I’ve compiled a list of 51 firefighter interview questions (with answers). If you’re in the middle of prepping for your interview, you’ve come to the right spot.
Preparing for any interview can be stressful, especially a high stakes one like this.
I’ve broken down each type of question you’ll likely get into 4 categories:
- Who
- What
- Why
- How
Each of these questions has a good answer to it, which I’ve included below the list.
If you’re in the middle or preparing for your interview, I would read through each one and be prepared with an answer that fits your background and experience, but also tells the interviewer what they’re wanting to know.
P.S. – If you need help getting your resume all set for your interview, I can review your resume to make sure you’ve got the best chance at getting the firefighter job you want.
51 Firefighter Interview Questions
Let’s start with a list of questions. Then, we’ll address the different types of questions and how to answer each. Here are 51 firefighter interview questions you can be sure you’ll encounter along with their respective category:
- Tell us about yourself. (who)
- Tell us about your family. (who)
- Tell us about your best friend. (who)
- When did you decide you wanted to be a firefighter? (why)
- Why do you want to be a firefighter? (why)
- What have you done to prepare for this job? (what)
- What have you done to prepare for this interview? (what)
- What is the primary goal of the fire department? (what)
- What aspect of the job appeals to you the most? The least? (who)
- What is the job of a firefighter? (what)
- Do you feel you are qualified to be a firefighter with ______
Fire Department? (what/who/why) - If hired, what would you bring to this job? This department?
(what) - Why do you want to work for _____ Fire Department? (why)
- Tell us what you know about _______
city/department/district. (what) - What do you feel is your biggest strength? (who)
- What do you feel is your biggest weakness? (who)
- What would your previous boss say about you? Something
positive and negative. (who) - What are the most important attributes of a firefighter? (what/why)
- What is the most important trait a firefighter must possess?
(what) - Suppose you found drugs in another firefighter’s locker. How
would you respond? (how) - Suppose you noticed your Lieutenant was intoxicated. How
would you respond? (how) - How would you respond to another firefighter offering you an
illegal substance? (how/who) - How would you handle a conflict with another firefighter? (how)
- How would you respond if you saw another firefighter steal? (how/who)
- How would you handle bullying in the workplace? (how/who)
- How would you handle conflicting orders at a scene? (how/what)
- How would you deal with an irate citizen? (how)
- How would you deal with sexual harassment towards yourself?
Towards another? (how/who) - How would you deal with a coworker making racist remarks or
jokes? (how/who) - How would you deal with an order against your moral
judgment? (how/who) - How would you deal with an order that put you in great
danger? (how/what) - When you don’t know an answer, how do you respond? (who/what)
- Tell us about a time you disagreed with your boss? A co worker?
How did you handle it? (how/who) - If we offer you the job, when could you start? (why)
- Are you on any other hiring lists? (who)
- If we were to offer you the job, would you leave if offered
a job elsewhere? (who) - Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? 20 years?
(who/why) - At the end of your career, what would be an accomplishment
you would be most proud of? (who/why) - What are the character traits of a firefighter? (who/what)
- Have you ever been in an emergency situation? (who/what)
- How do you handle stress? (who)
- How do you handle criticism? (who)
- What are your hobbies? (who/what)
- Why should we select you over the other candidates? (who/why)
- What are the roles of a rookie firefighter? (what)
- What are your questions for us? (why)
- Tell us about yourself in High School? (who)
- What have you done since High School? (who)
- What do you think are the roles of the firefighter within
this city/district? (what) - What do you think the day to day activities/responsibilities
of a firefighter are? (what) - What sort of formal education do you have? (who/what)
- Tell us what life experience you have that can relate to
this job? (who/what)
It’s impossible to know exactly what you will be asked prior to an interview. Even though most interviews have the same general questions and follow the same general format, every department is different and puts different amounts of importance on different information.
On top of that there may be impromptu questions you may be asked that are sparked by something you say.
For example, one question I encountered in one of my interviews that caught me off guard went something like this. “Imagine it’s the end of your career, what would be one achievement you would be proud to have completed?”
Not something you typically prepare for, but it was still a great question!
That being said, even though it’s impossible to prepare for every possible question you can get asked, but what you can do is prepare for different types of questions and have answers prepared.
How the Oral Board Interview Works
Before diving into the questions, it helps to understand the format you are walking into. The firefighter oral board is typically a panel of 3 to 5 interviewers: a fire captain, a battalion chief, a union rep, and sometimes a civilian HR representative. They each score you independently on a 1 to 10 or 1 to 100 scale, and those scores are averaged.
