The Social Network & Community JUST for Firefighters
Tales from a tailboard fireman ~ Promotions
Promotions on the San Jose Fire Department are based on a written test and an oral board consisting of chief officers from other departments. The orals have several stations covering tactics, personnel issues, and whatever else is dreamed up as relevant by whatever branch of the city is in charge of the process at that time. In my 25 years, the tests varied greatly.
In the beginning, the written tests were formulated by senior staff of the fire department. Questions came from our Official Action Guide, the fire chief's handbook, and about 8 other books with the rule that the books had to be in each station's library. As time went on, due to lawsuits and such, tests were purchased from test preparation firms and were less job related. I always felt we did a better job doing our own tests.
The orals were the same story. When I took the captain's test, the oral part was fire oriented and had some personnel and paperwork questions. By the time I started to take battalion chief tests, they had been farmed out and the last one I took had an actor playing a gay firefighter who was unhappy at his station, and it was a role play situation. The fire part included a scenario similar to the Oklahoma bombing, and the whole thing ending up in a lawsuit that split the department along racial lines.
The 15 or so white captains who sued the city over the test (we all failed) came to be known as the Chardonnays, the white whiners. Of those who failed, we all had placed highly on the last BC test. We lost, but a short time later the Fire Chief was let go. I retired before taking another test.
San Jose had a pre-employment interview. This was given by the fire chief who had the rule of 10. This allowed him to pick from the 10 highest on the list for the promotion or the entry-level spot. It seemed to circumvent the whole idea of civil service fairness. We also had a one-year probation where you were evaluated in the new position and given an in-house oral board about 8 months in to test your knowledge of your new job responsibilities. The rule of ten was arbitrary. If you were passed over, you were not given a reason.
It took a few years for me to adjust to being retired, missing the firehouse and the runs. It took about two minutes to miss the bureaucracy.
In the beginning, the written tests were formulated by senior staff of the fire department. Questions came from our Official Action Guide, the fire chief's handbook, and about 8 other books with the rule that the books had to be in each station's library. As time went on, due to lawsuits and such, tests were purchased from test preparation firms and were less job related. I always felt we did a better job doing our own tests.
The orals were the same story. When I took the captain's test, the oral part was fire oriented and had some personnel and paperwork questions. By the time I started to take battalion chief tests, they had been farmed out and the last one I took had an actor playing a gay firefighter who was unhappy at his station, and it was a role play situation. The fire part included a scenario similar to the Oklahoma bombing, and the whole thing ending up in a lawsuit that split the department along racial lines.
The 15 or so white captains who sued the city over the test (we all failed) came to be known as the Chardonnays, the white whiners. Of those who failed, we all had placed highly on the last BC test. We lost, but a short time later the Fire Chief was let go. I retired before taking another test.
San Jose had a pre-employment interview. This was given by the fire chief who had the rule of 10. This allowed him to pick from the 10 highest on the list for the promotion or the entry-level spot. It seemed to circumvent the whole idea of civil service fairness. We also had a one-year probation where you were evaluated in the new position and given an in-house oral board about 8 months in to test your knowledge of your new job responsibilities. The rule of ten was arbitrary. If you were passed over, you were not given a reason.
It took a few years for me to adjust to being retired, missing the firehouse and the runs. It took about two minutes to miss the bureaucracy.
Add a Comment
-
Comment by FETC on January 4, 2010 at 10:11am
-
For the membership to have buy into any department promotional process, it should be negotiated or covered under a department SOG so that the entire promotional process, to include who and where the test comes from, the oral or assessment center portion and the chiefs interview is agreed upon. The process should clearly define what percentage each step counts for. In your past tests, you had a two part process and a rule of ten, which basically the fire chief hired whoever he wanted off the promotional process.
For others who are revamping their process, I suggest 3 step process each step accounting for a third of the overall score or 33 1/3%, have the test farmed out, with everyone studying the pre-req list of books, I personally like assessment centers, (only if scenario based) there is not way to fake it in an assessment center when being evaluated for training, experience and decisions in stressful situations but oral boards on the other hand have standard book worm answers that a firefighter can memorize before the interview. Then lastly a chiefs interview with just your chief and two other mutual aid chiefs on the panel.
Add that you can't move onto the next step unless you score a 70% or above in each step, (otherwise bounced from the process) and each section is not allowed to know who was ranked where from the previous step, (avoids trying to place a guy during the next step at a certain level) Have a person contracted to run the process (outsider) for every step and tally the overall scores. Lastly negotiate, "top score wins" the overall process and none of this rule of 3, 5, or 10 BS. Which basically allows fire chiefs to fold to the polictical pressures if there is a demand for a minority hire, or takes out the lazy ass kisser out of the equation from the bottom of the list.
At least this is how I run them. TCSS
FETC
-
Comment by Doug on January 3, 2010 at 4:11pm
-
It took a few years for me to adjust to being retired, missing the firehouse and the runs. It took about two minutes to miss the bureaucracy.
Hahaha, love it!
© 2024 Created by Firefighter Nation WebChief.
Powered by
You need to be a member of My Firefighter Nation to add comments!
Join My Firefighter Nation