Advice?

Hi! My name is Alyssa, I'm 17 years old and a high school junior. I've been a OCFA fire explorer for the past 2-3 years and 200% positive I will be pursuing a career in the fire service. Since I'll be a senior next year, I need to start making some decisions on education and training. There are so many paths to getting hired, but I'm not sure which to take. Should I attend a 4 year college or dive into an academy right out of high school? How did you become hired? What training/education should I take? Any advice? Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by sean lindsey on August 16, 2013 at 10:42pm

Hi Alyssa, The best in being hired, is to found out want the Dept. are looking for, then go from there, because then you will know if you need a 4 yr college or most colleges offer fire academy and they will teach you everything you need to know.

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Permalink Reply by John Gallagher on August 26, 2013 at 9:33am

At your age, I would say go to school. Get a degree in fire science. Then hire on somewhere. The reason I say this is that once you start working it becomes easy to put things off. Oh I'll skip class today, i'm tired from that fire last night. When you want to start climbing the career ladder, the degree will be a big advantage.

JMHO