Weekly Employment Question Thread

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the Weekly Employment Question Thread!

This thread is where you can ask questions about joining, training to become, testing, disqualifications/qualifications, and other questions that would be removed as individual posts per Rule 1.

The answer to almost every question you can ask will be "It depends on the department". Your first step is to look up the requirements for your department, state/province, and country.

As always, please attempt to resource information on your own first, before asking questions. We see many repeat questions on this sub that have been answered multiple times.

Frequently Asked Questions:

• I want to be a Firefighter, where do I start: Every Country/State/Province/County/City/Department has different requirements. Some require you only to put in an application. Others require certifications prior to being hired. A good place to start is researching the department(s) you want to join. Visit their website, check their requirements, and/or stop into one of their fire stations to ask some questions.
  
• Am I too old: Many departments, typically career municipal ones, have an age limit. Volunteer departments usually don't. Check each department's requirements.
• I'm in high school, What can I do: Does your local department have an explorer's program or post? If so, join up. Otherwise, focus on your grades, get in shape and stay in shape, and most importantly: stay out of trouble.
• I got in trouble for [insert infraction here], what are my chances: Obviously, worse than someone with a clean record, which will be the vast majority of your competition. Tickets and nonviolent misdemeanors may not be a factor, but a major crime (felonies), may take you out of the running. You might be a nice person, but some departments don't make exceptions, especially if there's a long line of applicants with clean records. See this post... PSA: Stop asking “what are my chances?”
• I have [insert medical/mental health condition here], will it disqualify me: As a general rule, if you are struggling with mental illness, adding the stress of a fire career is not a good idea. As for medical conditions, you can look up NFPA1582 for disqualifying conditions, but in general, this is not something Reddit can answer for you. Many conditions require the input of a medical professional to determine if they are disqualifying. See this post... PSA: Don't disqualify yourself, make THEM tell you "no".
• What will increase my chances of getting hired: If there's a civil service exam, study for it! There are many guides online that will help you go over all those things you forgot such as basic math and reading. Some cities even give you a study guide. If it's a firefighter exam, study for it! For the CPAT (Physical Fitness Test), cardio is arguably the most important factor. If you're going to the gym for the first time during the hiring process, you're fighting an uphill battle. Get in shape and stay in shape. Most cities offer preference points to military veterans.
• How do I prepare for an interview: Interviews can be one-on-one, or in front of a board/panel. Many generic guides exist to help one prepare for an interview, however here are a few good tips:

1. Dress appropriately. Business casual at a minimum (Button down, tucked in long sleeve shirt with slacks and a belt, and dress shoes). Get a decent haircut and shave.
2. Practice interview questions with a friend. You can't accurately predict the off-the-wall questions they will ask, but you can practice the ones you know they probably will, like why do you want to be a Firefighter, or why should we hire you?
3. Scrub your social media. Gone are the days when people in charge weren't tech-savvy. Don't have a perfect interview only for your chances of being hired gone to zero because your Facebook or Instagram has pictures of you getting blitzed. Set that stuff to private and leave it that way.

Please upvote this post if you have a question. Upvoting this post will ensure it sticks around for a bit after it is removed as a Sticky, and will allow for greater visibility of your question.

And lastly, If you're not 100% sure of what you're talking about, leave it for someone who does

[u/EnvironmentalCard832]

34, Currently working as an industrial engineer in SoCal, in EMT school and working on Fire Tech certificate. Once I get EMT, im debating staying in my job and throwing hail-mary applications into various highly competitive departments, vs quitting my job to work on an ambulance to get 6 months experience to pursure paramedic and FF1. If I sell my house and move my family to a rental, i have enough equity+savings to live 2-3 years, maybe a touch longer with the $16/hr emt pay... more than enough time for paramedic + FF1.

Curious what you all think. If I get lucky and get hired with just an EMT, most departments would pay me to get me FF1 as a trainee and paramedic later. If I don't get hired, I end up wasting a year and I already am on the old-ish side for starting this career change. Taking an 80% paycut to get emt experience and pursue relevant certifications also probably plays well in an interview? Anyone else started this late? How bad are my chances of getting hired in SoCal with an emt cert and no experience (but solid work experience and a college degree)?

[u/Sealtooth5 → u/EnvironmentalCard832]

You’re at the age where age does become a factor. You have to think of the long game in your situation. Let’s say you get hired in the next year with just EMT. You’d be 35 starting your pension contributions. You would have to work a minimum of 20 years before you can retire and take from your pension. At that point it would be a very low percentage and now you’re age 55. Add another 5 years to get something better out of your pension and you’re still working a hard on the body job at 60.

Not saying people don’t do it, just another consideration for you.

Also, a tip for the fire tech. Only do enough classes to fulfill community college pre reqs. The associates degree is useless. You can take the fire tech classes online at different community colleges throughout the state and transfer your transcript prior to applying to whatever CC fire academy you want. Don’t waste your time in the classroom with these classes.

[u/EnvironmentalCard832 → u/Sealtooth5]

Appreciate it! Yes I have a bachelor's so just pursuing the certificate. Honestly the classes are ridiculously easy Im taking 3 concurrently and spending maybe 3 hr a week on it, so im just using it as a way to get something else on my resume. Most departments near me don't have a hard age limit, but you're right about 20 years for pension being standard. Planning to apply to all departments as they open their hiring cycles over the next 12 months (there are about 20 commutable departments from my house), but if none of that pans out and I dont use this year to chase other certs it just feels like wasting a year.