotional candidates to get their badges. Over 2,260 candidates have received their badges from this program. He is a retired, 28-year veteran firefighter from Hayward, Calif. "Captain Bob" is a well-known speaker, author of the CD/DVD programs "Conquer the Job Interview" "Conquer the Promotional Interview" and the books Eat Stress For Breakfast and Fire Up Your Communication Skills. You can book him as a speaker or get a copy of his books and tapes by calling toll free at 888-238-3959. E-mail: captbob@eatstress.com or visit his website: CLICK HERE.

The Problem is Poor Oral Board Skills!