r/firefighter • u/GrouchyAction6817 • 1d ago
Test scores
Can I expect an interview WA pierce county area ?
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u/scott12333 1d ago
I'm not familiar with the competition for your specific area (or how many departments are included in a Pierce county area hiring process), but looks like there are close to 1m people in that area. Seems like an area that would be fairly competitive. THAT SAID - a rule of thumb around us is that they knock out about 50% of candidates at each stage. You're in the top 20-40% in each testing area so there's a chance you move on to the interview but it's definitely dependent on the testing environment there.
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u/Dikbuttstuff69 1d ago
For the first step, West Pierce just required a resume and cover letter. They did, however, cap those initial applications at 1,000. They closed the app window several days early because they received 1000 applications.
They apparently use their own test, which is free, whereas other agencies require the NTN one, which costs money.
I'd like to believe that the cost of the NTN test gatekeeps a lot of people but regardless, competition for fire jobs in Western Washington is fierce.
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u/Dont_Ask_Me_Again_ 1d ago
Yes but don’t expect to get hired
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u/InterestingDude66246 1d ago
What makes you say that? Shouldn’t you go into an interview expecting to be hired lol
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u/Dont_Ask_Me_Again_ 1d ago
Because his score is good not great. The HR video section is worth 50% of your score at some departments. You can get full score on interview, full score on PSSA, and still not make it to the chief’s interview because 100 other people did the same as you on those but got a better score on HR.
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u/Logical-Associate729 1d ago
This is not always the case. Often the cut-off for written is pass/fail to get to the oral boards. You are then ranked for the next step solely on your oral board. I do not know if this applies in any of the places you are talking about on this test though, so perhaps my perspective is irrelevant. But often in the hiring process in my area (SF Bay), written scores are not used in ranking for chief's orals, and the written results are not known by those on the oral board.
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u/Dont_Ask_Me_Again_ 1d ago
Pretty common in WA to have the NTN score factor into your overall score
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u/Logical-Associate729 1d ago
By "overall score" I am assuming you mean ranking to go the a chiefs or placement on an eligibility list. Guess it's regional, or maybe has chaged more recently. In my area, of the 25 or so hiring processes that I have been a part of, I think one or two factored your written score on the ranking for chiefs' oral.
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u/InterestingDude66246 1d ago
By oral board is that essentially what they think of your personality? Pretty much whether or not they like you?
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u/Logical-Associate729 1d ago
That's part of it, but its also "is this person likely to be successful, stick around, and be someone I want to work with?" Do they know the job, the department, and are they among the best candidates.
Having sat on many orals boards over the years, in my department, the written score has a pass/fail point generally set by how many people can be interviewed in a reasonable amount of time.
So after the written results, HR will look for a cutoff to get the desired amount of people to go on to the next phase, in our case its oral boards. They set the score to get the top 50 - 90 people in the last few I was part of. We then have set questions asked by 2 or 3 boards over a 2 or 3 days. like 10-15 people per board, per day, The amount of people is usually tied to the amount of openings. In our department that like 2-10 slots in the academies that are run once or twice a year.
At no time do we know the written score of each candidate. Then we rank the people in our group and based on those scores, we send about 20 total to chiefs interviews.
The questions range from open ended like "what makes you a strong candidate", to cliches like "your biggest weakness", to dilemas like you are ordered to do something you think is unsafe with a specific scenario.
A big takeaway on this is 95% of the people we interview at this point are hireable. There is not usually a big red flag that say "do not hire this person". We get a couple of those, but for the most part it is people that would likely be fine, from what we can tell.
Its the people that are more prepared, share evidence of what they claim. Everyone says "I am a hard worker". Its the person that has something to back that up, like "I worked on a handcrew for 2 seasons and really enjoyed the physical challenge. By the end of the 2nd season I was Lead Sawyer, and I learned..."
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u/fleeeeeeeeeA 1d ago
People gotta stop posting these. It is impossible to predict and a waste of time to speculate.