Deadline for First Consideration Applications ends January 17, 2008
Applications received on or before January 17, 2008 will be given first consideration. Applications submitted after this date you will not be looked at untill all first consideration applicant roster has been exahuasted. Your chances of gettting hired are greatly limited should you apply after the first consideration date. Please take your time and read through all the information below. To get hired with the crew is a relatively involved process. If you desire is to work here, your dilidgence in completing the steps outlined should be your primary mission. The crew fills up to 15 seasonal firefighter positions each year. The standard term of employment is from the begining of May to the mid-October. Crew members are expected to work for the complete term. The amount of position available varies from year to year depending on crew member turn over.
Recruitment
The concept ot recruitment is to get a pool of several suitable job candidates to run through our Selection Process. We recruit 3 people for each 1 open position. So, if we have 5 positions available we recruit at least 15 people for the positions. The recruitment process consists of us finding you and exchanging job infomation. If you are reading this than we have succeeded so far. First, you’ll need to contact us by phone or email. We can help determine if you have experience or not and recommend actions which you can take to help get job. Upon our initial contact we will send you some additional infomation, the tell us about yourself form and the fitness tracker form. These forms will be self explainatory when you recieve them. These forms must be returned as soon as possible.
The Application Process
Go to www.firejobs.doi.gov this is the Department of the Interior’s official on-line hiring web site. Please read all of this information carefully before proceeding. Pay particular attention to the common mistakes section. Step by step instructions to help you can be found by clicking the “How to Apply” link. Print these instructions. Once you have read through the Fire Jobs website and have a hard copy of the “How to Apply” instructions, you may begin building your resume. Click on the “Register Here” button in the left hand column. You will be automatically moved to the USA JOBS website. Follow the instructions, on your “How to Apply” sheet and you will be fine. After your resume is complete, you may submit it for a postion using the following announcement number and duty location.
Announcement Number: BLM-FIRE-2008-002
Duty Location: Bakersfield, CA
It is important to note that the 2008 application process is different than the 2007 application process because we are utilizing USA JOBS this year. This means if you created a resume and applied for a position last year using Quick Hire, you must create a new resume this year in USA JOBS.
Wildland Fire Experience vs. General Experience
Tips For Completing Your Resume
Fire experience is classified as having 90 days of primary firefighting work. The matter of fire experience is important to us because we must carry 80% fire experienced people at all times. Which means for a crew of 20 we must have 18 people with fire experience. This should not be confused with having ‘related’ experience. While this is usefull in is not counted as fire experience. For example related work can be, tree cutting, landscaping and other forms of moving plant life and dirt from one place to another.
The Interveiw Process
We utilze a panel interview consisting of 2-3 interviewers. The interview questions are written and are the same for everyone. Our intention is to find the most suitable persons for the crew. The interviews usually take about 15 minutes to complete. The interviewers will score you answers to come up with a baseline suitablity. The interview carries significant weight in terms of you selection, however, we consider all information about you. We consider your past employer’s and supervisor’s assement of your work habits and ability. So, if you don’t interview well, you may still be offered a position if you are deemed suitable for the work. At the conclusion of the interview you will be either offered a job, not offered a job or asked to wait while we interview more candiates. The attire for this interview is casual and the interview is conducted in a non-threatening environment.
The Selection Process
Selection is essentially the process of us choosing or selecting one person over another for employment on the crew. After we have met you and receive the tell us and fitness tacker forms back we decide if you are suitable to be interviewed. At this time we will schedule a date and time for the interview. Your applicable skill such as, chainsaw use, small engine repair, truck driving and various manufacturing processes, are good to have. However, we selected based largely on a person's natural talents that can have application on the job. You must have a proven record of achievment and drive that we can identify. The logic here is that skills can be taught, while a person‘s in born talents cannot. We can teach people to run saws and scrape dirt, which are skills. We can’t teach a person to have motivation or the drive to keep working in the blazing hot sun, and like it. To sum all this up, we hire people for their capacity to do hotshot work in all its many facets, then we train them in all the necessary skills.
Good luck.