Fire Fighter Trent

1. What am I good at?

I remember last term I had a class where I was required to reach out to a wide variety of people in life to ask what my strengths were. I asked coworkers, friends, family, mentors, and the results were astonishing to me. Across the board, almost to the exact percent, I had an even split of everyone saying I was good at working with people, and that I am good in stressful situations. This tells me I do well when working interpersonally or with a team, and then I do well in high intensity jobs.

2. What do I value?

I value people and connection. If I have a good group and we are all working together, sometimes it doesn’t matter to me how dry our difficult the job is; I just want to be able to bond with a team. I find in firefighting that being able to connect and help the community by working with a team is extremely rewarding. Being able to drill and get excellent as a group and be able to tackle the job like a sports team is extremely fulfilling.

3. How did I get here?

A lot of my choices weren’t very intentional in life. I went to Oregon State because my brothers were, and I started a painting company because I saw some of my friends did that to help pay for college. On the other hand, I started pursuing music purely based of inspiration. I started pursuing firefighting because I was seeking a job that would be more fulfilling. Thankfully, I would say where I am now is mostly shaped based on what inspired me and what I valued most.

4. Where am I going?

In my current trajectory, I am going to get a job in the fire service and have a hobby of music on the side. I am motivated, so I might pick up a side job that would do well alongside firefighting. This might be an online sales, marketing, or insurance job. Also, I expect whatever job I am working on the side, along with firefighting, will eventually be what I switch over to in about 10 to 15 years which will take most of my focus, and I would probably retire from the fire industry around that time.

First off what I learned from the test, and how I could have guessed, is that I am high in extraversion. My biggest scores in this dimension were in friendliness and cheerfulness. Honestly, I think my friends and family could attest to this as being pretty accurate. Also, in these categories I had some high scores in gregariousness and general extraversion.

Agreeableness was pretty strong as well; some of my highest scores in this one were trust, cooperation, and sympathy. I’m definitely very easy to get along with, and I think it’s very uncommon for people to have a problem with me in the workplace or in social groups– at least that I know about!

Conscientiousness was my highest scoring section, and this was a surprise to me because I’ve not thought about myself on this end of things as much as extraversion and other qualities. That said, I’ve done a lot of growing over the past two years as far as being more organized and making sure I am creating an environment of order around myself. I scored the highest in these sections with self-discipline and dutifulness.

Neuroticism was my lowest score, thank goodness; I would imagine it is most people’s lowest score because people probably don’t want to see themselves as neurotic. I did have a spike in one category in this section on immoderation; this is something I should be mindful of because even with my order and discipline I know I can struggle with this.

I scored moderately high in openness to experiences. I did have artistic interests and adventurism higher in this section, and that definitely coincides with me. I am a musician and love worship music at church so much; so I think this is where my artistic appreciation comes from.

As far as being hired in a fire department, I think my scores would be very desirable in this environment. Working in the fire department you are in close quarters with a lot of people, and if you can’t get along with people, then this job is probably not for you. You need to be likeable to some extent like to be around people. This test shows that I AM likeable, but also, I’m conscientious so I’m going to clean up after myself. This is valuable when you’re spending that much time together, you want people who are very organized and “A type” personality so that everyone can manage their own space as much as possible. Scoring low on neuroticism is huge because there are a lot of stressful situations on the fire ground and it is imperative to keep your cool and not let your choices be held by emotion. Ultimately what I scored is pretty ideal for what they are looking for, and I would feel very comfortable with my scores being seen at a fire department as part of my hiring process– I think they may even do some of these tests when you get a tentative job offer at a station.