I am on a vollie dept and as all on here have pointed out that times are changing. Soon they number of vol. depts are gonna be few and far between. My question is what should I be doing to prepare for a possible FT job on my dept. I know, save the training speaches cause I already do so much that my wife is about to kill me for being gone every weekend. LOL

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With county and state budgets getting tighter and tighter I don't think full time departments will be expanding much. Small vollie departments might join into a county wide department due to lack of members. To answer your question though other than training just stay in shape and get to know some high ranking people.
I don't ever see the vollie system disappearing. Too many communities just don't have the money or potential to raise the money through tax increases to support a full time department. That said the number of combination departments have been on the rise as well as departments consolidating as LT mentioned.

But for you, stay in shape and test every chance you get, even if you don't want to work for that department. CPAT or a departments version of CPAT, then a written followed by the interview process will make or break you. I've seen people do great on both the CPAT and written but bombed the interview process or vice versa. So get the experience in these areas as well by going out and testing. Between testing, talk to people you know on paid departments, find out what kind of questions are asked etc.
Thanks guys I will def keep my nose to the grindstone for you never know.
You can hear on the news everyday about paid departments either laying off or at least thinking of it. With county and city budgets getting tighter the number of paid departments would decrease, not take over small vollie departments.
Work on getting your FF I & II certification and your EMT-B and you shouldn't have too much trouble getting on at a paid dept....and keep that wife of yours in line!
Thanks once again.
I am just wondering how all the small vol ff depts are goin to be abloe to afford all the fedearl mandates in a few years. I do not look for all vol fd 's to go paid. I agree with Lt. about the fire dist. We already hae them here. I am just wondering how long before all the fed mandates on responce time, equipment requirements, and training hours that one will have to have before they (small vol fd's) have to put on FT paid FF's is all. Do you not see that as a possibility in the not so distant future?
Our county has had talk of consolidating all of the county departments and staffing one man at each station (seven total). That was before the county had a budget shortfall. now they are saying they might not give us our annual money. I don't see the number of paid fire departments or vollie departments hiring full time people because right now the money just isn't there.
Vollies are by far the cheapest accet any community can have compared to a fulltime crew.
Well I wont give you the training speech....

In fact I wont give you any speech. What I will say is that training is not enough. Many great volunteers cant get hired cause they do not have the education in other areas. For example you can tell me all 5 types of building construction but can you read a paragraph comprehend it and then answer 10 questions on it without ever reading it again? You can pull a hand line, but can you run a 10 minute mile or pass the CPAT? You can extricate a patient, but can you sit in a room with 5 chiefs and tell them why they should hire you?

In addition to that are you trained or are you certified....trust me a paid department is not going to be impressed becuase you go to your training drills at the vollie house, they will however be impressed that you have taken the time out of your regular life to become certified in these disciplines. Also a college education always helps it shows comitment and the ability to learn. Also the trend nationwide is to hire dual role firefighter and ALS providers, whats your EMS cert?

Bottom line there are millions of firefighter EMT's out there how can you set yourself apart from them and get the job. GOOD LUCK this is a highly competative job and sometimes it takes years to get hired. I was in recruit school in my 2nd career dept. with a guy who had been trying to get hired on for 18 years....need less to say he was kinda pissed that I was on my 2nd career dept. at age 22.
Yea they are the cheapest and not to down play vollieing at all (im still a volly)but sometimes you get what you pay for.
much good advice has being posted
volly brigades will not dissapear they may be merged together where numbers are low the old rule applies if they can get people to give freely instead of paying they will
train like there is no tomorrow and i dont mean running hose find out the required testing for the paid and model the training to that in nz the diffrence between vollys and paid as far as that gos is chalk and cheese
take advantave of any courses related to what you want to do study hard and nail them to show commitment for the education/up skilling

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