Hi everyone.
My name is Richard McMunn from the career guidance company www.How2Become.com.
And in this this video, I'm going to give you seven great tips for successfully passing
the tough firefighter recruitment process.
So these seven tips are based on my experiences when I worked in the Fire Service and I joined
years ago, many years ago.
I joined in 1993 and I have spent 17 years in the job.
It was entirely different then.
The recruitment process for becoming a firefighter was entirely different.
It's changed over recent years and rightly so, in my opinion.
It's a lot tougher now to get in.
You have to demonstrate many different skills and attributes and I'll be talking about those
as I go through these all-important seven tips.
So as I say, all of these tips are based on my experiences.
When I was in the Fire Service, I worked for four years in the training center, the recruitment
department.
I've interviewed people like you to get the job.
I've assessed application forms based on the PQAs, so I'm going to talk about these.
So my advice is to follow these tips from beginning to end, take notes as you watch
the video.
And then, at the end of the video, I'll explain where you can get more advice or more information
from myself and my team to help you become successful.
The first very important tip I want to get to you is once the Fire Service start recruiting,
and it doesn't happen that often nowadays, is to get your application in early.
Now when I joined years and years ago, you could leave it right up until the closing
date before you submitted your application.
A lot of people did that.
They kept checking over it to make sure that their responses were good on the application
form.
Whereas nowadays, a lot of public sector organizations like the Fire Service have a limit to the
number of applications that they will accept.
And this is due to budget restraints.
Obviously they haven't got as many people as they used to to mark all the application
forms, so they have every right to put a cap on the number of applications that they take.
Not every Fire and Rescue Service does this.
However my advice, like I say, is to get your application in as soon as possible.
That doesn't mean to say rush through it, but a great thing you can do is you can prepare
your answers to the perceived application form questions now.
You can do it before the Fire Service start to recruit.
So when they do start to advertise jobs, and again, I'll tell you where you can find out
when your local Fire Service is recruiting soon, you've got your answers already written
out and prepared.
You've got your evidence put down, and then it's just a case of submitting the application
form and getting it early because what you don't wanna do is miss that all-important
closing date for the application forms.
So the first thing, get your application form in early.
Now I'm going to come on to the actual seven tips in detail now.
So tip, the next one is about the PQAs of firefighter personal qualities and attributes.
So these are effectively the blueprint for the role of becoming a firefighter.
So the PQAs, you can get these from the Fire Service recruitment website that you're applying
to join, or you can get them from our website by clicking the link below the video.
Make sure the PQAs are up-to-date, the ones that you get from the Fire Service website.
And then what you need to do is you need to learn them and understand them.
So I've got a copy of one of them here, which is commitment to diversity and integrity.
And I'll talk a little bit about these in more detail as I come on to the next tip,
but these are fundamental to your success.
If you are going to pass the application form, if you're going to pass the interview, the
test, you need to understand the firefighter PQAs.
As I say, they are the blueprint for the role.
Now when I joined the Fire Service many years ago, I probably spent about 80% of my time
in the gym.
One of the crazy tests that I had to go through when I joined was that I to bench press 50
kilograms 20 times within a minute.
And of course, not many people could do that.
So you only got one type of person join the fire service.
It was somebody who was like 16 or 17 stone, who was always down the gym, things have changed.
Rightly so.
You don't need to do that anymore.
Yes, you do need to work on your fitness.
Fitness is very important and you should spend some time in the gym or doing physical activities,
and again, I'll talk about those in a little while, but my advice is to focus more time
and effort on the PQAs, learning them and also providing evidence of where you match
them.
So one of them is about working with others effectively as part of a team.
You should be able to demonstrate where you've already done that in a previous role.
You don't want to go into this, in the application form and the interview sort of saying, "Well,
I can work positive as a team member and if that situation arose, this is what I would
do."
That's no good.
You have to give hard evidence of where you've already done it.
"Yes, I've already worked as part of a team and this is what I did to achieve that team
goal."
So PQAs, get a copy of them.
Start reading them now.
Start understanding them and also be able to provide, which is tip number 2, evidence.
