Becoming A Firefighter
or Officer-----The Complete Guide to Your Badge!
Fire "Captain Bob"
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Becoming A Firefighter
or Officer-----The Complete Guide to Your Badge! Fire "Captain Bob"
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Get an Immediate Edge and Bonus when you sign up for our Free Newsletter here FREE 101 Inside Secrets How to Get A Badge Store/Shop Got A Question? Call or e-mail us here LA City Fire Now Testing Monthly Here! Los Angeles County Fire Testing FREE 101 Inside Secrets How to Get A Badge There is a wealth of information in past issues of our newsletter here FREE 10 day test drive of inside secrets. Learn more here Five Nuggets for successful Oral boards 30 sample oral board questions Check out how candidates have improved their position in gaining a badge. What changed? Rob’s corner: Wisdom and insight Links to other firefighter web sites Coyright 1998 - 2008
"Getting the job of your dreams is like winning the lottery!"
"Nothing counts 'til you have the badge. Nothing!"
Anything less and you're still the bridesmaid.
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Firefighters February 1, 2006 Leave FireZine easily here: Flowers always leave a fragrance in the hand that bestows them. -Chinese proverb
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For Back Issues of FireZine
http://www.eatstress.com/firezinearchive.htm I’m constantly baffled? Too many candidates after several attempts and not getting a job offer think and feel that just around the corner on the next interview they have what it will take to be selected to go forward in the hiring process. They’re just a few points out of the running. The problem is they don’t know how to make up those few points. We often hear from candidates who say they have hit a wall on their oral boards and don’t know what to do next. Captain Rob says, “For many where that wall is can vary. Some have carpeted walls and it’s not as shocking when they hit it or bounce off in disbelief not realizing yet what is happening.” Want more proof? We recorded two live firefighter candidate oral board seminars titled “It’s Your Turn in the Hot Seat”. The candidates volunteered to sit in the "hot seat" not knowing in advance what the next oral board question would be. You won't believe what these I thought I was ready, candidates said! You can hear segments from those seminars here http://eatstress.com/hot_seat.htm Still baffling are the postings on firefighter candidate bulletin boards. Someone will post a question on oral boards. Followed by some constructive ideas to help put the pieces together. This type of posting will get a couple hundred views. Then someone will make a posting about a certain department testing or results. This posting will generate literally thousands of views. My friend Bret Collins from Don McNea Fire School concentrates on the written portion of the testing process. You can take a sample written test with answers here: http://www.eatstress.com/donmcnea.htm When he makes a post on sample written tests or does a seminar thousands respond. Why the difference? Well, candidates know they need to have the skills and formulas to pass the written to move on to the next step in the hiring process. As my son Rob says, “They don’t have the same feelings about the oral board. They have somehow convinced themselves between the four inches between their ears they are unique, have what it takes and will somehow be selected over the other candidates who have learned how to take a firefighter interview and will be ready on game day. The point we continually try to drive home is most if not all of the testing process for the written and CPAT agility for most departments is pass/fail. One hundred percent of your score to be hired will be in the interview. This somehow gets lost in the process. This is how this plays out: Dear Captain Bob, Thanks for making a believer out of me! The first time I read your packet half-heartedly and thought I was cheated out of my money. After a flopped first interview I read your gold package material again and took every word to heart. I bought a portable recorder and practiced my answers to my "script". The traffic up the 405 to the 10 made the perfect time for me to rehearse my personal experiences to my dream job. After that I started nailing my interviews. I got a 100 on my LA city interview to start things off right. I then got 95% or better on every interview after that which lead to chiefs interviews. After months of rejection it finally happened. I got 3 JOBS AT ONCE! That's right 3. Talk about famine to feast. Here I worked so hard to get one job. Now I had to reject 2 great departments. I had all the cards stacked in my favor. I believe my success in getting the job of a lifetime is attributed to your "Nuggets of Knowledge". Thanks Captain Bob! You made a believer out of me. Sincerely, Brian Barney
========================================== From Brett We
were watching the season premier of American Idol at the station and I started
to notice a lot of similarities between the show's future Idols and Firefighter
candidates. From Captain Rob Not only do the performers need
to be prepared, they need to sing the right song for them, “their song”. You
need to not only prepare yourself; you need to prepare your script. You can’t go
into an interview and use someone else’s stuff. That is why you should be leery
of anyone that tells you that they have the answers and will give it to
you. There are people who can help you come up with “Your Song”, but you cannot
have someone give it to you. Reply Captain Bob Like
Idol, too many candidates have convinced them selves with star dust by the four
inches between their ears that they have what it takes to make the cut over all
the other contestants. I just wanted to let you know that on Jan 30th I start the LAFD fire academy. Thanks to the information on your site and checking out the material you offer I definitely increased my ability at the interview stage. After 4 LONG seasons in CDF (which was awesome) and about a year and a half on a couple ambulances I finally have a dream job. Thank you for taking the time to email me, I truly appreciate it. Once again, even the free info
you post is very helpful, I recommend it to anybody that needs help.
