The Fire Captain interview is a very challenging event. Many times candidates are knowledgeable and capable, but fail to verbalize and convey their ideas to the promotional interview panel. Here at My Fire Job we collect Fire Captain Interview questions and develop answers to help candidates prepare in the best possible way for their Fire Captain interview. We have added brand new Fire Captain Interview questions on discipline, leadership, and training to our Fire Officer book. Below are some of the new questions and sample answers.
Describe how our department handles discipline and your role as a Captain.
Discipline is designed to correct behavior and not be punitive. Our department follows a progressive discipline process that progresses from coaching, counseling, verbal reprimands, written reprimands, time off without pay, and ultimately termination. We always want to use the lowest effective level to correct behavior. The level must also be appropriate with the undesirable behavior. As a Captain my job is to administer discipline and work towards performance improvement. Per our SOGs Captains can administer every level of discipline up to giving a person time off. That step must be done by a Deputy Chief or the Fire Chief. My role is to document the entire process and provide support to my superiors as the progressive discipline process reaches those levels. We have to remember that our ultimate goal is not to punish, but to correct behavior and strive for the end result of a high performing employee.
Describe leadership and how you plan to lead as a Captain.
Leadership is a hard topic to describe because it can mean different things to different people. I would define leadership as the ability to accomplish goals through others. It is about motivating and moving employee and an organization toward a common goal. I have worked hard and am already a leader within our department. I have led by example every day of my career in my interaction with coworkers and the public. I have developed our physical fitness program and motivated many of my coworkers to workout and improve their health. As a Captain I will continue to be a leader and I will have a greater opportunity to mold and shape our department. I will continue to lead by example and make decisions that are sound, ethical and effective.
What do you feel is a weak point in your training and the training of our department. How do you plan on correcting that?
Our department is very well rounded. However, there is always room for improvement. One are I believe we could improve on is our post academy training. We run excellent academies for new firefighters. They are held accountable and their progress is tracked daily. Once they graduate the only system we have in place to verify their performance is satisfactory is monthly evaluations. When our new firefighters move to several stations in a month it is difficult for any single officer to judge their abilities. It potentially could allow weaknesses to go unnoticed and uncorrected. I have spoken to our training Chief about this issue in depth. After a few brainstorming sessions we developed a detailed weekly log that supervisors can use to score these employees in multiple areas of firefighting. We will continue to work on this system with the ultimate goal being a better trained and higher functioning group of firefighters
These are a few of the questions from fire captain interviews that we have added to our Fire Officer Interview Ebook. It includes over 80 interview questions used in real fire captain and fire lieutenant interviews along with key talking points and sample answers. It is the best way to prepare for the Fire Captain interview. Our book is now on sale for a limited time at half price !!
