FireZineOct03

Since 100% of your score in obtaining a firefighter badge is in the oral board, what are you missing that's keeping you from gaining that badge?

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No one ever lost credibility by
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Nothing counts til you have the badge . . . Absolutely Nothing!

Please forward or recommend this FireZine to anyone you
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In This Issue
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1. Quick Presentation Skills Tip

2. Entry Level Skills Tip

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1. Quick Presentation Skills Tip
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I’ve talked to several entry-level and promotional candidates recently who have been to or going to interviews. Even before I asked, it was perfectly clear that they weren’t practicing with a tape recorder. There voices were monotone, with no inflection or enthusiasm. It was like they were given a patient assessment. Even though we pound the importance of practicing with a tape recorder in our CD, DVD, books and articles too many candidates fail to grasp how critical it is to hear what the panel is going to hear out of their mouth. It’s the closest thing between you and that badge.

One candidate told me he was waiting to start practicing with a tape recorded after he had his script set up. Friends a tape recorder is mandatory in getting your script together. So, this same candidate went to an oral and answered the question, “What is not desirable about working for this department” with, “The commute (he only lives 22 miles away) and there are some bad neighborhoods in the city.” I asked him if he had heard that answer on a practice session from his tape recorder would he use it? He said No! That’s the point!

Another candidate without practicing with a recorder answered the what is a weakness for you in his oral, with “Single minded.” Oh, yea, we want to hire the single-minded guide only wanting to do it his way.

I attend a gym with a lot of police officers. One of the personal trainers wants to be a cop. He approached me after the officers told him about our program. I just saw him again for the first time in 2 months. With a big smile and a strong handshake, he said he got our program and is #2 on a big city PD list. He said it was the tape recorder that made the difference. He said now the panels are really interested in the real story (not a clone) of why he wants to be a police officer. I asked him where he would be now if he had obtained our program a year ago. He said I would be a cop now.

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Check out http://www.eatstress.com/newpage2.htm and learn how entry level and promotional candidates are improving their interview scores up to 15 points and nailing that badge!

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2. Entry Level Skills Tip ===========================================

I am getting ready for the oral boards. I have been told that the oral board will probably ask me about a hardship that I have over come. I quit drinking 6 years ago, haven't had a sip since. I felt that I was not going anywhere and that my partying was affecting this. I was unable to stay at a job very long and was doing a lot of partying. Since I stopped drinking I have had 2 jobs, the first for 2 years and the current one for 4 years. Do you think that this would be a good answer for overcoming a hardship? It shows that I was one kind of person, that I was able to identify and area that needed to be changed and changed it and how I have lived my life since. Anthony

Hello, My question is this, "Would letting the oral board know that smoking was a weakness (for 5 years)that I did smoke and then quit cold turkey to pursue a career in the fire service?" A good thing or bad thing? Would they see smoking as a health risk for me in the future, or possibly a weakness.
Thank you for the honesty up front.

Reply: I wouldn't use it! It might lead them to think you had an addictive personality.

Keep it simple. Are you a good speller, cook, take on more than you could handle at times? Then how have you handled that weakness?

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Bottom line getting a badge is all presentation skills!

If you really want a firefighter job you will want to have every tool
available to shorten the learning curve between you and that badge! Our
new Gold Package gives you every skill and tool you will need! It
includes:

The Oral Board Entry Level CD/Video Program that has helped over 2,100
candidates nail that badge! And, Captain Bob's new book! Becoming a
Firefighter----The Complete Guide to Your Badge!

Step by step, this has everything you need to know in the process,
starting with the application, written, physical, oral, psych interview,
background, polygraph, and medical to gain a badge. The Gold Package
contains the inside "Nuggets", tips and resources you can't get anywhere
else to shorten the learning curve and the distance between you and that
badge. As a bonus, the book includes our Special Psych Report (a $20.00
value).