Dave http://www.eatstress.com/testdriveintro.htm Bottom line getting a badge is
all presentation skills! Capt. Rob, Thanks for your help!!!! You were absolutely right. Following a coaching session with you, you had said that I would get a job offer from my next interview. Well I did and now I am in backgrounds. Thanks again!!!!! Jason Strother Get on Your Game An
Olympic sprinter will start the intense part of their preparation 15 weeks
before the event. They don’t consider there to be much difference between the
shorter races all the way up to the 400 meters. They train the same for
all. Basically they will run sprints at top speed in 20-30 meter bursts, five
or six times in a row with very little rest in between. They then will run some
prancing, exploding out of the blocks, and using their arms more than
usual. They do all this in the effort to trim 1/100th of a second from their
time. I
got a call on Sunday, at 2100hrs, from a guy who wanted help preparing for an
interview. I asked him when his interview was and he said tomorrow, Monday, at
0900. Now I am sure that he had done some preparation, but obviously he didn’t
feel ready. The night before your interview you are as good as you are going to
get. I told him the best thing he could do was get a good nights sleep. Get
a coach and head for the track. He is going to kick your butt on that first
day, but a month or two latter you will be trying to shave those hundredths of
points from you time. Imagine how good it will feel the day before your
interview to see a person taking the same test come onto the track in a too
small sweat suit and try to get into shape in one day.
CAPTAIN ROB (Thank you) When you change the dimension of the interview by shifting gears and adding graphics or a different approach the other candidates don’t think to use, you stand out! If there is a white board in the room at any segment of your assessment center that would help you explain your answers, first ask the panel if you can use the board, then get on your feet, go up to the board and illustrate your points. If you know which room the segments are going to be in check to make sure there are marker pens at the board. If not place a set of pens at the board before the day of your interview or bring some with you. On Tim’s interview they asked him a question on how training was going to play a part if he was promoted. Training was his strong point. He asked to use the board to illustrate his points. He was able to set his plan out on the board. He was in his element. It worked. The training chief was on his panel. He got a big smile on his face. First time out, with 500 candidates for LA City, fighting seniority credits, he blew the doors off his interview and placed number 6 on the list. He was one of the first 20 badges thirty days later. Nice job Tim in securing another badge. From new Lt. Jonathan K. Peacock: The written test came and went. It was tough and I placed second with a 72%. I was behind the leader by ten points. I knew that I had to really blow the socks off of the interview board to gain the lead. I spent every day listening to your Promotional Program http://www.eatstress.com/promo.htm and evaluating my answers to possible questions. I used the tape recorder to sharpen my skills. You are right about the recorder. You definitely need to hear yourself speak. The day came for the oral. I would be the last one interviewed for the LT’s. position. Four Chiefs from different departments would interview me. I walked in fired up and confident in my ability’s. I was asked 3 administrative questions and 3 fire ground questions. I answered the questions and elaborated on them depending on the question. On one of the fire ground questions that dealt with a lumberyard fire. I asked if I could get up and use the dry erase board that was behind me. They looked shocked and said yes. I drew out the fire ground and apparatus and then went into my attack and also my plan of action if my attack was not successful. I could tell I was doing well. I thanked them for taking the time to help our department and departed the board. The Chiefs interview was the last step. I passed the leader and became number #1. I took a gamble and gave the Chief a resume of my leadership positions held in all of my working career and military experience. It paid off. At the end of the interview my Chief told me that I was the only one to turn in a resume and that the interview board told him that if I would have interviewed first the other scores would not have been so high and that I was the only one to use the board, even out of the people testing for the Capt. Slot. THANK YOU CAPT. BOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LT. Jonathan K. Peacock, Weatherford TX, Fire Department Another Promotional badge: Got the badge! 