Saturday, June 14, 2008 will be my first shift as a full-time, career firefighter with the City of Alcoa Fire Department. I can hardly put into words the feeling that I am experiencing. For one thing, I realized how fortunate I really am. How many people get a job at their "dream department" in less than a year. I know guys who have worked for seven years or more as reserve firefighters with aspirations of going full-time. The last two weeks have been torture. I got the job offer on May 30,… Continue

Today, I am an EMT-IV. I passed the National Registry exam this morning, putting me one step closer to my goal of becoming a career firefighter. That was probably the toughest test I have ever taken. I spent most of the afternoon thinking that I probably failed. I bet I checked the NREMT website 75 times between 11:30 and 3:30. I was the top student in my class, posting the highest scores on every test we took, and had no problem with the practical exam. But that Natl Registry made me question… Continue

The City of Alcoa Fire Department is beginning the process of hiring one (I think) fulltime firefighter. Today, I turned in my application and resume. Pretty much everything I've done for the past year has been leading up to this. I really believe that I have a legitimate shot at this job. I really hope it works out for me, because there probably won't be another opening there until July 09. I really want to work at this Department, but conversely, I hope I'm not still jobhunting 16 months from… Continue

I've been pursuing a full time job in the fire service for almost two years now. After a year of knocking on doors with no results, I decided in Aug 2007 to put myself through EMT school. About two weeks into classes, opportunity knocked. Alcoa Fire Dept called and offered me a chance to participate in an upcoming rookie school and a job as a reserve firefighter. While working 40 hours a week at my fulltime job, going to EMT classes two nights a week, and rookie school classes two nights a… Continue