Analysis of a Junior Firefighter Interview: NZ Fire Service

This report details an interview conducted for a junior firefighter position within the New Zealand Fire Service. It outlines the interview's overview, preparation, including ensuring the interviewee's well-being and the careful preparation of questions designed to assess both personality and situational awareness. The interview summary highlights the successful candidate's qualifications, passion for the role, and responses to challenging questions about workplace scenarios and personal qualities. The report reflects on the interview process, discussing the challenges faced by both the interviewer and interviewee, and suggesting improvements for future interviews, such as incorporating ability tests. The report emphasizes the importance of calm demeanor, teamwork, and the candidate's genuine interest in the fire fighting service.

Running head: COMMUNICATIONS AND RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
Sumit Kumar
Student ID: 4310875
Assignment 4

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Table of Contents
Interview Overview:...................................................................................................................2
Interview Preparation:................................................................................................................2
Interviewee’s well-being:.......................................................................................................2
Preparation of questions:........................................................................................................2
Interview Summary:...................................................................................................................4
Reflections:................................................................................................................................5
References:.................................................................................................................................6

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Interview Overview:
The concerned interview was conducted for the post of a ‘junior fire-fighter’ in the
esteemed organisation of New Zealand Fire service. It is the main fire fighting organisation
of New Zealand. They ensure that the country of New Zealand remains safe from the vagaries
of fire calamities and accidents. The interview board of the New Zealand Fire Service had
issued an advertisement for the vacancy of the post of a junior fire fighter (New Zealand Fire
Service, 2018). In response, a final semester student from the Victoria University of
Wellington had applied. His name was Mr Jack Nicolson. Apart from him, two students had
also applied for the job. The interview had taken place in the regional headquarters of the
organisation which is located at Oriental Parade, Wellington, 6149 and the reporting time was
10’o clock in the morning of 8th April, 2018. Mr Nicolson is a native of Wellington and has
been a consistent performer throughout his academic life. He has a genuine passion for
helping others in need.
Interview Preparation:
Interviewee’s well-being:
The interview was conducted in the regional headquarters and it was ensured that the
candidates feel at ease, while performing their interviews. In the interview venue, it was
ensured that there is a cafeteria and proper refreshment facilities available. Restroom
facilities were also provided to the candidates. All these arrangements were directed in order
to ensure the wellbeing of the interviewees (Tracy, 2013). It was the intention of the
interviews as well as the human resource department that the candidates must be at ease both
mentally as well as physically.

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Preparation of questions:
Fire fighting is one of the most challenging jobs in the world. Mental as well as
physical well-being is also necessary to perform the demanding job of a rescuing people from
fire. Thus, it becomes necessary that a good fire fighter must have a proper situational
awareness in order to tackle the problems of fighting with fire(New Zealand disasters
timeline - New Zealand disasters timeline, 2018). With this in mind, the interviewers had
decided on framing questions which would not only help in unfurling the candidate and his
personality but would also help to gauge the fire fighting capabilities in them. The questions
have been classified into two categories such as personality questions about the candidate and
questions about the fire fighting jobs and situational awareness.
The interview started with some personal questions directed to the candidates, which would
consist of their background, education, and their likes and dislikes etc. These questions are
preliminary in nature and would be asked with the sole objective of knowing the candidate
and making them feel at ease before embarking on critical job related questions(Forbes
Welcome, 2018). At this stage, the interviewer’s sole intention is to collaborate the basic
information which had already been provided in the resume with the candidate. Questions
like ‘Tell me something about yourself?’, ‘Tell us something about your passion, your likes
and preferences?’ were asked.
Thereafter, the candidate was asked his primary intention of joining fire fighting, considering
the risks attached to this kind of a job. Initially four to five questions were asked to know
about the candidate’s interest in the fire fighting service. Some of these questions were ‘the
candidate’s inspiration to become a fire fighter’, ‘Some general questions were asked about
fire services operating in New Zealand’, ‘Common causes of fire across towns and forests’
(Fuemana, Puolitaival& Davies, 2013). After getting to know about the candidate’s basic
knowledge about fire accidents, the panel went about asking some critical questions which

