It is important that you prepare questions you might be asked. Here are a few samples for Fire Captain. Type your answers into the text boxes. When you’re done, click “Print This Page” at the bottom, and print your answers for reference. (Note: if your answer has exceeded the size of the box, only the portion showing will print.)
Interview Questions for Fire Captain
1. Please describe your education, training, and experience as it relates to the position of Fire Captain.
Type your answer here.2. How do you view the role of a Fire Captain?
Type your answer here.3. If promoted to Fire Captain, what will you do to prevent harassment in the fire station?
Type your answer here.4. What do you see as the greatest problem facing the San Diego Fire and Rescue department?
Type your answer here.5. Please take a few minutes and outline the first meeting you would have with your crew. What issues would you discuss?
Type your answer here.6. Describe your plan to train a probationary firefighter.
Type your answer here.7. Describe the levels of discipline that a Captain may administer, and where the paperwork is to be filed in each example.
Type your answer here.8. How would you manage an unmotivated firefighter?
Type your answer here.9. You are a new Captain. You have been directed to plan a multicompany drill for your Battalion. What topic would you choose and how would you coordinate the training.
Type your answer here.10. Describe your view of discipline.
Type your answer here.11. You are a new Captain filling in for a Captain who is on vacation. You review the fire prevention records and find that the files are unorganized and the crew is well behind schedule on their inspections. You know this is against the department policy. How would you handle this situation? Would you report this to your Battalion Chief?
Type your answer here.12. A firefighter on your crew receives a needle stick from a transient patient. Describe your actions.
Type your answer here.Manydepartments elect to use an outside consultant to administer their exam andhave their candidates evaluated by outside fire department raters. The purposeof external evaluators is to lessen the chance of favoritism, which in turnlessens the chance the exam, will be protested by an unhappy candidate. Manyagencies do not allow the candidates to interact with the raters. Some agenciesallow the candidates to greet the evaluators, but require them to introduceonly by using their assigned candidate number. Whichever the case, theconsultant’s goal is to reduce the chance of biased rating.
Related Resources
· Firefighter EducationalOpportunities
· Discuss Your Career with OtherFirefighters
The fire chief usually greets the raters. He or she will providesome background about the department and answer any department-relatedquestions. He will share any particular challenges currently being experiencedby the department and share his vision for the future. The fire chief willalways make one thing clear to the raters: if the candidate is not ready to assume the position tomorrow,they are to be scored in a way that reflects this.
Performingon game day is your biggest challenge. I encourage each candidate to take thetime he or she would have invested in researching the exam and put it intostudying his or her own department’s policies and procedures.
Whetherit is a private consultant or an in-house person who is assigned to write thepromotional exam, the process is usually the same. A committee is formed andthey meet with the fire chief. The fire chief will explain what he is lookingfor in the group to be promoted. This will include any current events in thefire service as well as political and/or social events that may be impactingthe fire service. For example, if the department has had a challenge withracial relations a wise candidate would have a plan on how he or she couldimprove them. If the department had a fire that did not go as planned I wouldexpect to see a similar event on the tactical portion of the exam. If thedepartment has a problem with firefighters following the proper procedures whenreturning to work following an injury, I would expect an interview questionregarding the injury procedures.
Recap: Parts of Assessment Centers
One of the most common scenarios that come to mind is with theRapid Intervention Crew (RIC). I understandthat in different parts of the country it is called Rapid Intervention Team.For the purpose of this article I will refer to it as RIC. We will give you a scenario that requires a lot of resourcesbe committed early in the incident. The OSHA policy states that anytime firefighters arecommitted in an environment that is determined to have immediate danger to lifeand/or health (IDLH) a RIC team mustbe established. Candidates struggle with the idea of not putting enough hoselines into effect quickly enough. To compensate for this they elect to forego RIC andassign a company to put in an additional hose line. As a chief officer who hasmanaged a few fires, I understand the desire to get water on the fire. I alsobelieve that the RIC policy was written for a reason. Committingfirefighters to an IDLH without a rescue problem is a clear violationof the policy. More importantly, it completely goes against our number onerule, firefighter safety! This is an automatic failure of the tactical.