So focus on demonstrating evidence, and that is specific evidence of where you match the
PQAs.
You've got to learn the PQAs, and this is a great tip for you to make sure that you
demonstrate the qualities and attributes when you're going through the firefighter recruitment
process.
You'll see here that I've got one of the PQAs and I've got a highlighter pen.
So go and invest in a few pens, in a highlighter pen, and start working through the PQAs and
highlight the key words and phrases.
And I want you to do that because when you are filling out the application form and you're
at the interview, you should start, in my opinion, using key words and phrases, provided
there are genuine and you believe in them, in your responses.
So one of them, the commitment to diversity and integrity is to treat people fairly and
ethically, so you should get in your responses on the application form and also at the interview.
You know, "I understand it's important to treat people fairly and ethically."
You have to be able to back that up with the reasons why, because if you say that at the
interview, the panel or I would come back to you and say, "Well what do you mean by
that?
What do you mean you by treating people fairly?
When have you done that?"
And then you have to give a specific response to it.
Working down the PQA, I've got here accountability for your own actions.
For example, you take responsibility, so in your responses, you can say, "I did this task
and I understand I needed to do a proper job to a high standard.
It's important for me to take responsibility for my own actions."
Okay?
So then you're making it easier for the person marking you to hit the PQAs, okay?
And you're up against a lot of people, fierce competition, and this is an easy way to do
it.
Another one here with the PQA commitment to diversity and integrity is you challenge unacceptable
behavior, which is inconsistent with Fire and Rescue Service values.
So if they say to you, "Can you give an example of when you've challenged inappropriate behavior,"
and you say, "Well, no, not ever really had to do that," you're not going to pass.
You have to say, "Yes, I have done it in this specific situation," and you can say, "The
reason why I did that is because this falls outside my company's policies and values.
It's inconsistent with the values of the organization that I'm working in."
Okay?
So you proactively challenged unacceptable behavior.
So by studying the PQAs, and hopefully you can see why now I'm stressing so much about
these, how important they are during the firefighter recruitment process, is that this is how you're
gonna be assessed.
Okay?
In my opinion, those people who don't know about the PQAs and don't work through them
have very little chance of succeeding and passing.
So the vast majority of your efforts should be focused on the PQAs and getting evidence.
Some people say to me, "I haven't got any evidence of working in the community."
And I say, "Well, it's tough, you're gonna have to go out and get that evidence."
You know, carry out some voluntary work.
Go and work in the community center.
Do a bit of voluntary work to get that evidence that you need, because it's no good saying...
So the responses on the application forms, "This is what I would do in that situation."
That's not gonna work for you.
Remember, you are up against a lot of people so you have to provide evidence.
So fitness, I mentioned fitness.
And as I say, when I joined, it was level 10 on the bleep test, bench pressing and doing
all this kind of thing, running around a field with a telegraph pole on your shoulder and
things have changed.
Okay?
So fitness is still very important.
Don't get me wrong, my advice is to do a little bit of light gym work, go running, swimming,
you know, cardio work, even do the bleep test.
You can get a copy of the bleep test online, so get yourself a copy of the bleep test and
try and get up to level 10.
Try and get up to level 10.
It's not easy, but yeah, you know, you can go along to somewhere like a P&Q and get a
20-meter tape measure, lay it out on your local field and then download the bleep test
on your phone and start running it and start practicing it and improve your fitness.
But I put here, both physical and mental.
So you know, you need to be calm.
You need to be confident.
You need to be resilient in your approach, and that's really important, both mental and
physical fitness.
Not just physical, being in the gym lifting the heaviest weights possible.
You know, if that's your thing, then fine.
But physical and mental fitness, think about how you're gonna prepare for those because
they could say to you, "What do you do in your spare time" at the interview.
"So yeah, I spend a lot of time down the gym, but I also do other things to relax as well.
I'm also looking to develop myself.
I do a bit of a community work as well," so you're a rounded individual.
So think carefully about how much work you're going to do on your fitness.
Okay, so I've already touched on this, really.
I'm going to cover it again because it's so important.
