Weekly Employment Question Thread

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the Weekly Employment Question Thread!

This thread is where you can ask questions about joining, training to become, testing, disqualifications/qualifications, and other questions that would be removed as individual posts per Rule 1.

The answer to almost every question you can ask will be "It depends on the department". Your first step is to look up the requirements for your department, state/province, and country.

As always, please attempt to resource information on your own first, before asking questions. We see many repeat questions on this sub that have been answered multiple times.

Frequently Asked Questions:

• I want to be a Firefighter, where do I start: Every Country/State/Province/County/City/Department has different requirements. Some require you only to put in an application. Others require certifications prior to being hired. A good place to start is researching the department(s) you want to join. Visit their website, check their requirements, and/or stop into one of their fire stations to ask some questions.
  
• Am I too old: Many departments, typically career municipal ones, have an age limit. Volunteer departments usually don't. Check each department's requirements.
• I'm in high school, What can I do: Does your local department have an explorer's program or post? If so, join up. Otherwise, focus on your grades, get in shape and stay in shape, and most importantly: stay out of trouble.
• I got in trouble for [insert infraction here], what are my chances: Obviously, worse than someone with a clean record, which will be the vast majority of your competition. Tickets and nonviolent misdemeanors may not be a factor, but a major crime (felonies), may take you out of the running. You might be a nice person, but some departments don't make exceptions, especially if there's a long line of applicants with clean records. See this post... PSA: Stop asking “what are my chances?”
• I have [insert medical/mental health condition here], will it disqualify me: As a general rule, if you are struggling with mental illness, adding the stress of a fire career is not a good idea. As for medical conditions, you can look up NFPA1582 for disqualifying conditions, but in general, this is not something Reddit can answer for you. Many conditions require the input of a medical professional to determine if they are disqualifying. See this post... PSA: Don't disqualify yourself, make THEM tell you "no".
• What will increase my chances of getting hired: If there's a civil service exam, study for it! There are many guides online that will help you go over all those things you forgot such as basic math and reading. Some cities even give you a study guide. If it's a firefighter exam, study for it! For the CPAT (Physical Fitness Test), cardio is arguably the most important factor. If you're going to the gym for the first time during the hiring process, you're fighting an uphill battle. Get in shape and stay in shape. Most cities offer preference points to military veterans.
• How do I prepare for an interview: Interviews can be one-on-one, or in front of a board/panel. Many generic guides exist to help one prepare for an interview, however here are a few good tips:

1. Dress appropriately. Business casual at a minimum (Button down, tucked in long sleeve shirt with slacks and a belt, and dress shoes). Get a decent haircut and shave.
2. Practice interview questions with a friend. You can't accurately predict the off-the-wall questions they will ask, but you can practice the ones you know they probably will, like why do you want to be a Firefighter, or why should we hire you?
3. Scrub your social media. Gone are the days when people in charge weren't tech-savvy. Don't have a perfect interview only for your chances of being hired gone to zero because your Facebook or Instagram has pictures of you getting blitzed. Set that stuff to private and leave it that way.

Please upvote this post if you have a question. Upvoting this post will ensure it sticks around for a bit after it is removed as a Sticky, and will allow for greater visibility of your question.

And lastly, If you're not 100% sure of what you're talking about, leave it for someone who does

[u/Basic_Magician_468]

My partner has been applying to every fire department within the state (IL) since he earned his EMT-B in May. He's passed his CPAT and is actually now in paramedic school. He does super well on the fire department written examinations, but consistently has been scoring pretty poorly on the oral interviews. I'm not there so I don't know exactly what they're asking him, but I guess I'm just curious if he's not doing well because he wouldn't fit in well with other squad members, and by that I mean, he's a very left-leaning person (vegan, drives an EV, queer, etc.), and not your typical "man's man." Or is it more likely he's not doing well because they're getting the impression they wouldn't be able to rely on him for the job overall for other reasons? He feels like the interviews usually go pretty well when we're talking about them afterwards.

Not trying to say all departments are a boy's club, just trying to understand if that's a big factor in what they're looking for. I thought Illinois of all places would be less likely to have a work environment like that, so maybe my judgements are misplaced.

[u/Sealtooth5 → u/Basic_Magician_468]

Is he doing mock interviews prior to the actual oral exam?

[u/6TangoMedic → u/Basic_Magician_468]

Many different reasons why interviews could be not working out.

Learning how to answer interview questions can help. The STAR (Situation, Task, Action, and Result) approach to answers is generally a good idea. Some people have benefited from an interview coach, as they can offer tips or find deficiencies in peoples interview techniques.

Departments may be looking for specific types of people, such as those who have done something medical related, team oriented people (hockey, football, lacrosse, ect.), or even just down to finding people who have a personality type that will mesh well with the current personnel.

Every department will interview different and be looking for different things. There is unfortunately no one blanket statement to say what will or will not be the golden ticket.

[u/Basic_Magician_468 → u/6TangoMedic]

Yes, he has occasionally brought up some of his answers to interview questions to me, and sometimes it feels like he doesn't give descriptive answers, so I also brought up the STAR method. I'll consider asking him to do mock interviews or seeing a coach. He's had a lot of jobs in the past so I think I assumed he's historically done well in interviews, but maybe just needs some help tweaking here or there.

It makes a lot of sense that they'd be looking for a team player and looking for people who mesh well. Thanks for your response.