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Training vs. Experience
I joined the local fire department when I was 16 years old as a junior, acquiring my Firefigter 1 training around the time I turned 18 and became a front line firefighter. I am now 20 years old and currently hold my Level 1 and Level 2 firefighting, vehicle extrication, managing company tactical operations, ICS-100, Incident Safety Officer, Haz-Mat Ops, Traffic Management Guidelines, and Medical First Responder. I also have now been appointed at 1 of my departments 3 training officers as well as the strong possibility of becoming a Lieutenant on the 2nd due Engine company.
My main concern is that I will not be taken seriously with these roles by the older memebers of the department who although they do not have as much training as myself, have more experiance and more calls under their belt. Is it right for them to not take me seriously, or for myself to even hold such positions? How can I portray myself as knowledgable to an older group of firefighters who may not nessicarily agree or want to abide by new firefighting and rescue techniques? Is there anyone else who has faced or is facing the same issue?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Norm Tindell on
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Great story!
Contrast your story with this one...
Reminds me of a large city department that uses books and testing written by "technical writers" who've never been firefighters. Guys climb the promo ladder with reading and memorization skills instead of old-fashioned firefighting skills. Case in point: one young man who is very smart made lieutenant in 7 years with little experience and less "street smarts," just high test scores. Finally, 20 years later he has acquired the experience he needs. Guess you could say his was a reversal of the normal career path.
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Permalink Reply by Joe on
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Dear Jared,
Grow a set, take the job and do it better than anyone else can. These simple steps will gain the respect of the older firefighters as well as those that will come after you.
Good Luck,
Joe
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Permalink Reply by Oldman on
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Training and experience go hand in hand. Fire has never read a book. Patients have never read the book. Many incidents will do something that hasn't been written in a book yet. That's where experience comes into play. Attitude has a lot to do with acceptance or resistance. Be careful about coming off as an "educated fool."
Do yourself a favor. Listen to the older experienced guys. Sometimes "old school" can teach you things that aren't in the book. That's one hand. The other hand is; combine your modern in the book ideas with old school. You will probably find that a combination of old and new can make an incident that isn't in the book a lot easier to deal with. The same applies to your people.
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Permalink Reply by Jim Conrad on
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We had a good training class a couple of weeks ago. It was about tactical decision making in wildland fire. While that has no bearing on the discussion, I did get a good nugget. The instructors talked about the mental rolodex that all firefighters have. How many slots in the rolodex depends on the experience a firefighter has. Training has a lot to do with how the slots in the rolodex are organized. The whole process is called recognition prime decision making. So i guess I believe that training and experience go hand in hand. If the officers have confidence in your abilities and you are confidant that you can do the job, I say good luck. I see people who get promoted start to believe that they dont need to keep expanding the rolodex, and that is dangerous. I speak from the position of little training and even less experience! But love training and being a firefighter.
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I like the Rolodex analogy!
And I heartily agree that no matter how much experience you have you should continue training. There's always new technology, there will always be new ideas and repetition keeps you sharp.
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Permalink Reply by Ryan McNeil on
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Hey, I can agree with you. I have tons of training certs, and my EMT. I'm 26 yo. I just became an LT. in my vol. department. It can be hard, espically if the older generation dont want you to pass them in the ranks, prove yourself, dont let them tell you what todo, they need to understand that the unger generation needs to gain exp. as well. Message me or email me sometime and we can talk more.
LT. RM
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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They go hand in hand. There's plenty of people who have been doing it wrong for plenty of years. Things change. Technology changes. Equipment changes. Standards change. You can't have one without the other....
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