New Employees

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Permalink Reply by Spanner 122 on September 28, 2007 at 6:56pm

No!! I don't know any paid departments up here that have trouble finding new employees. I tested with my department three times before being hired and each time there were over 2000 applicants. I tested for another city against another 1500 and was put on the list to write in a third with another 1800 (they invited people to write after looking at resumes and certs and had to turn others down to keep the numbers down). The first and third department are pretty big, my department has 28 stations and nearly 1000 firefighters, the third (not sure actually how many stations and firefighters, I decided not to write with them because of distance), the second has only 6 stations.
It's incredibly competitive. Some are lucky to be hired their first time through, others apply and test repeatedly for years (some for 10 or more years). It took me nearly 6 years to be hired).

It's easy enough here for departments to find full time employees, but really hard to be chosen as one.

Was that what you were asking?? lol :)

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Permalink Reply by Matt Barker on September 29, 2007 at 1:24pm

Yes,
I originally started testing in Cleveland, OH. I tested for 8 years without success. I moved to Houston Texas in 05 and tested for three departments, including Houston FD. Houston didn't work out. But I know work for the city of Humble, TX. We have 2 stations and 10 a shift. When I tested it was me and TWO other people! A department this size in Ohio would have easily had 500 people sign up. You had to be a certified Firefighter/Paramedic, but you sould still get the 500, not three. We are giving a test on Oct 8th and now have 5 people signed up. We have 4 spots so hopefully they ALL pass.

Where do you work?

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Permalink Reply by Lt2406 on September 29, 2007 at 10:34pm

nope not at all, we just tested for 1 position and had over 30 apps and people from 3 states put in for the job, but of those 30 we only found 6 worth offering an interview.

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