I just tutored a fireman's son for some suburb entry-level tests in the Cleveland area. He has finished in the top three on the last four tests he has taken. I gave him your DVD and kept on him about making sure he watches it. His words to me when I talked to him on Tuesday "it is gold, absolutely gold" That says it all. Good luck on your new Gold Package. Brent

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3. Robs Corner ==========================================

TRY SITTING IN MY SHOES

I have found that sometimes we all get tunnel vision. We can't see the
big picture. A good example is the discussion of what should I do with
the chair during my interview. I've known people who spent as much time

One great technique is to sit on the other side of the table. Do some
mock interviews with other people testing and you are the rater. You can
use some of the questions from the www.EatStress.com web site, or make

Pay attention not only to what they say, but how they say it. Look at
their body language. Hear how inflection and enthusiasm change a raters
impression of a candidate. You could probably learn as much from people
messing up, as if they do a good job.

I am not the biggest fan of going before the people you're competing with
and giving them your "A" list stuff. But you will sure start to see some
stuff others are doing, both right and wrong, that you see in yourself.

Captain Rob is Captain Bob's Son. He does all the entry level coaching by phone nationwide. You can contact him direct with your questions or set up a coaching appointment at 707-869-1330. or e-mail Rob at nrtc@sonic.net

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4. Promotional Level Skills Tip ==========================================

In trying to resolve a problem in an assessment center peer counseling session, consider this three-part answer:

1. There is probably a regulation covering this situation.

2. Why was this regulation established? Safety, discipline etc.

3. You would tell the offender the regulation concerning
this matter. It was established for safety (or another reason0 and that's why you are going to enforce it.

There are consequences if the offender continues and does not
comply. They, not you, would activate the consequence (just the same as
children) and create the discipline by not complying.

Captain Bob,

I just got a conditional job offer from the city of
Portland's Fire Bureau in Portland Oregon!!! I used
your system and it worked!! I first saw your video in
Alaska While I was working at the University Fire
Department and was so impressed with it I purchased a
copy of my own as my testing dates were approaching.
The video was an excellent motivator for those "slow
waiting" times between tests and the nuggets that i
was able to form from my own life experiences were
awesome. As I was approaching the first oral board
interview and doing station visits and ride alongs I
would practice my interview answers to anyone who
would listen. (girlfriend, family, practice oral
boards, ect) I would even practice my answers while
driving down the road in my truck. My interview went
well, I took the physical the next day and later in
the afternoon while I was driving around in my AMR
ambulance I got the call offering me the career of a
lifetime! I really feel as if I have won the lottery
and only after a year and a half of testing. Thanks
Captain Bob for your tape. It was definitely Key in
getting the career of my dreams!!

I just wanted to thank everyone over the last couple of months for all the great advise given. I got the CALL a few days ago and will start my academy late Oct. with 7 other people. As many of you know this is truly a dream come true. I have been testing for around 9 years, each time I got a little further. I did use Capt. Bob's program and I feel it pushed me over the edge......to the badge. 1300 people started the testing early this year and 8 of us are in the first class. Thank you all for support given.

Hi Captain Bob, thanks for all your wonderful help in helping others obtain the badge. You can tally up another badge from your program. I have and love every minute of it. I used your Entry Level Program to be successful in my interview and the process itself. I will be looking toward your guidance again when the department my family works for tests in the near future. Thanks again for all your good work. Jeff

I was working for CDF and testing without success everywhere I could. Everything became clearer when I got your program. Three months later I nailed my badge with ALCO. Tom

You and Rob helped me get my first badge a few months ago. Now I’m testing for my home department. Gary

Capt Bob.... to all of you who are trying to get into the fire service try Capt. Bob's system...I wasn't sure of it at first, and I figured how hard can the interview really be. Well after wasting my time and the interviewers time I finally got the system, and 2 interviews later got my job. SO try it...well worth it. Good luck. all I can say now is thanks a lot. I got my badge after using your techniques in my interviews. I was so close on a lot of interviews but just couldn't get over the hump, but I got the call in early July. So I am enjoying my new department in the bay area. Great guys, great dept, and great pay...well worth the investment.... thanks again Capt. bob.
J-FF/PM

Captain Bob,

I had to write to thank you for making your program available. Over a year
ago I ordered your promotion program to see if it could help me fine tune my
assessment skills. The department that I work at was months away from having
one of three Battalion Chiefs retire. At the time I had been in the fire
service 14 years and had successfully passed the assessments for promotions
to my then current level of Captain. I had been working to graduate from
college with a fire science degree in order to meet the education
qualifications for the position. I already meet the requirements of time in
grade as a Captain. The other candidates that I would have to go against for
the position had 19, 25, and 27 years on the job and had extensive
experience as acting Battalion Chiefs.

