Investigators are not looking for a perfect life. They're looking for honesty and patterns. A DUI from six years ago, disclosed and owned? Survivable at many departments. The same DUI, omitted and discovered? Done — everywhere, forever. Omission reads as deception, and no department hires someone they caught hiding something on day one. Disclose everything. Own it. Show what changed.

Most firefighter written exams cover the same five areas: math, reading comprehension, mechanical reasoning, spatial reasoning, and listening. The trap: a passing score doesn't get you hired. A competitive score does. When a metro department takes the top 10% of the list, 80% isn't a pass — it's a polite rejection. Find out which exam your department uses (NTN FireTEAM and Ergometrics are the big ones), then take timed practice tests until you're hitting 90s in practice. What exam is your department using? Post it — I'll tell you what to expect.

Post the departments you're testing with (or targeting) and where you are in their process. Two reasons: you'll find people testing with the same department — compare notes. And I'll flag what I know about how different types of departments run their processes. Metro, suburban, combination — they don't hire the same way.

Most departments run some version of these stages, in this order: application, written exam, physical agility test (CPAT), oral board interview, background investigation, polygraph, conditional offer, then medical and psychological exams. You can be cut at any stage. Knowing the order matters, because you prepare for each one differently — and because strong scores early (the written and the oral board) are usually what put you high on the eligibility list. Know the map before you start walking it. Which stage worries you most? That’s probably the one to start prepping first.

You got hired. Congratulations — now the real test starts. Probation means: first in the rig to check equipment, last to sit down at dinner, studying district maps while everyone else watches the game. It's a year of proving you belong. The candidates who struggle on probation are usually the ones who thought getting hired was the finish line. It's the starting line. Train like it now and probation will feel familiar instead of brutal.