1/17/06 they promoted me to Lieutenant. Thanks to you Capt. Bob you put me in the game. I wasn't the best but I got what counted. Your system teaches what you need to do to get the badge. Now that I have one I just tell people to go to Capt. Bob he has the program. We even recommended a police officer to use you. Thanks again, Chip MacLaren, Colorado Springs Fire Department This warms my heart: Captain Bob I just wanted to drop you a letter to thank you for everything you have done for my career. Your help started back in 1999 after I had been through about twelve to fifteen interviews without ever getting a chiefs interview. A friend of mine told me about your video on how to pass the oral boards. I purchased it and watched it at least a half dozen times. The next oral board I had was with the City Of Woodland. Not only did I get to the Chiefs interview, but I came out #1 on the list of over 500 candidates. At that point I was offer the one position they had open. I immediately accepted and called you the next day. I was very nervous about the psyche test. Not because I had anything to hide, but I had heard and read so much about people not passing the test for really stupid reasons. You gave me some great advice and I ordered some information from you about how to pass the psyche. On January 18, 2000 I was sworn in to the City of Woodland as a probationary firefighter. Now this is where it gets good. Over the next few years I kept an eye on your web site and always followed your advice. On November 1, 2004 I was promoted to the position of full-time Engineer. Once again I studied your tape on how to interview. Five months later they had a test for three Captains positions. I thought I should take it for the experience of seeing a Captains test and of course for the small hope that I got chosen for one of the positions over a lot of guys with more time and experience. So once again I visited your web site and ordered your promotional program. On July 23, 2005 at Thirty years old I was the youngest person in over twenty-five years to be promoted to Captain for the City of Woodland. So I just wanted to say thank you for everything you have done for me and my career. I could not have done it without you. A few months after I made captain my Chief pulled me aside. He told me that out of all the Captain interviews that he has done over his years as a Chief there had been only one person that had interview better than me. I took that as a huge compliment and I think you deserve some of the credit for that. Thanks again for everything you have done for me and Happy New Years! Captain Gregory Russell Woodland Fire Department For more on our promotional
program visit I just wanted to let you know that on Jan 30th I start the LAFD fire academy. Thanks to the information on your site and checking out the material you offer I definitely increased my ability at the interview stage. After 4 LONG seasons in CDF (which was awesome) and about a year and a half on a couple ambulances I finally have a dream job. Thank you for taking the time to email me, I truly appreciate it. Once again, even the free info you post is very helpful, I recommend it to anybody that needs help. Andre Dear Captain Rob/Captain Bob, I have been waiting several years to be able to send this picture to you (you can see the graduation picture here http://www.eatstress.com/brianbadge.htm ). This is a picture of me getting pinned on December 17, 2005 after almost seven years of testing. I had tried to make it on my own and 'figure it out' for myself for a few years and realized I needed to do better if I was ever going to get any hired. A late night internet search for 'fire department oral board', and I found myself at www.eatstress.com I ordered the cassette tapes and videotape program (I'm dating myself here, aren't I?) , wrote my script, and practiced with a tape recorder and video recorder. I had private coaching with Captain Rob and when I hung up, I felt about two inches tall. Every bit of my script was torn apart piece by piece, and I felt once again like I had no idea what the heck I was doing at all. As a matter of fact, on your website, the topics in Rob's