“Tell us about a time when you had a conflict with a co-worker and how you handled it.”
The poor young man interviewing for his first firefighting job struggled to think of a satisfactory answer. He knew he’d had disagreements with others before, but with four chief officers staring him down waiting for a response, his mind went totally blank. His thoughts were racing and after what felt like hours of deafening silence, but what was really just a few seconds, he started describing an incident he’d been a part of years before that really wasn’t a big deal, but could have possibly been interpreted as sexual harassment by someone not present at the time. It was the only experience that had come to his mind in the frantic seconds after the question, so he just went forward and thought he’d try to put a positive spin on it. He knew even as he started describing the circumstances of the situation that he was going down a road he didn’t want to go down in a job interview, but a lack of preparation, combined with the pressure of silence, forced him into sharing something that ultimately spiraled out of control and ended up costing him the opportunity of a job offer. To use golf terms I am unfortunately well-acquainted with, he had strayed from the fairway and gotten into the rough.
At some point in your career, you are going to be faced with an interview. It may be for an initial job offer as a boot firefighter or even a promotional interview to become chief, but at one time or another you will find yourself in the hot seat being interviewed and evaluated by others. How you prepare and respond to the questions asked at that time can mean the difference between pinning on a shiny, new badge and having to head back to the drawing board yet again.
PAR prepares you for tough questions
Since the adage "The best predictor of future performance is past performance" is so often true, you are almost always going to be faced with one form or another of a behavioral or "tell us about a time..." type of question. You can shoot from the hip like the young man in the opening story did, or you can prepare ahead of time and use this question to your greatest advantage. Going back to my previous golf reference, one way to hit the long drive rather than end up in the interview “rough” is to prepare and use PAR stories.
In graduate school, I was fortunate enough to take a class on business communication that focused heavily on practical, nuts-and-bolts skills like presenting effective PowerPoint presentations, writing proposals, interviewing, etc. One of the things we were taught was how to use PAR stories in an interview. PAR is an acronym for Problem, Action and Result and is a great way to anticipate and prepare for the "tell us about a time…" questions, as well as many others that may come up in an interview. If done right, it is very adaptable and can be used in a variety of interview circumstances.
The first step in preparing a PAR story is to anticipate what kinds of questions you might be asked. For example, a new firefighter candidate might be asked questions about honesty, ability to get along well with others, conflict resolution, etc. The interviewers are going to want to know how he is going to fit in living with other members of the crew 24 hours a day should he get hired, so many of the questions will likely center around these types of scenarios. A candidate interviewing for promotion to battalion chief, however, might expect questions dealing more with his/her ability to lead, communicate, or make a difficult decision under pressure. Regardless of the position for which you are interviewing, take time to think about what kinds of qualities the interviewers might be seeking and what traits they might find desirable in a candidate.
Once you have identified some specific qualities/traits that might be asked about in the interview, start thinking of experiences you have had where you demonstrated that quality or created a desirable outcome. The key in this step is to identify scenarios where you faced a problem, acted upon it, and ended up with a positive result. It seems pretty obvious, but you want to be sure to identify an example that showcases your ability and presents your actions in a positive light. I have participated in many interview boards myself and you would be surprised at how many people actually provide information or stories that hurt them more than help. The advantage you gain from doing this little exercise and contemplating experiences before the interview is that you have plenty of time to think and are not left trying to come up with a good scenario while sitting across the table from the interviewers. It also allows you to identify a few different experiences and decide which one is best, rather than satisficing and blurting out the first one that comes to mind like the young man did in the scenario above.
After settling on an experience that demonstrates the desired quality, create a one-paragraph story that outlines the problem before you, the action you took and the final result (and yes, actually write it out so you can refer to it often while preparing for your interview). Hopefully, it goes without saying at this point, but you need to be honest and not embellish or make things up; doing so will not only put you in the interview “rough” really quickly, but will probably even get you disqualified, possibly for the rest of your career. It’s just not worth it, so be truthful and use examples from your past that really happened.
Applying PAR in the interview
Let’s look at an example question and PAR story someone interviewing for a captain promotion might anticipate dealing with coaching/mentoring a new firefighter.
Interviewer: Tell us about a time when you helped a fellow employee, citizen, or supervisor who was struggling in some way.
Captain Candidate: (Problem): Two years ago we had a new paramedic on our crew who was having a hard time learning his role and responsibility within his specific job assignment. He was very green and inexperienced and though he struggled on scenes and even in the station, I recognized potential and a sincere desire to learn. No one seemed to be helping him though and he was often criticized and belittled as he struggled through assessments, medical procedures, etc. He was also beginning to get an unfavorable reputation among the crews, including some he had never even worked with, which really upset him. (Action): So, one day after a call where he had really struggled, I pulled him aside privately and asked him what was going on. He expressed a lot of frustration about not being able to do anything right. I listened and then offered him some advice on how to handle his situation. I also gave him some pointers on how he could improve some of his patient-care skills. I told him not to worry about what others were thinking or saying and to stick with it and things would get better. (Result): He took my advice and we continued to talk and informally evaluate his progress over the next few weeks and months. He improved immensely and became a great paramedic. With time, he was even able to change the perceptions many of his co-workers had about him. He later told me, on more than one occasion, that had it not been for me taking the time to help him he would have quit during that period.
Pulling apart the question
It is a pretty straightforward and simple answer, but let’s take a closer look. In answering the question this way, the candidate demonstrated qualities that are desirable in a leader such as recognizing potential, taking an interest in others, addressing a personal issue in private, listening, offering advice and counsel, encouraging, evaluating, and following up. Without coming right out and saying it, he showed that he has good leadership abilities and has put them into practice in the past. It is also probably safe to say that being prepared in this way not only helped him provide a solid answer, but helped him project confidence while doing so. I am certain the body language alone of the candidate providing this answer would be far different than the body language of the young man in the initial example and would have a totally different impact on an interviewer.
The final, and possibly most important, step after identifying possible questions and writing out the story—or even better, multiple stories for various situations—is to take time to review them over and over. Study them and make sure they illustrate what you are trying to show the interviewers. You don’t want to memorize them word for word and end up giving a canned answer in the actual interview, but if you know your PAR stories well, you will be able to adjust and adapt them to different questions. A PAR story like the one above could be used for questions about mentoring, leadership, having a difficult conversation with a co-worker, dealing with a personnel problem, etc. Finally, if the example you’ve chosen doesn’t quite seem to fit, think of a different one. That is the advantage of doing this well before the interview; if the first one doesn’t work you have time to come up with a better example without being under the gun.
In closing
Having participated in many interviews on both sides of the table, I can guarantee that taking the time to identify possible questions, drafting good PAR stories from your past experience that demonstrate desired qualities and studying them so you can make an effective presentation will make all the difference in the world in your quest to ace the interview. In other words, it’ll help you hit them long and straight and stay out of the rough!
DEREK J. MAXFIELD is a third generation chief officer and is currently the deputy chief of the Sandy City, UT, Fire Department. He is an adjunct faculty member in the Utah Valley University’s Emergency Services Degree program. Maxfield has been awarded Chief Fire Officer Designation (CFO) and holds an associate degree in fire science, a bachelor degree in communication from the University of Utah, and a master of public administration degree from the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University.