Tip number 4, on the application form, so you're gonna get it in as soon as possible,
load up your responses with evidence.
Okay?
Evidence of where you match the PQAs, don't forget to get this highlighter pen.
The majority of people don't get through the application form and a lot of that is because
they fail to provide the evidence required.
Do not make the mistake of waiting for the Fire Service to recruit, to open up job openings
for becoming a firefighter.
Get your responses ready now and you can get a copy of our "Firefighter Application Form"
manual below this video by clicking the link and this will give you sample questions and
also responses to work with.
They have to be your responses based on your own experiences and evidence, but I've written
a load of responses, sample ones, that I think are strong, that I would use if I was completing
the form.
Tip number 5, and think about your response to the question, "Why do you want to become
a firefighter?"
And as I said, the role has changed nowadays.
It's entirely different.
It's not just about the reactive side of turning up to fires and rescuing people, attending
road traffic collisions, and you know, rescuing people from cars.
It's not just about that.
And yeah, that's a very important part of the job but education is very important.
Educating the public, going along to schools and colleges and universities and teaching
people about fire safety, how would you feel about, you know, going into someone's home
and carrying out a risk assessment and fit in a smoke alarm for them, all those things
are really important.
So when you're responding to the interview question or the application form question,
wherever it comes up, "Why do you want to be a firefighter," think about the proactive
role.
Yes, you know, "I want to join because I want to, you know, give back to the community and
I want to be there to protect them when required.
However I also want to educate the community.
I want to work in a diverse community setting.
I want to contribute to society."
Think carefully about your responses and again, in this manual, the "Firefighter Application
Form," and also we've got another one which is the "Firefighter Interview Questions and
Answers" manual, they will help you and give you some food for thought for creating your
own responses.
Another one, which I think is important, tip number 6 is voluntary or community work.
Okay?
Think about doing some community work, volunteer work, because if I was interviewing you and
I said, "What do you do in your spare time," "Oh, I spend a few hours at the weekend or
in the evenings down at my local community center finding out about the community and
the different needs that it has and responding to them," that would be great for me if I
was interviewing you.
So think about doing volunteer work.
Not many people do it, but it will also give you more evidence when you're responding to
the PQA questions.
Okay, tip number 7, know the role of a firefighter and the role of the Fire Service inside out.
Okay?
Think about the Fire Service, what they do, who they work with, not just responding to
incidents, but find out about the other kind of work they do.
If you can go along to your local fire station, then great.
Do so.
A lot of them are in our community centers nowadays, you know, where you can go along
and speak to the firefighters.
And a lot the firefighters I know and that I've worked with in the past will be more
than willing to tell you about the role and the role of the Fire Service, the modern-day
Fire Service.
And also, try and find out about the stakeholders of the Fire Service, the people that they
work with, not just the ambulance service and the police, what about social services,
the local authority, all the different agencies that have a vested interest in the Fire Service.
Okay, so that's tip number 7.
Final one, bonus tip.
You know that lots of people apply to become firefighters.
Many, many people apply for a small few number of jobs.
Get an edge over the other applicants.
For a very small investment, we have a wide range of books and online courses that you
can get access to.
They're all here.
You can click the link below the video and you can get a copy of these.
If you think about the salary for a firefighter, you know, these books are £10 or £15 each,
a worthwhile investment for you and you can start accessing these within seconds of watching
this video, to learn more about the role and also what it takes to pass the modern-day
Fire Service recruitment process.
So yes, so make sure you prepare fully.
Put plenty of time and effort into preparing yourself fully for the selection process.
My name's been Richard McMunn.
Please give the video a thumbs up, I'd really appreciate that.
Subscribe to the channel and don't forget to click the link below the video.
And finally, if you want to be alerted when your local Fire Service are recruiting, you'll
see a link in the comment section below this video where you can go through to a page,
you can subscribe to our Fire Service Job Alerts.
You'll get an email as soon as your local Fire Service are recruiting.
That's a worthwhile investment as well.
Thank you very much for watching.
I wish you all our very best in your pursuit to becoming a firefighter.