Corner "No Preambles" and "You sure don't want to have this happen in your interview" probably came directly from my coaching. I was embarrassed by my coaching, but I took every word Rob said, applied it to my new script, and started my script again from scratch. I wasn't one of your candidates who went from horrible to incredible in two weeks, in fact it still took me another couple of years to have my 'perfect day' in the oral board. As you can see by the smile on my face, it was worth every minute of work I spent... and you're right, nothing matters 'til you get the badge. Thank you for your help. If you're still helping people in a few years when I test for Captain (that will be a LONG while!) you'll be hearing from me again. Thank you again for your help. you can see Brian’s badge ceremony picture here http://www.eatstress.com/brianbadge.htm Brian Cooper Chandler, Arizona Hey Capt. I wanted to write and tell you that your tapes and the info on your website helped me obtain a conditional offer of employment. I joined the fire service almost nine years ago and have been pursuing a career badge ever since. II used to do so, so on interviews and then I heard of your program. The first list I made I scored 45th. Not great but I hadn’t bought you tape set yet. The next few were a little better but not much… so I ordered the tape set and started listening. I moved to North Carolina for a year with my fiancée so she could attend massage therapy school. One month before her school ended we learned that we had a baby on the way so we decided it would be best to move back to Indiana. Upon this news I contacted the two fire depts. I had been working part time for before we left and found out what I had to do to get back on, by January (of last year) I was back at both of them and preparing for our new addition in February. Well I had just missed a career hiring at one of them and the other was preparing a process. The fire dept I had missed the process for wound up exhausting the list they had and had to do another process. I applied to both I ranked 64th on the one list (I was a little rusty at my interview) and I ranked 3rd on the other list. The first two guys got hired and it was a waiting game for my spot as one guy was about to leave. This past Tuesday the spot created by this individual was finally filled and so started the chain of events that lead me to finally getting to write you this letter. My PERF physical is a week from yesterday. I will keep you updated of my status and let you know when I officially start. If anyone reading this thinks that Capt. Bob’s materials won’t help you or that you don’t need them to get a badge you are wrong. I was the same guy you are and I listened to someone else and tried something different. Interviews are 20% head knowledge and 80% behavior. Thanks again for your help in the pursuit of my career badge. Chad Witham Sir, Today I had an interview for Wackenhut Inc. that has a contract in Beeville Texas at Chase Field for ARFF. Any ways the interview was one of the strangest things that ive had to do, but I got the job. So id like to take the time to thank you for your book and CD’s. I was not asked the usual questions that are in your book that I have been preparing for. But, having an idea as to what to say and what not came from you. I avoided the clone answers and got the job. Matter of fact the Chief came down to my hotel room only a few doors down from his and asked if I wanted the job 10 mins after the interview. So id like to thank you for the help and the one up on this career. Adam Pogo Hey Captain Bob, I bought your Interview CD and DVD package about 8 months ago. Since I got it, I have interviewed for 3 different departments and yesterday I got the call- My home town Fire Department offered me a full time position. I start on January 23. Thanks so much for this excellent package that I know made me much more prepared for my interview. All the best, Mark LePage Canada More badges here: http://www.eatstress.com/badgesnew.htm
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========================================== New Rule #1: Stop giving me that
pop-up ad for Classmates.com! There's a reason M&Ms, I'll go nuts and eat two. After I zip up, some guy is offering me a towel and a mint.
I can't even tell if he's supposed to be there, or just some freak with a
fetish. I don't want to be on your webcam, dude. I just want to wash my hands.
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