I’m not a big believer in mock orals. Yea, I know you or someone you know have friends and some are firefighters and they have offered you mock orals. Or, your fire academy, college program or a paramedic college offers you the chance for a mock oral complete with a video tape. Candidates in these programs practice with oral board flash cards. Play the game of your show me yours and I will show you mine answers. This only cements most if not all the candidates into “Clones” of everyone else. We could usually tell by the 2nd or 3rd question which program they came from. And, you thought you were unique?
They have firefighter friends that have given them mock orals. Their friends can't bring them selves to tell them how bad they are. You know other candidates who have all the answers. If they had all the answers, they would already have the badge in a city that paid well.
Have you noticed everyone becomes an expert on oral boards once they get hired?
I know you don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but if you’re offered a mock oral ask yourself, how many oral boards have these guys been on? Have they been on their departments oral boards; ever? Any oral boards outside their department? How long since their last oral board? I know an instructor who taught the oral board skills at a community college and his department until recently had never given an oral board and to my knowledge he had never sat on one. Go figure.
You can certainly gain exposure and experience of the oral board setting with mock orals. But be cautious on what information is given. Can these friends tell you how bad you really are? Could you tell your friends? Probably not. Add to the experience that you might not be getting the correct information you came for. This is what happened recently:
Well it finally happened, after all these years of hearing things firefighter candidates have said in interviews, that some expert has told them was the right thing to do, I hear it first hand. I was sitting in the office of the fire station were I was working. The engineer’s son had a friend testing for our department and he wanted him to talk to our firefighter, the newest guy on.
I’m sitting there doing my work, and from the other room I hear him recommend this guy tell the board that he wants to be a firefighter because the pay is good and there are lots of days off. Now I’m waiting for them to laugh, and tell him they’re kidding. It doesn’t happen. The engineer has been on for 26 years, and hasn’t had an interview for 19 years. The new guy was a lateral medic, and didn’t have much of an entry interview. So I can see how this poor guy can be thinking, he’s in a fire station for the dept he’s testing for, and he’s got a guy with many years on, and a guy who was the last one hired. He must be getting the straight scoop. He was getting the exact opposite. He had signed up for the “How To Fail An Oral Board" class, and he didn’t know it. For more on this click here: http://www.eatstress.com/ears.htm
"Captain Bob"
Ask "Captain Bob" Any Question
Fire "Captain Bob" Smith has coached countless entry level and promotional candidates to get their badge. He is a retired 28-year Hayward, Ca. Captain, speaker/author of the audio/video program "Conquer the Job Interview," the books "Eat Stress For Breakfast" ISBN 09657620-3-3, "Fire Up Your Communication Skills" ISBN 09657620-6-8 and a member of the prestigious National Speakers Association. You can book him as a speaker or get a copy of his books and tapes by calling toll free at 888-238-3959.
E-mail: captbob@verio.com Web site: www.eatstress.com