Unmasking the Oral Board Question

Unmasking the Oral Board Question

During my career as a firefighter and Fire Captain, I witnessed about everything imaginable in Fire Service. Having been on more than a few Oral Boards, I believe there are about 30 oral board questions – give or take. That said, these questions can and will be disguised as hundreds of other questions. Buckle up. Be ready! Now is the time to prepare for the ride of your life.

Here is the list of the 30+ Oral Board Questions

1. Tell us about yourself.

2. Why do you want to be a firefighter? When did you decide on this career?

3. What is the job of a firefighter? Are you qualified?

4. What have you done to prepare for this position?

5. What are you bringing to the job?

6. Why do you want to work for this city or agency?

7. What do you know about this city or agency?

8. What do you like to do? What are your hobbies?

9. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses?

10. What would your employer say about you?

11. What are the attributes of a firefighter? What is the most important one to you?

12-23. How would you handle the following scenarios?

• • Drinking or drugs on the job
  • Stealing on the job
  • Conflict with another employee
  • An angry citizen
  • An employee crisis at an emergency
  • Sexual harassment
  • Racial discrimination
  • Conflicting orders at an emergency
  • You have orders that could place you in great danger or be morally wrong
  • You don’t know the answer to a question
  • You are on more than one hiring list
  • You have multiple job offers

How far do you want to go in the fire service? Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

25. What are the quality traits of a firefighter? Which one is the most important to you?

26. Have you ever been in an emergency? Tell us what you did?

27. What word would best describe you in a positive way? A negative way?

28. How do you handle conflict?

29. Why would we select you over the other candidates?

30. Do you have anything to add?

First things first. Let’s dig deep and find the core of the question. UNMASKING the question is the only way to NAIL YOUR ORAL. Here is a straightforward way to break down a disguised question. 1. Listen to the question carefully. 2. Dissect the question down to its simplest form to find one or two words that are at the core of the question. 3. Ask yourself what the question is really asking. 4. Once you have removed the disguise, place the question in one of the thirty-plus oral board questions above.

By breaking down or unmasking the question, you can attach it – mentally – to 1 of the thirty oral board questions for which you have prepared answers. Yes – the masked question is a remake of one of the questions above.

NUGGET: Breaking down a question is one of the simplest tools we have to uncomplicate the oral board process.

Keep reading our BLOGS. We will go into detail about some of these questions and how they will “look” and “sound”.  In the meantime – Get ready!

“Nothing….and, we mean nothing…matters until you get that badge.”

Captain Rob