The questions are almost always the same across candidates. The panel works from a structured question sheet and they are evaluating you on consistency, composure, and whether your answers demonstrate the core competencies the department is looking for: adaptability, teamwork, integrity, leadership potential, and situational judgment.
You will typically have 20 to 30 minutes total. Most panels open with a warm up (“Tell me about yourself”), move through behavioral questions (“Tell me about a time when…”), then close with situational or scenario based questions (“What would you do if…”). Understanding this structure helps you pace yourself and anticipate what is coming instead of being caught off guard.
One critical thing: oral board interviews are standardized precisely so that candidates cannot be given an unfair advantage. The panel is not usually allowed to give you hints or ask follow up questions. If you give a short answer and stop, they move on. Complete your answers fully and do not wait for a prompt to keep going.
Who Interview Questions for Firefighters
A question I can almost guarantee you will get at some point during your interview (usually at the beginning) is something like “So, ______, tell us about yourself.”
Pretty obvious what they are asking, but what they really want to know is your background.
Sure, they’ve run a criminal background check to see if you have been arrested and have probably talked to your references, they know the basics.
But, what they really want to know is, in your words, what kind of person you are, what makes you tick, how do you spend your time, what have you achieved, what are you proud of, what outlets do you have for stress, etc.
This is obviously important information for them to know. After all they may be inviting you to be a part of their family. They want to know as much information as they possibly can before they offer you the job.
This is a prime opportunity to tell them your story, your achievements, your beliefs etc. No matter how great your background, experience or resume is it’s important to remain humble.
It’s good to be proud of your accomplishments and experience, but few things are as off putting as an arrogant person.
As long as your answer includes relevant information to the question being asked you should be on the right track.
As with most of the questions you will encounter during your interview, it is important to keep this brief. Try to keep your answers under a couple of minutes max.
How
to answer: Tell us about yourself.
Usually, this is asked at the very beginning of an interview. If that is the case, it is important to take a minute and thank the panel for their time and the opportunity to interview with them.
This will go a long way and shows respect for them, their time and the department.
As for the question, try to keep it brief. As with all the other questions two minutes should be plenty of time to touch on the highlights.
The panel isn’t asking you for your life story, but rather they want to know more about you. As long as your answer is relevant to you it should be fine.
Things you’ll want to focus on are your education, relevant experience for the job and a brief story of what got you from where you were to what brought you in front of the panel.
If you’re a candidate who is relatively young (under 23) talk about what you did in high school.
Any academic accomplishments would be acceptable to talk about, or any kind of outside group or organization that you were a part of.
It would also be good to talk about any sort of related job experience.
These include things like EMS/fire experience are obviously the best but what other skills or experience do you have that could be valuable to firefighting?
A professional firefighter not only operates as a first responder but also has a role as a representative or emissary of the government entity.
Were you on a speech or debate team and are well spoken?
Have you learned or enjoy auto mechanics?
These and other skills are secondary to the position but will be well thought of by the interviewers.
How to
answer: What do you feel is your biggest strength? What do you feel is
your biggest weakness?
These questions trip up a lot of candidates, especially when asking about weaknesses.
The most common sticking point I hear is that they don’t want to come off as arrogant talking about their strengths, and they don’t want to come off as incompetent by talking about a weakness.
We’ll start with the weakness, as this is usually more difficult to articulate.
The first thing you need to understand is that everyone has weaknesses. This includes every person you will ever sit in front of on a hiring panel.
A huge mark of maturity is being willing to admit a weakness in a given area.
That being said, there is no need to feel as though you will ruin your chances of getting hired by admitting to a weakness.
However, I would strongly caution and advise every candidate to be careful on exactly what weakness or personal struggle you choose to reveal to an interview panel.
If you have a major character flaw or serious problem, the interview may not be the best time to talk about that.
Now, I’m not encouraging dishonest or bad people to join the fire service, but I would be cautious about admitting to a very personal struggle.
Conversely, what I tell every candidate I speak to is to choose a weakness or flaw that is relatively generic. One that a lot of people generally struggle with, but nobody can really look down on you for it.
For example, in all of my interviews I discussed my struggle with being able to stay organized.
For various reasons, organization has always been a weakness for me, but in past years I have improved greatly.
The ability to be organized is one of those things that a lot of people struggle with, but it isn’t a big enough weakness to be considered a serious character flaw.
After all, can anyone really admit to being perfectly organized in every aspect of their life
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