Glenn recently purchased The Fire Officer Interview Guide as preparation for his Fire Lieutenant Oral interview.  He emailed us after his interview with some helpful information. Here is what Glenn wrote:

Jason, Thanks for your help with the new download link for my work computer. I went over your questions for two weeks every night. My interview panel consisted of the Fire Chief, two Assistant Chiefs, and two Battalion Chiefs. They asked me 11 questions. I wrote them all down when I got outside to my car. As I looked back, 9 of them were almost verbatim from your guide. One question was very specific for our department, however the last question was pretty general and something you may want to add to your guide. Here is it, and thanks for all your help.

If you are not promoted to Lieutenant/Captain, how will you continue to support your chief and command staff?  What actions will you take in the next 12 months and beyond?

-Glenn

Thanks for the new question Glenn, we have already added it to our Fire Officer Interview Guide. This is a hard question, not because of the substance, but because it opens the door for a candidate to trip themselves up, or say the wrong thing. I personally would answer the question like this:

“Getting promoted to the position of Fire Lieutenant has been a goal of mine for a long time. As you can see from my resume I have worked extremely hard over the last few years attending training seminars and going to lectures in order to prepare myself for this position. If I am not promoted I will be disappointed, however nothing will change. I will continue seeing out every training opportunity I can find, and working hard to achieve this goal. ”

We like this answer because it shows that you (1) really want the position, (2) have properly prepared yourself for the position, and most importantly (3) will continue to train and prepare for the position. Do not say anything negative about another candidate, or even hint that you will pout if not promoted.

Thanks again Glenn, and you can find this fire lieutenant interview question in our Fire Officer Interview guide.