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My brother was an Emt for years in ft Collins, then he worked at the fire dept. he now volunteers where they live but he quit doing it full time because the pay sucked in ft Collins. Hopefully it pays better where your at or it's not worth it.
Many of the paramedics at Denver Health are also employed with different FD agencies. They have a great development program for EMT's in training, overtime available.
My best suggestion is getting on with a volunteer dept after you get your basic. Run some calls, and see what type of training they will help pay for. Down here, a lot of the volunteer departments will pay for s130 and s190 for wild land, FFI and FFII if they are in the area and your hazmat awareness and ops classes. We have to bring in a lot of instructors, but normally the classes are full. You will normally have to sign a contract saying you will stay with the dept a year after the training or they will charge you for it. Check with a paid dept you are interested in and see if they have a volunteer program. If you can get on it, that normally puts you higher on the list of hire to start with.
Most departments after you are hired will make you go through their fire academy as well. They will make sure you are trained to their standards.
I was a volunteer with a great Rural FD in Boulder for 3 years (2008-2011). They were combination paid/volunteer. I was NREMT, FF1, Hazmat Ops, Ice rescue, and IV cert. I eventually landed in law enforcement in 2011 because that I was able to get a full time job first as an LEO.
Here is my advice...
1. Get your Paramedic cert. If you are a paramedic you are so far ahead of the curve its not even funny.
2. Get on as a volunteer until you get on fulltime. The experience you gain is self explanatory. Plus it will get you in the correct mindset when applying for full time jobs.
3. Get as many certifications as possible. (If not paramedic.. EMT-B, EKG, IV cert, trench rescue, ice rescue, etc....
4. Most important.... be persistent and stay dedicated. It is such a competitive market it will most likely take years to get on full time. One has to know this going forward. I tested with the Colorado Spring in 2010 and there was 2,000 applicants for 20 spots.
IF you have any questions let me know.
Last edited by stenz; 04-07-2014 at 07:47.
"Aim small...miss small"
^ It's getting crazier in trying to land a job. Colorado Springs just had a hiring process where over 13,000 initial applications came in for 40 spots.
The EMT training is approximately 3 months, the IV cert class is either 24 or 48 hours. Get them both, while you are doing the classes, see if there are some Volunteer Fire/Ambulance services that you could join. If they have classes for Wildland and Structure Fire, take them as well.
The Paramedic course is 2 years long and some require you to have 1 year of experience. There are accelerated courses out there that will get you your paramedic cert in 6 months. Being a paramedic first will make you more desirable to hire for many fire services as you are cheaper to train into a firefighter than a Paramedic.
My brother(encorehunter) and I took different routes to our current jobs, however we both enjoy them.
If you have the opportunity, look into South Metro's EMT-B course. I took it last year with no career goals in EMS and had a blast while learning a lot. The class was affordable - just under $700 with the text book, and got me well prepared to pass the NREMT exam. They also do a burn day at the training grounds with bunker gear and an extraction day cutting cars in half. The also had scholarships available for some students - but I believe that you had to be a volunteer with a department to qualify.
Last edited by Batteriesnare; 04-07-2014 at 14:25. Reason: Fixed spelling errors.
"Owning a handgun doesn't make you armed any more than owning a guitar makes you a musician." - Col. Jeff Cooper
Where are you hoping to get picked up? Some good advice here but depending on the agency you may need nothing. Some departments don't run ALS so in that case a paramedic cert won't help. Others hire true entry level positions that require no prior background. Let me know where your testing, I can probably get you squared away on the testing at least.
Once you have your EMT you can start applying to many departments, you may get lucky. Continue to work on your fire science stuff but get good at oral boards. Many, if not close to all, big departments in colorado will send you through their own academy so start applying and getting good at the testing process. The other things listed above are also very good pieces of advice.
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