Austin Fire Exam, May 23rd 2012

[fbdream]

http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/def...essSummary.pdf

[dmfireschool]

The City of Austin will be accepting applications for the position of Fire Cadet for the Austin Fire Department.

Applications will be accepted online ONLY from April 1st-April 4th at www.austintexas.gov. On March 29th, the Austin Fire Department will post official notice of the exam. Please check the following website for additional information: http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/def...essSummary.pdf

Applicants will be required to meet the following minimum qualifications on or before May 23rd:
• Must be at least 18 years of age but not 36 years of age or older;
• Must be able to read and write English; AND
• Must have had at least 2 years military experience OR
• Must have at least 15 credit hours, with a GPA of at least 2.0, from an accredited 2 or 4 year college or university.

Candidates who meet the minimum qualifications will be allowed to sit for the entrance exams. The following entrance exam date is subject to change depending on the number of applications received or other unforeseen situations: Wednesday, May 23, 2012.

There are two separate written tests which are designed to measure (1) cognitive ability constructs and behavioral attributes and (2) counter productive workplace behaviors and integrity-related personality factors.

Based on the projected hiring needs of the department, the top 120 candidates from the Initial Ranked List will be invited to participate in the next phases of the process!

Don McNea Fire School will be conducting their 4th consecutive in-depth preparatory seminar for this examination on Saturday, May 12th. The past 3 seminars have been SOLD OUT with a waiting list so don’t wait to register! Go to www.FirePrep.com after April 4th and click on Austin Firefighter Examination for all the details and registration!

Assistant Chief Brent Collins, Cleveland Fire Dept.
Firehouse.com Entry Level Contributor Author since 2002
www.fireprep.com
1-800-989-FIRE

[blackrambo]

Is austin going to have to seperate exams for non certified and certified like last year?

[vegas12121212]

Is austin going to have to seperate exams for non certified and certified like last year?

Per an HR person at the City of Austin, there is no certified track/test this time around...just the standard full length academy cadet class.

[gtcaptain2]

If u already have emt-b do they still send u to emt school? I'm sure they do just want to make sure

[blackrambo]

if certified you still go thru their academy but u dont have to take the state exam. any word if the written exam going to be in the morning or night and how many their hiring

[kswahl1]

Whats the test like? I'm guessing it's going to be weird.

[vegas12121212]

if certified you still go thru their academy but u dont have to take the state exam. any word if the written exam going to be in the morning or night and how many their hiring

That summary states that 120 individuals will advance in the process once the ranking has been established. However, somewhere online I read they intend to hire 120. I imagine it's considerably less than 120 as they would have to anticipate losing people in the CPAT, background, etc.

I've taken 2 tests with Austin (not the most recent one, however), and both were around 10a or noon as I recall. Basically, don't anticipate an evening test time.

That's all I got.

[FFighterRob]

As you can see from the above posts, Austin has had problems in the past and they test different than most every other department in the nation. If you have done very well with other department tests, you are almost guaranteed to do poorly with Austin. Oakland and Berkeley, Ca are the only other departments I know of that have so many problems in their testing and use such an odd oral interview process.

Years ago a protest was filed with the EEOC alleging that the physical agility was unfair to women, not because of the events but because of the times. Upon review the applicants protest was granted and the whole test was thrown out, they were already doing Chief’s interviews at the time. This caused an almost 18 month test and many applicants gave up. But those that stuck with it had less people to compete against and there had been a lot of retirements during that period, so they needed to hire a bunch once the list was promulgated.

Last test they tested senior cadets, people with a number of years on with another department, I think two or four years. Then junior cadets, people with less than that amount of time with a department and people with no experience. Austin, being a progressive, alternative type of city had assembled a board of oral interviewers collected from a Salvation Army program to help recently homeless and just off welfare people to sit on the review boards. They had completed the senior cadet interviews, and were halfway through the juniors when someone posted on a newspaper website a copy of the test as well as the answers they were looking for. Imagine that, someone from that group sold the test.

So they started the orals all over again. Thinking swiftly Austin realized it was summer and who better to have time on their hands and need money than teachers on summer break. They had the interviews at a school, also not being used because of it being summer. But they had used most of their testing money, so they paid the teachers half of what they had paid the former homeless.

Austin is a different place. They had more Frisbee parks in town than any town in the U.S. There is more cultural diversity than anywhere in the mid-west. They make an attempt to reflect those things in their tests. If you think about it, if you were asked questions like, “Why do you want to be a firefighter?”, “What are the duties of a firefighter?”, “What have you done to prepare for the job of firefighter?”, you would answer differently if you were talking to a chief with 25-30 years on, than talking to someone from your mom’s bridge club.

As a person who has prepared for tests with most other departments, you could hurt yourself by giving your usual answers. I talked to a guy during the last test that said, “I thought I nailed it, but when that person posted the answer key online, I realized I bombed”. You have to remember to answer based on who your audience is. A question like, “What are the drawbacks of being a firefighter?” would have a much different correct answer if give to a chief compared to a teacher. This is because it is a subjective question, it is as important how you answer as how you make the interview feel about you and you answer.

[nicky_tonk]

I applied and got my plane ticket to test. Very excited. Any idea how Austin feels about hiring people who already work for a career department? Did a ride-a-long down there last month and would love to work and live in Austin. Any information would be great.

[gtcaptain2]

Where are u flying in from nicky

[nicky_tonk]

I will be traveling from the central Virginia area.

[gtcaptain2]

hey Nicky, sent you a PM

[TonyPhx]

Excited for the test. I was told that they were going to be running 89 people thru an academy from this Exam. It was from one of those mailing list phone calls I received from the Dept. Good Luck Guys

[FireMuscleMan21]

Anyone know how many applied and are expected to test?

[gtcaptain2]

Hey tony so they are looking to hire 89 from this test? That's great news Are u from out of town as well

[fbdream]

Anyone know how many applied and are expected to test?

On the website it said a little more than 4500 people applied

[FireMuscleMan21]

On the website it said a little more than 4500 people applied

So what your saying is it is going to be a zoo again like last test? Ok thanks lol

[gtcaptain2]

Lmao @ firemuscleman!!!!

[gtcaptain2]

Just looked and yep it said over 4500 ppl applied