Grande Prairie Fire Department interview

Where the interviews sit

The City’s firefighter recruitment page lists eight steps, which take place over a number of weeks: Application Review, Aptitude Testing, Online Interview, Fitness-Job Specific Testing, Focused Interview, Station Assessments, Reference Checks, then a Conditional Job Offer.

That gives you two interviews. The first, at step three, follows the written aptitude test. The second, at step five, follows two days of fitness testing: a swim and acrophobia test on day one, and physical fitness testing based on the University of Alberta Firefighter Assessment Guidelines on day two.

After the panel comes a working day. At step six, the City says qualified applicants work alongside Grande Prairie Fire Department crews for one day. Reference checks follow the station assessments.

The conditional offer at step eight depends on a criminal record check, including a vulnerable sector check, a medical assessment and a psychological assessment.

What Grande Prairie says about the interviews

The online interview

The City describes step three as “an opportunity for our Recruitment Team to meet the applicants who have successfully passed the Aptitude Test.”

The recruitment brochure the same page links, dated April 2022, lists this step as a phone interview. The current page and its process graphic call it an online interview. Prepare for either, and follow the instructions in your invitation.

The focused interview

At step five, the City says applicants “will then be assessed for optimal readiness with the organization.”

The City describes the format: “a panel interview conducted by representatives from the Grande Prairie Fire Department and City of Grande Prairie Human Resources Department.”

The next intake

The City’s recruitment page says the application process is closed. It directs candidates to the City job postings page and the Grande Prairie Fire Department Facebook page for updates.

The City accepts firefighter applications within a specified time frame and advertises the position on multiple platforms, with local media and with fire related schools. The City also asks applicants to include every item in the application package, so gather your documents early.

Build your stories now, while the window is closed, so they are ready when the selection steps begin.

What Grande Prairie asks of a firefighter

The recruitment page lists these firefighter characteristics and skills:

• A proven ability to interact positively with team members, customers and the people the department serves.
• The physical strength and capacity for intense and sustained effort.
• The ability to carry out orders in emergencies, with the capacity to assess and act on your own initiative and to work effectively as part of a team.
• A practical understanding of a wide range of subjects related to fire hazards, including how to operate and understand mechanical equipment.
• Concern for reducing the pain and suffering of people in emergencies, with loyalty, dedication and commitment to duty.
• The ability to perform firefighting duties in extremely taxing circumstances.
• The ability to learn new concepts, teach others and continuously improve.

The same page says each platoon, led by a Fire Officer, works as a team, and that firefighters work shifts, including evenings and weekends. It describes the department as a career fire service whose firefighters provide fire suppression, medical co-response and specialized rescue, along with fire prevention and public education programs. The department’s own page says it is dedicated to “protecting life, property, and the environment.”

The City also publishes Guiding Beliefs for its staff, which it calls “the standards to which we hold each other accountable”: Service & Caring, Integrity, Fun, Cooperation and Flexibility.

Plan your story bank from the characteristics list, with a true story for each line, including following an order in a hurry, acting on your own initiative and teaching someone a skill.

How to prepare for these two interviews

The City publishes who sits on the panel and what each interview is for. The advice below is Northline’s, built for that format.

Treat the online interview as a first impression

The City calls it a chance for the Recruitment Team to meet you. Have a short, clear answer ready for why you want this career and why Grande Prairie. Set up a quiet room, a charged device and a steady connection, and test your camera and microphone the day before. On a phone call, stand up and smile while you speak; it carries in your voice.

Answer the panel with real stories

The City says this panel assesses readiness for the organization, so give it evidence of how you behave at work. Build a bank of true stories from work, volunteering, sport and school, and tell each one in order: the situation, your task, the actions you took and the result. Spend most of the answer on your own actions.

Be ready for scenario questions too

A scenario asks what you would do. Answer in order: what is happening, who is affected, what you would do first and why, and what you would do if that first step failed.

Speak to the whole panel

Panel members from Human Resources and from the fire department each hear your answer through their own role. Use plain language any listener follows, make eye contact with each panel member, and keep jargon for the moments it adds something.

Prepare for the working day

The station assessment follows the panel. Keep your interview stories consistent with how you work on the day with the crew.

What to practise

• Build your story bank first, with a true story for each line on the City’s characteristics list.
• Answer out loud, every time, and record yourself. Listen for long openings, vague actions and missing results.
• Run one practice session on video and one by phone, so either form of the online interview feels familiar.
• Run a full mock panel with two or three people asking questions, including someone outside the fire service.
• Mix scenario questions with behavioural ones, so you practise switching between “what would you do” and “what did you do”.
• After each answer, have someone ask a follow up, such as “What would you do differently?”

To practise in front of other candidates, Firefighter Interview Night is a live two hour video session where each candidate answers in the hot seat and gets feedback.

Practice questions written by Northline

Northline wrote these questions for practice, shaped around the characteristics Grande Prairie publishes. Answer each one out loud, as you would to a panel.

1. Tell us about a time you followed an instruction you disagreed with. What did you do afterwards?
2. Describe a time you saw something that needed doing and acted on it before anyone asked you to.
3. Tell us about a time you learned a new skill quickly and then taught it to someone else.
4. Describe a time you helped someone who was hurt, frightened or in pain. What did you do for them?
5. Tell us about a time you kept going on a hard, physical task long after you were tired.
6. On your station assessment day, a crew member asks you to help with a task you have yet to learn. What do you do?
7. Why Grande Prairie? What do you know about the work this department does?

If you stall on a question, find a story for it before you move on.