Austin Fire Department Hiring Process Canned!

[myessem]

If you haven't found out already, today the AFD's Action Fire Chief, Jim Evans, notified all applicants that the hiring process has been terminated. For the full read click here (http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/fire/employment.htm).

As one of those applicants, I am extremely disappointed. While I was very unimpressed by the readiness and organization of the overall hiring process, I never saw this one coming. However I can imagine the kind of pressure Jim Evans must be experiencing, and this action was a last resort.

Has anyone seen this type of action happen before? And if you're an applicant: how do you feel about having to start from Step One again?

As for me, I'll still be handing in my application to the AFD (again), but this time I'm going to look into other nearby cities.

[rhorton45]

I was also one of the applicants. The whole thing left me disappointed with the entire hiring process with AFD. I suspect some of it was their fault and some of it wasn't. It's disappointing that lawyers have to get involved and drag the whole process to a hault.
You would think a physical ability test would be a straight forward thing. You either pass it or you don't. I could never imagine filing a lawsuit over something like that. I happen to think the CPAT cutoff time of 10 min 20 sec is generous. I am no great athlete, I'm not big (5'9", 155lbs), and I passed it in under 9 minutes with another department (and wasn't in particularly great shape at the time).
If the EEOC thinks the cutoff time is "legally insufficient", what about other FD tests? I think some of those are harder. Are the cutoff times on those also "legally insufficient"??!!? :confused:

[myessem]

From what I have understood by statements by the AFD, a group of applicants are complaining about the difficulty of the CPAT.

A logical concern comes to my mind immediately that I am sure has been passed around this forum several times: Do you really want a firefighter watching your back that was unable to pass the standardized national CPAT? Creepy, just creepy.

Also today the AFD updated their employment page and made it official: all applicants must start over from the beginning. I am trying to keep a positive attitude about the delay of the hiring process by using it as more time to train for the CPAT and polish my Q&A skills for the interview.

And as for my opinion on the applicants orchestrating the arbitration, I think they sealed the deal with any future employment by the AFD. Don't bother showing up next year.