When interviewing with an agency it is a good idea to take a close look at their mission statement. The mission statement may reveal some valuable information about the department’s philosophies and be loaded with key words that can help you in the interview.
During one station visit a Firefighter told me, “It may be a good idea to look at our mission statement.” Before I left, I made sure I wrote it down. The mission statement had three key words in it. I cannot recall the exact words, but they were typical adjectives found in many mission statements. Such words are often vague and difficult to define without re-using the word. When I got home a looked up the words in the dictionary and formulated my own definitions with help of the dictionary definition.
Sure enough, one of the interview questions directly asked me to define these three words and explain their importance. I absolutely nailed this question, but only because I knew the departments mission statement.