I followed what you said by buying a tape recorder and practicing my part. I
knew that I had to set the mark after drawing numbers and being selected to
go first in front of the interviewing panel. I walked in totally prepared
for anything that I could imagine that could come up. I even had a bucket
full of "nuggets". I handed out notebooks to each panel member that I had
prepared in order to show them the different things that I had done as a
supervisor that made me ready to take on the roll of Battalion Chief. I
walked in with facts and figures ("nuggets") not dreams and ideas. You were
right, they all stopped and watched as I performed. It was hard to keep from
cracking up. I left knowing that those that followed me were in trouble.

To make this story short, I came in NUMBER ONE. Your program gave me the
edge that I needed. THANKS and keep up the excellent work.

Battalion Chief David Eddins
Albany Fire Department
Albany, Georgia

PS: If anybody passes up on buying your program they are CRAZY!!!

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Check out the current "Bonus Nugget" oral board tip http://www.eatstress.com/bonusnugget.htm
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who get our CD/Video Entry Level or Promotional Program, use the work booklet, practice with the all-important TAPE RECORDER, and come back for a private coaching session, catapult themselves into the Olympic

One on one coaching sessions are where you get dialed into making your best presentation. It can make the difference between being down on a list and being in the top 10 going for the chief's oral. Candidates armed with this information are the one's who are smoking past you in the oral, grab the badge and leave you as the bride's maid again. We know because we get the calls when they get their badge! You can contact my Son Rob direct to set up a coaching session @ 707-869-1330. Robs e-mail is nrct@sonic.net

You start by ordering our Entry Level Audio/Video or Promotional Program from the products section of our web site below or by calling our distributor Rayve @ 800-852-4890. This program will keep you motivated! Consider also getting our new book "Eat Stress For Breakfast" to help you along your journey.

"Nothing counts 'til you have the badge . . . Nothing! And, there is no feeling like proudly wearing the badge."

ANALOGIES & METAPHORS FOUND IN HIGH SCHOOL ESSAYS

--He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy
who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those
boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at
high schools about dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of
those boxes with a pinhole.
--Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center.
--Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
--He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.
--Hailstones leaped off the pavement, just like maggots fried in hot
grease.
--Long separated by cruel fate, the lovers raced toward each other across
the grassy field like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at
6:36 p.m. at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35
mph.
--A politician was gone, unnoticed, like the dot after Dr. on a Dr Pepper
can.
--The thunder was ominous sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of
metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.
--The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red Crayola crayon.
--He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she the East
River.
--Even in his last years, Grandpappy had a mind like a steel trap, only
one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
--The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this
plan just might work.
--The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating.
--He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but a
real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or
something.
--Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell
butter from I Can't Believe It's Not Butter.
--She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just
before it throws up.
--It came down the stairs looking like something no one had ever seen
before.
--The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg
behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
--The revelation that his marriage of 30 yrs had disintegrated because of
his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly
Free ATM.
--The dandelion swayed in the gentle breeze like an oscillating electric
fan set on medium.
--It was an American tradition, like fathers playfully chasing kids around
with power tools.
--She was as easy as the "TV Guide" crossword.
--She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was
room-temperature Canadian beef.
--She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.

Perfect Firefighter Candidate. Job listing and a complete resource web site with a community bulletin board.

Don McNea Fire School, Inc. is the #1 Firefighter Preparatory Entrance School in the Country. They have the inside information how to tackle those psychological and personality questions on the written.

Learn how entry level and promotional candidates are improving their interview scores up to 15 points and nailing that badge!

B-Pad Assessment Devices. If you're an agency looking for a new dimension to evaluate candidates, or a candidate wanting information on how you can orientate your skills for this evaluation check out their web site:

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Nothing counts til you have the badge . . . Absolutely Nothing!

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