Career Change - Firefighter

[nursejenn]

Not much at all. Haven't ridden a whambulance in 20 years so pretty much stay in my part of the hood. If a big y'all come event takes place we end up downtown from time to time.
You in the E.R.?!

Trauma administration… but I get down to the ER from time to time for the big traumas.

Just curious if we had met and didn’t know it.

[Smokeater]

Trauma administration… but I get down to the ER from time to time for the big traumas.

Just curious if we had met and didn’t know it.

Oh kewl. If you were there from about '92 to '02 we came by quite often! Only time I happen by now is if one of our peeps on the big red truck jump on the box to help em get to the hospital. We'll follow em and pick em up. Should that happen again (before I retire, I'll see if I can find ya!lol

[Ryan81]

There are a few departments in the metroplex that will allow you to test without having any certs, however those departments are more competitive to get hired on due to the number of applicants vs. open positions. Having your Paramedic cert is equivalent to having a gold ticket these days. It will open up tons more opportunities to test and will allow you more options to choose a city that may be a fit for you.

I do understand the difficulties of having to work full time and try to go back to school but if you can do an online or night EMT course then online Paramedic course you will be so much more marketable as a candidate. There are several community colleges and private programs that offer both EMT and Paramedic. A lot of departments will hire medic only and send them to fire school. EMT takes about 6-8 weeks to complete and Paramedic school takes anywhere between 8-14 months depending on the program you choose. Fire School only takes 12-16 weeks.

Paramedic school is the toughest part of the process. Doing it on your own will also put less pressure on you should you not pass the first time. If you are hired by a department and they send you to Paramedic school the expectation of continued employment will be to pass EMT and Paramedic school or you could be terminated. I always say there is a reason that they give you 6 chances to pass the National Registry exam, its not easy for most folks.

I am over the hiring process for Rowlett FD. We started our hiring process in November 2021 to hire 18 personnel. We just hired our final candidate last week. We went through three hiring process to get 18 candidates. The biggest issue we had was not applicants, it was people that would actually show up. We even allowed the candidates to choose between two different dates and times that fit their schedule for testing, interviews etc. We had more either cancel or no call no show. Things are way different these days than they were 28 years ago when I started in the fire service. I served as the Fire Academy Coordinator and Instructor for Navarro College Fire Academy for several years. My advice to anyone that ask where they should start is always the same, go to EMT then Medic school then fire school if you can.

I would be glad to meet up with you and discuss more details about hiring process etc. Would also invite you to come do a ride-out with us in Rowlett to get an idea of how station life is. We run a 48-96 schedule, which has been an awesome change for us.

PM me if you would like.

Chris Brown
Battalion Chief
Rowlett Fire Department

Richardson, applications are open now. Test in September, no certs required. We will send you through our academy and to Paramedic school, all while getting paid. TCFP is a good website that shows lots of departments hiring.

Sent both of you PMs a few weeks back. Let me know if you didn’t receive it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk