Researching Info. on the city your are applying with

[MoparFyrMan1]

Hey Guys,

I will be testing for dept close to my house in September. I am returning from Iraq in a few days and will be buying Capt Bob's program to help with my interview. I have a few questions though....
1) Is it worth while to research information on the dept you are testing with. I have been doing this and know their annual budget, # of firefighters, sq. miles and population of city, # of hydrants, dates certain programs were put into service and so on. Am I wasting my time on this, or will it help in some way.

2) Where can I find statistics on the number of calls they run. I searched the city and dept web site and have come up short. Is there a national data base broken down by state and then by city, if they report, where I can find this information? It is just the last bit I want to know. The city has a population around 50K and the dept has around 100 full-time personel.

Thanks for any input you guys have. Capt Bob, talk to you soon. I am going to need lots of help getting my badge back. Gave it up to come here(Iraq), and want it back really bad now. It has been 7 years since I last sat for a dept interview.

Be Safe,

Greg Dietrich
Firefighter/EMT-IV
Camp Bucca
Iraq

[CaptBob]

Greg:

I look forward to assisting you any way I can to make the transition back to gaining your badge.

Salvo Drop Answers

I gave a free collage seminar titled, “It’s Your Turn in the Hot Seat” last week. The format was for candidates to volunteer to sit in the hot seat and answer an oral board question. One candidate who arrived late leaped at the opportunity for the next question. Once he was in the hot seat I asked him the question, “What do you know about our department?”

The candidate proceeded to give this fast, rapid fire, long endless answer. It was like he was trying to cram everything in he could think of down to fine details. Just when you though he was coming in for a landing, he touched down and took flight again. You could see the glaze coming over those in the room (as you would see from an oral board panel) as he continued.

When he finally ended the first comment from the room was, wasn’t that answer too long? The attendees saw first hand how these long endless salvo drop answers can start to work against you to the point of overkill, making you sound anal. Oh, yea this is the guy we want to stick in a station and drive everyone else crazy.

One candidate said he had been told by many other candidates and firefighters to keep answering until they stop you. Well, put your self in the position of a panel member and you have to stop this guy to get him to shut up. How would you rate them?

Keep in mind too that in a 20-minute interview you will have about 5 questions and answers. If you go endless in your answers, you might get cut off before you got to deliver some of the best stuff. If the interview is timed, you could not have enough time to complete all of the questions.

We refer to these long answers as Salvo Drops.

Salvo Drops
This is from my friend and associate Tom Dominguez: Answering the question longer than a two minute response can be considered a salvo drop. A salvo drop is where an air tanker drops the whole load of retardant or water on a fire all at once instead of spreading it out. All retardant compartment doors are opened at the same time. This is done when the retardant is needed all at once. Do you need to “salvo drop” the interview panel on every interview question? One exception is the answer to the question, “What Have you Done to Prepare for the Position?” You don’t want to hold anything back here. Dump the whole load.

Tom is right about salvo drops. I’ve had candidates where the instant we would finish a question they would immediately start like a parrot on this salvo drop, never coming up for air, or giving the raters an opportunity to interact. Often it was word for word, without being personalized to the candidate, out of one of the many books out there with suggested oral board answers. Valuable points are lost here.

Once again, 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, a few there, pulling away from the parrot salvo dropping clones.

More on Salvo Drop answers here: http://www.eatstress.com/bonusnugget.htm

You can find more on testing secrets in the Career Article section from the Jobs drop down menu just above this posting.

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

Fire "Captain Bob" Author,
Becoming A Firefighter,
Conquer Fire Department Oral Boards, and
It’s Your Turn in the Hot Seat!

www.eatstress.com

888-238-3959

[FCDave24]

Greg,

I had never thought about learning that kind of information until I was asked, "So, what do you know about our city?" At that point, it was too late to do my research. Actually, I didn't know much about the city itself...So, I punted. Luckily, I was able to formulate an answer that, atleast, sounded good. "I know that this town demands professionalism and customer service from its employees." blah blah blah. I went on to say more things like this.

Fortunately, it was a good punt. The Fire/Police Commission liked my answer and gave me the job. A buddy of mine knew TONS of facts/details about the city and wasn't hired. He's a great guy and would be a good employee. We have the same credentials (240 fire, emtP), except I have an MA degree. So, knowing those details may not "make or break" you. However, if I had to do it again, I would learn the basics about the city/town: population, demographics, mayor/president name, dept size, industrial vs. residential.

By no means am I an expert like the Capt. Just my two cents.

Dave

[CaptBob]

Shot Gun Effect

Is my answer too long?

Question: I Just completed my oral interview with a big department. I feel that everything went great. They asked questions that I specifically studied for. Although I do have to say that I was still very nervous. I had practiced with a tape recorder as you had advised and my script came out great.

I do have one question for you though. I was asked the question of, “What do you know about the City of _______ and their fire dept?” I responded with the type of city they are, the location, major freeways, target hazards, square mileage everything imaginable that someone would need to know about the fire department and the city.

As I was giving my answer one of the raters looked up at me and gave a look like he did not even want to hear anything more that I had to say. This concerned me. Should I continue with my answer or somehow try and cut it a little short.

Reply:
You give your answer as planned. Although you can’t tell what the board is thinking, if the panel looks puzzled ask them if they want more. They will tell if they have heard enough and you can be onto the next question.

The best way to handle this type of question about the city and department is to use the shotgun effect. Give them a smattering of areas like square miles, population, type of city government, number of stations, engines, trucks, number of personnel and target hazards.

Like Dave above, what would you think if you were on an oral panel and the candidate gave you a sample smattering answer? Right, you would think he had done their homework.

You don’t want to go endlessly here. Just a sample smattering. I had a candidate one day tell us so much he got down to the grid water system the city used. Definitely overkill. Another candidate during coaching had a good answer for city information. In the next two weeks before his oral he piled more information onto his answer. He ended up making a long answer endless, finally telling them the number of convention hotel rooms that were available. He committed suicide in his efforts to over impress the panel. Oh, yeah, this is the guy we want to put in a station that would drive everyone Nuts!

This mindless, endless, rambling not only hurts your score, it robs valuable time that you could be using to let the panel know the important stuff that could improve your chances to make the final cut.