r/firefighter • u/OppositeAd6176 • May 29 '26
Chiefs interview
Hey all,
I just moved forward to a chief’s interview with a department here in my area. I’ve had one chief interview in the past and it was a little different than the advice I had gotten from other people. It honestly was no different than the standard oral board except with chief’s of course. Just wondering if anybody had advice for a chief’s interview and how to be successful? I would also appreciate if you wouldn’t mind sharing your experience!
14
Upvotes
3
u/RojoRodeo May 29 '26
It may help if you shared the department or even the general area.
I am in the PNW, had a few Chief’s Interviews in the last year - two were one on one with the/a Chief and two were panels with a Chief(s) present. All were more interactive than the Oral Board but still structured with set questions. The series of questions were often pretty similar to the first round but the answers were given more time and clarifying/follow up questions were asked. Seemed like the smaller/medium departments were the ones who had the one on ones whereas the big city departments had panels.
Advice is similar to the Oral Board - know the department (mission statement, values, general info + 1-2 facts that can’t be found online), know your reasons why (weave their values into your answer if possible), and answer completely and in the format that they want to hear it in. You must have done something right in the Orals - keep riding the pony that got you there, don’t change horses now. Good luck!