Captain interview questions

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Permalink Reply by Frozenhosehead on February 10, 2010 at 11:39am

Brother, you've been in the hot seat before to get where you are now. Essentially beginning again at a higher level so think about things like officer development, mentoring younger officers and firefighters around you, tons more supervisory roles and tasks to include budgetary items. Lot more command roles probably because they expect it out of their higher officers to groom them to take over BC/AC jobs one day. You will see a lot more of this in Fire Officer III. Any good officer knows that they are training the person below them to take their job over one day. So look for questions based on things that would be a daily situation for captains in your department.

Not sure what they might throw at anyone in an assessment these days. Hope you have a controversial topic for your research paper like budgets and brownouts. Think about what steps you and your crew could do to save the department money like on energy savings at the stations, on overtime, preventing injuries to save workman's comp money. How to train personnel with minimal training funds and so on. These are all things facing most departments in America today and looks to be that way in the future.

Find a Captain and ask them to mentor you and help with some of this.

Good luck brother

KTF

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Permalink Reply by John Maes on February 10, 2010 at 12:04pm

Thanks a lot Brother!

Brad Hoff said:

Brother, you've been in the hot seat before to get where you are now. Essentially beginning again at a higher level so think about things like officer development, mentoring younger officers and firefighters around you, tons more supervisory roles and tasks to include budgetary items. Lot more command roles probably because they expect it out of their higher officers to groom them to take over BC/AC jobs one day. You will see a lot more of this in Fire Officer III. Any good officer knows that they are training the person below them to take their job over one day. So look for questions based on things that would be a daily situation for captains in your department.

Not sure what they might throw at anyone in an assessment these days. Hope you have a controversial topic for your research paper like budgets and brownouts. Think about what steps you and your crew could do to save the department money like on energy savings at the stations, on overtime, preventing injuries to save workman's comp money. How to train personnel with minimal training funds and so on. These are all things facing most departments in America today and looks to be that way in the future.

Find a Captain and ask them to mentor you and help with some of this.

Good luck brother

KTF

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Permalink Reply by Glen Murray on February 12, 2010 at 2:24pm

Brother - I went through the process a little more than a year ago. My department used a promotional interview in which I sat before 3 Chiefs from different departments in my area. The questions asked were varied and did not hit upon many "fire" related issues like there were in my Lieutenant's exam. Most of the questions centered on management issues, developing SOP's/SOG's, input into the department budget, and training. My panel was looking beyond the fireground. As the Captain is at the level just below upper management (Asst.Chief, Dep. Chief & Chief) they wanted to see the "manager" side of the position not the "firefighter" side.
You might also reach out to those who have been through the process you describe. Valuable information can also be found in those who did not pass that type of evaluation. You gain a better insight from those candidates. I hope this helps. Best of Luck!!
Glen Murray, Captain WSFD

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Permalink Reply by 0naz9680m6v0b on July 23, 2010 at 9:29am

Hi,

Thanks very much for this comment. It help me to think about my ideals.

Tks again and pls keep posting.


Glen Murray said:

Brother - I went through the process a little more than a year ago. My department used a promotional interview in which I sat before 3 Chiefs from different departments in my area. The questions asked were varied and did not hit upon many "fire" related issues like there were in my Lieutenant's exam. Most of the questions centered on management issues, developing SOP's/SOG's, input into the department budget, and training. My panel was looking beyond the fireground. As the Captain is at the level just below upper management (Asst.Chief, Dep. Chief & Chief) they wanted to see the "manager" side of the position not the "firefighter" side.
You might also reach out to those who have been through the process you describe. Valuable information can also be found in those who did not pass that type of evaluation. You gain a better insight from those candidates. I hope this helps. Best of Luck!!
Glen Murray, Captain WSFD

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Permalink Reply by 0naz9680m6v0b on August 3, 2010 at 3:45am

jerry said:

Hi,

Thanks very much for this comment. It help me to think about my ideals.

Apart from that, this link below may be useful: Training interview questions
Tks again and pls keep posting.


Glen Murray said:

Brother - I went through the process a little more than a year ago. My department used a promotional interview in which I sat before 3 Chiefs from different departments in my area. The questions asked were varied and did not hit upon many "fire" related issues like there were in my Lieutenant's exam. Most of the questions centered on management issues, developing SOP's/SOG's, input into the department budget, and training. My panel was looking beyond the fireground. As the Captain is at the level just below upper management (Asst.Chief, Dep. Chief & Chief) they wanted to see the "manager" side of the position not the "firefighter" side.
You might also reach out to those who have been through the process you describe. Valuable information can also be found in those who did not pass that type of evaluation. You gain a better insight from those candidates. I hope this helps. Best of Luck!!
Glen Murray, Captain WSFD

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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey Post on August 5, 2010 at 7:27pm

On my oral boards I had:
1) You have 250' of 2.5" hose, 2, 1.75" hand lines flowing 125 GPM operating on the 7th floor using a variable stream and a smooth bore nozzle, what is your engine discharge pressure
2) You realize @ shift change that there is a need for overtime, what do you do?
3)What does NFPA 1500 mean to you? How does it effect your safety?
4) describe your goals for the department if you are promoted
5) What are the NFPA color codes for hydrants, what are the flows for each color and how would it effect your decision making
6) EMS questions

I dont remember the other questions, as always, the what are your weaknesses, what are your strengths. How do you resolve conflict in the firehouse (Shifts eating each others food, coffee dues and so on), worst day on the job/best day on the job and why.

The Chief's for my interview were pretty laid back and didnt set a tense atmosphere, that really helped.

GOOD LUCK, you are stepping into the hardest job, between the Chiefs and the Indians, but I still love it!

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Permalink Reply by 3hb3g32n5xb2a on September 15, 2011 at 9:54am

Hi,

 

I agreed with you. Any way, your points of view make me thinking about some thing for my project.

 

Pls try to keep posting. Tks and best regards

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Permalink Reply by 3hb3g32n5xb2a on September 26, 2011 at 7:48am

Interview questions is important. I have got some my experience about it. I believe that it's wonderful.

 

Apart from that, you also can ref more resources at: Firefighter interview questions and answers

 

Goodluck.

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