Preparing For Fire Service Interviews in 2018
Fire Service Interviews
Preparing in 2018 – How To Get Prepared and land in the top percentage
Fire Recruitment Australia Podcast
Applying for a Fire Service Position & Preparing for the interview : How to get the edge
This episode, Brent takes a seat in the guest’s chair and journalist and fellow podcast Ginni Saraswati takes the host’s spot.
Brent discusses some tips around:
- What to be mindful of when you’re applying for a fire service position
- How to prepare for an interview for a fire service position to give yourself an edge
1:30 What to have ready for your application
- Resume
Straight Forward – the general resume highlighting the objectives, past positions and overall skills and attributes.
- Understand the organisation/service you’re applying for
Fire service differs in the fact that it is so cutthroat and competitive because applications only open up twice a year. It’s important that you have your understanding and knowledge of the process and in particular a real in-depth understanding of the process for that service and also an understanding of everything you can get an understanding for in that service.
A way to do that is to keep up to date with the news on the website. This way you are ready when they’re ready. It’s not good enough to just hear about the recruitment and decide that you’re going to get up-to-speed as that results in stress and cramming and not putting your best foot forward. Over time, increase your understanding of the service and how they do their recruitment.
In Victoria, there was a situation where they were so cutthroat. They said they were going to be open between 12-16th of February. However, they shut it down on the day they opened due to having a large number of applicants. If you weren’t ready, or have all your stuff ready to go on the day – you won’t get another go that year. That’s a good example where you miss the boat for another year. It’s just how they roll.
In the latest NSW application process, they had certain questions, and if you didn’t follow the instructions to the tee, this resulted in you getting kicked to the curb. You have to pay attention to the details.
A lot of people don’t take it seriously enough because they have one perspective and the service has another. The service wants to recruit the best people. If somebody can’t get an understanding quickly enough to follow some instructions, they won’t allow you to move into the next stage.
4:54 How to keep up-to-date with services
Check out www.firerecruitmentaustralia.com
Subscribe to the service’s Twitter and Facebook channel as each service has a feed on each. There will be notifications in real-time and you won’t miss anything. This will keep you up-to-date and hear the latest stuff.
5:42 Application process
There is no real age limit because they are not allowed to discriminate; the oldest person Brent’s heard of that’s been recruited was 47 as far as limits go. However, you basically have to be an Australian Citizen and have the ability to have a license or a truck license.
6:31 Preparing for The Interview
- Get familiar with the organisation and the recruitment process. That’s the foundation.
- Understand the job that you’re applying for. If you have a really good understanding and an in-depth understanding of your job – that will help you standout over everyone else. Get the position description, look at skills required and the Key Selection Criteria and ensure that your skills match up to that area or that you can actually make them match up. Before the interview, ensure that you know where the interview is, how long it will take you, what will you wear, is their traffic? It’s simple enough, but people just forget that it’s that important. It will start to unravel really quickly.
- Understand the questions you’re going to be asked. Gives you a head start – you can prepare responses for those answers.
10:18 Interview Question Preparation
Questions coming from different perspectives like behavioural questions – they are not looking at just your answer on the day. If you answer the question and there is no continuity in your entire application — that’s where you are going to get caught out. Make sure of your answers that they are yours and they’ve got a bit of personality around them. That’s a certainty about preparing for the interview.
11:50 Interview Experience
You need a structure– somewhere to start.
You’ve got to practice it enough that you’re so familiar with it that you can give your story some actual life. If you do not practice them, you won’t improve.
14:56 Feedback & Improving Responses
Practice with friend and out aloud. When you are practicing with friends, you’re in a comfortable environment which is different from the interview scenario. If you can get from being comfortable to getting uncomfortable with someone that you don’t know – it’s going to get you closer to where you need to be.
You need to get some qualified feedback. Get some feedback from somebody that actually knows where the goalposts are – people are more than happy to offer you feedback however if it’s misguided, it can do more damage than good.
17:38 Asking Questions in the Interview
If you don’t have a genuine question and you don’t have anything to say – you don’t have to ask. If you couldn’t come up with a genuine question, there is no point asking it. Don’t ask them a question that you can get an answer to yourself. Make sure that it’s a genuine question, otherwise just use the opportunity to wrap it up and thank them for getting to know you. This is the last opportunity you will have to leave a good impression. Use it , but use it wisely to wrap it up.
19:40 Key Take Aways: Applying & Preparing for The Interview
- General preparation and understanding of the service, the job and the service as a whole.
- Understand the question that you’re most likely to be asked so you can prepare for them.
- Have a structure to pour your responses into so you have somewhere to start so you don’t miss anything important
- Own your responses and be authentic – you have something genuine and it’s going to make you shine above the rest of your competition.
- Practice out loud. Practice in uncomfortable situations – practice, practice practice.
- Get feedback – qualified feedback so that you’re actually increasing the value of your responses and you’re showing them the best version of you.
Cheers,
Brent