Questions for applicants

[Steve Paylor]

I serve on the membership committee and have to interview three applicants tomorrow night.

Any suggestions for questions? All we usually ask is where they live, when they can usually respond and maybe what their hobbies are.

Surely there are some more insightful things we could ask?

[mtnfireguy]

Why to you want to be a firefighter? (Other than protecting lives and saving property)

What can you offer the department?

[Nick SBFD 6]

More of a staement than a question, but in order to weed out the hoopies,

"You know you can't have a redlight until your 1 year probation is over, and 2-5 years before you drive the trucks."

[APG1]

Interview them for their experience and maturity.

[smokeeater51]

I've seen em' ask straight out of the gate, "When do I get to drive the trucks?"

Other questions to ask;
How do you feel you can benefit the department?

What do you expect from the department?

Also any phobias, problems with taking directions, etc.

[MetalMedic]

Been a part of the interview process many times in my various job capacities. I have found that asking open ended questions can produce very useful answers. Here are some that I always try to ask:

"When we call your references / employer / past employer during our background check, what do you think they will tell us about you?"

"What do you consider your strong points?"

"What do you consider to be your weaknesses?"

"Is there anything that we should know about you that we have not asked you during this interview?"

[Adze39]

Why do you want to join?

The reason you should be asking these questions is to weed out bad candidates. You want to make sure they want to join for the right reasons. Also, you want them to understand all the responsibilities that go along with the job. You don't want some hoople who is just there for the "fun" and gonna blow a load in his pants everytime the tones go off and winds up injuring somebody.

[Steve Paylor]

Thanks for your feedback.

I often want to ask questions about their driving record to get an idea of how fast they will drive to the first reported "structure fire" but, well, it might seem hypocritical coming from me.