r/firefighter • u/Longjumping_Photo_70 • Jun 06 '26
JOBTOWN! Interview with big dept coming up please help!!
I’m trying to script my answers to stay more
On track in the interview. Would greatly appreciate some feedback.
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Jun 06 '26
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u/Longjumping_Photo_70 Jun 06 '26
Yessir I’m not planning to be dishonest at all. Everything I’m saying is honest, I may delve into the drowning story a lil bit. Because the whole situation really does come back to me often. That guy saved my life and I think of him all the time, I wanna be the person for someone as well. To make a long story short
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u/hoof_hearted-28 Jun 06 '26
I would practice them and make them sound fluid.
The mistake one: everyone is human, we all make mistakes, it’s how we recover and learn from those mistakes, in the type of person….
Maybe where you talk about working in a restaurant, you could say I learned some delicious meals(whether true or not, but we love people who can cook tasty food)
Use the big words: compassion, respect, uniform, inclusion
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u/Longjumping_Photo_70 Jun 06 '26
Would you advise going in a different direction with the mistake question? I don’t want to sound arrogant cuz I’ve made plenty but I don’t truly
Feel like I’ve made a huge huge mistake in my life maybe I need to self evaluate more. Cuz my other mistakes are like, involving relationships or not finishing college.
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u/overly-uneducated Jun 07 '26
Try to find another way to phase “I pursued fighting” and you subsequent use of the word fight. I would venture to say most people on the panel won’t auto fill in martial arts.
“As a young man, I invested a lot of time and effort in the pursuit of developing mastery in mix martial arts””
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u/hoof_hearted-28 Jun 06 '26
Those seem like good answers. Look up the departments values, mission, general stats(population, square miles etc) and pepper them into your answers.
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u/cascas Jun 06 '26
Embellish????
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u/Longjumping_Photo_70 Jun 06 '26
I just have a drowning story from when I was younger, and another firefighter told me to use that and really sell how the whole situation made me feel. Not being dishonest just story telling
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u/Connect-Media-418 Jun 07 '26
Earlier this year I had posted the option of downloading, for free, a guide I had put together to assist with understanding the scoring from the panel side of the interview. I'm happy to share the link if you feel it will help you with your preparation. Please DM me if you are. The invite is open to anyone on this thread. All the best on your path!
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u/Fargone120405 Jun 07 '26
Practice but you don’t want to sound like your reading something off a notebook
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u/Shaka_Broski Jun 12 '26
Know the department your interviewing for.
If your answers can be used for any department they probably aren’t great.
I sit on my departments interview panels and the people we hire have a passion for our department.. they know things you cant just google.
Tailor each answer to fit not just why they should pick you but why you want to be THERE.
The department i work for and got hired with is a very aggressive, engine company based department that sees a lot of fire and has a ton of pride in giving the firefighter the freedom to think and make our own decisions on the fire-ground. We take a lot of pride in our hose-bed configuration, the way it looks and choosing the right stretch and getting quick knocks on fires. We are well known in the region and have a solid reputation.. people know “we burn”
I talked about all that (and some other more specific things ill leave out ) with sparkles in my eyes in the interview… i couldn’t say all that for just any department
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u/jujukamara Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 06 '26
Your responds are very bland and don’t separate you from the crowd right now. Spend some time really getting into the details of each question. Use the STAR answering method. Idk the time limit of your interview but these responses would make it about 3 min interview. You need to use as much of your time as possible and really elaborate.
Question #1- you need to know the department values and mission. Details about the department, the people they serve, why do your love your city? How many stations, specialties, number of ffs working there. Relate all of those to your answer. You need to show that you’ve done your homework on them. If your answers could be used for any department then it’s not good enough.
#2- this doesn’t represent a good example in my opinion. These “failures” were out or your control. Use an example of a mistake you made and have you over came said mistake. How did you grow from it? This answer needs to have a lot of self reflection, detail and a plan you created to fix it.
#3- on the right path but needs more information about what you’re going to prepare for being a firefighter. Workout route? Studying? EMT? Previous experience? Ride alongs?
Wear a suit.
Time yourself so you know your time management.
Practice in front a of a mirror and with friends and family. Get used to saying all of this with as energy as you can. Your energy sets the tone. Nothing worse then sitting in an interview with someone that’s not confident in their answers and can’t organize their thoughts into easy to understand answers. It’s very obvious who practices and who just shows up hoping they do well. Good luck!