Preparation Questions Before Coaching
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If you’re considering a coaching session, you will need to prepare for the following seven questions. We will cover more in the coaching session. Here are the first seven:
1. Tell us a little about yourself
2. Why do you want to be a firefighter?
3. What have you done to prepare for the job of a firefighter?
4. Why do you want to work for this city or agency?
5. What is customer service, and how does it affect us in the fire service?
6. What is ethnic diversity, and how does it affect us in the fire service?
7. A closing statement?
The first question is just an icebreaker, and it should be short and simple with no job experience or education, as the raters don’t have the ability to give you a score on their ratings sheet. You will be able to tell if they are starting off with an icebreaker or not.
The “what got you interested” and closing are based on emotions. There is no right or wrong answer. The closing should include any info you didn’t get out in the body of the presentation. The closing itself is the last impression you will make on the board. The taste you leave in their mouths after leaving the room. The ringing of your voice in their ears after you’ve gone. So you want it to be a good one.
The preparation question is just a laundry list and you should, without leaving anything out, make it as simple and concise as possible.
Why do you want to work here is the same as tell us about the department.
You don’t need to over memorize or polish the questions, just get them to the point you can present them without reading from a piece of paper. Chances are, we are going to change your responses and I don’t want you to have to do a lot to unlearn or be married to them.
We either do the session by phone or if you live close enough in person. I record the session in MP3 form and then email to you, DVD video in person, and we run through a standard oral interview. Whether we do the session over the phone or in person, I have you wear your suit. You present yourself differently in a suit than you would in sweats.