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would test the candidate’s situational awareness. ‘What the candidate would do when he
notices fellow engineer’s alcohol consumption in fire office premises?’, ‘what would the
candidate do when the chief assigns him a job which he feels is strongly unsafe? ‘What is the
most important duty which is performed by a fire-fighter? , ‘What is the most important
quality which is possessed by a fire fighter? And questions about the importance of team
work in fire fighting were also asked and along with this the least appealing part of any fire
fighter’s job was also asked.
Interview Summary:
The interview with Mr Jack Nicolson had went really well and he had sufficed all our
criteria’s of becoming an elite fire fighter. When asked about his decision to join fire fighting,
he had said that the events of September 11 had a key impact upon him. He always admired
fire-fighters and first responders who selflessly help people who remain trapped in fire
accidents, so he had made a goal to become one and help people.
Mr Nicolson revealed that he has been a member of his school as well as his college rugby
team and was good in athletics too. He had also successfully participated in a CPR and first
aid certification training program in his high school(Barton, 2015). The candidate had a deep
interest in pursuing his dream as was indicated by his extensive knowledge about smoke
detectors, issues which are being faced by fire fighters today.
When asked about his fellow engineer’s alcohol problem, he said, he would initially talk with
the engineer about this issue, as alcohol is prohibited in office premises, before reporting the
matter to the superiors.
Mr Nicolson showed his rational bent of mind, when he said that when an unsafe task is
assigned to him, he would initially assess the task and discuss it with the chief and if
necessary, he would request more personnel to help him out in the task.

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According to him, the most important duty performed by any fire fighter is saving people
from the clutches of fire (Chung, 2015). Saving people from the fire site is the most important
task which is performed by any fire fighter.
Mr Nicolson was also honest and candid in his confession of admitting the drawback so the
job of fire fighting by stating that one has to live away from his or her family. Moreover,
seeing someone passing away in your hands, even after doing everything, one can possibly do
is one of the worst feelings in this job (Kensing, K. 2014).
Mr Nicolson also went to explain that the most important quality possessed by any fire
fighter is the calm demeanour, which is necessary, while handling such cases of emergency
and accidents. He explained that any commoner would be in a state of panic and chaos when
he/she sees fire, but fire fighting is all about keeping your calm and saving people from the
abyss of fire and that quality is the main expectation from any fire fighter.
Reflections:
Preparation of any interview is always a challenging task for both the interviewer as
well as the interviewee. An interviewer faces the dilemma of selecting the best candidate
subject to his impartial judgement capabilities, on the other hand, the interviewee faces
apprehension about the kind of questions to be asked. Ample time, resources and time were
spent in order to frame the questions and conducting the interview. In this interview, we as
interviewers faced no issue in selecting Mr Nicolson as our Junior Fire fighter, because of his
astounding display of maturity, calmness and genuine passion for fire fighting. The genuine
passion of Mr Nicolson of becoming a fire fighter had a deep impact upon me as an
interviewer. It compelled me to think how a single news coverage of September 11, would
compel a student on becoming a fire fighter. The major difficulty which was faced by us as
interviewers, was the difficulty of asking questions to the candidate, as he seemed to have an

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impressive answer for every question. Some extra rounds of interview along with a written
ability test of the candidates about fire safety concepts could be used in the next interviews. It
is because of all these reasons, the interview board decided on hiring Mr Nicolson.

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References:
An, S. J., Chung, Y. K., Kim, B. H., Kwak, K. M., Son, J. S., Koo, J. W., ... & Kwon, Y. J.
(2015). The effect of organisational system on self-rated depression in a panel of male
municipal firefighters. Annals of occupational and environmental medicine, 27(1), 1.
Barton, M. A., Sutcliffe, K. M., Vogus, T. J., & DeWitt, T. (2015). Performing under
uncertainty: Contextualized engagement in wildlandfirefighting. Journal of
Contingencies and Crisis Management, 23(2), 74-83.
Durkit, K. (2013). Burned: an Analysis of the Shifts in the Firefighting Profession 1970-
Present and the Resulting Impa.
Forbes Welcome. (2018). Forbes.com. Retrieved 24 April 2018, from
https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/
erikaandersen/2014/06/03/please-dont-do-these-9-things-in-an-interview/
&refURL=https://www.google.com/&referrer=https://www.google.com/
Fuemana, J., Puolitaival, T., & Davies, K. (2013). Last Planner System–a step towards
improving the productivity of New Zealand construction.
Kensing, K. (2014). The most stressful jobs of 2014. Career Cast.
Kruger, T. (2013). Firefighting the ‘paradox of place’.
New Zealand disasters timeline - New Zealand disasters timeline | NZHistory, New Zealand
history online. (2018). Nzhistory.govt.nz. Retrieved 24 April 2018, from
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/new-zealand-disasters/timeline
Tracy, S. J. (2013). Qualitative research methods. UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

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Work for us. (2018). Fireandemergency.nz. Retrieved 24 April 2018, from
https://fireandemergency.nz/work-for-us/