Introduction

Of all of the challenges that employees of the fire service encounter during their career, the ability to be “first-in” to a structure fire and put the “wet stuff on the red stuff” is potentially the most dangerous, but definitely the most exciting. Particularly if the fire was in another district other than yours. However, the most enduring experience members of the fire service will ever encounter is the opportunity to promote to a higher rank and/or additional responsibility for the following reasons:

• You will either succeed or fail in your endeavor. Remember, some memories can last a lifetime. Make them positive and memorable.
• Your success or failure will impact your standard of living for the rest of your career and lifetime. That also includes retirement.
• Promotional opportunities (i.e., interviews) are normally accompanied by periods of high stress levels. Blood pressures of 320/200 can be easily attained and maintained for brief periods.

Therefore, promotional opportunities from a fire service perspective can be defined as “a life and career changing opportunity.” Now, let us add one more ingredient to the aforementioned definition – - YOU. Without a doubt, you are the only person who can significantly control the type of reputation you develop during your career. However, you are the only person who has total control over the amount of time and dedication you devote to achieving your interview goal and the type of presentation you deliver during your interview (crunch time). You and only you determine the success or failure of the preceding factors.

Therefore, the following monthly articles will be based on the following five key thoughts:

• Are you serious, or, do you enjoy taking interviews?
• Interviews can be fun, because your future depends on (only) you!
• Applied elbow grease is the key ingredient in your success!
• Nothing can be substituted for proper preparation!
• First impressions are lasting impressions!

Effective Preparation

If you met someone for the first time, and that person impressed you as being able to express themselves distinctly, clearly and unmistakably, you would probably classify that person as articulate. Similarly, if you took an oral examination for a promotional position and received a score of 98, you would definitely be classified as having the key to effective oral presentation, or else as extremely lucky. For this article however, let us discount the somewhat undependable element of luck and focus our attention on some vital keys that will assist you in preparing and delivering an effective oral presentation for a typical civil service oral promotional examination.

As a point of interest, the definition of effective is “producing a desired effect”. Therefore, the effect you want to produce will be governed by how serious you are about a promotion and the time you are willing to invest in preparing for that promotion. The effect you will produce will be governed by a combination of your natural ability, desire, and degree of preparation. Obviously, natural ability is not easily modified or changed. However, desire and the degree of preparation is easily modified or changed. This is accomplished by the time and proper effort you are willing to devote to preparing for an oral interview. Notice that the phrase proper effort was italicized in the last sentence. The focal point of proper effort is the word proper. A musician will readily admit that practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice make perfect. In the fire service, we are constantly challenged to “train the way we fight.” So, when preparing for your promotional interview, prepare correctly and as if your future depends on it, because it does!

Interestingly, desire, degree of proper preparation, and confidence are directly related. As the degree of preparation increases, your desire to promote yourself will also increase. Additionally and sometimes most importantly, the confidence that you can effectively accomplish that task will also increase. Let us restate the last sentence from a different perspective. Effective oral preparation and presentation takes work, and lots of it! The ability to sell a product is dependent on a total knowledge and belief in and of the product (you), and a thorough knowledge of the customer (the oral board). If you are not sold on your capabilities and level of performance, you will also not convince an oral board you are the candidate they are looking for.

If you are serious about preparing for an oral interview, then passing the interview is not your primary goal. Your sole focus is convincing the oral board you are the top candidate. Period! Your grade will reflect your effectiveness in accomplishing that goal. If you are number 2 on the promotional list and the person ahead of you is the only candidate chosen during the life of the promotional list, then you obviously were not successful in obtaining a promotion. However, you may have been very successful in adding to your cache of life’s experiences. Remember the famous saying, “There is always enough time to do it right the second time.”

Effectively preparing for an oral interview is not accomplished in a short period of time. Some candidates spend months preparing for a written examination, but only a few days, weeks, or months for an interview that may be worth 50 percent of the final score.

If you have been promoted or have some wise words to pass on, send in your comments. In the next article, we will consider a balanced approach to a study program.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 7:41 am and is filed under FD Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.