How To Become A Firefighter

so you want to be a firefighter you just don't know where to start or maybe you've begun to begun to apply to a few places and now you're not sure what the next best step would be well in this video i want to talk about how to become a firefighter the steps you need to take to be a firefighter in the easiest way to get from where you are to where you want to be now i know there's some other videos out there on youtube that are a little misleading about how to be a firefighter today in quick easy steps it's not going to be quick and it's not going to be easy this is a long slow process generally especially for most people that don't really have any experience or don't know anybody in the fire service but what i want to do in this video is i want to kind of break it down into three different sections i have a whole bunch of notes here so i want to make sure i cover everything the first section is going to be about basic general criteria to become a firefighter just things that pretty much every department nationwide will require you to have or be in order to get hired on at that department the second section is going to be about if you and i were sitting at lunch right now and you said hey mike i want to become a firefighter but i don't know where to start these would be the actions i would recommend to you or any other friend of how to start from where you are today to get a career in the fire service then the last one is just going to be the different steps that most department most full-time career departments will require you to complete some in different orders some a little bit more some a little bit less in order to become a firefighter at a career department now over the course of this video you'll see some other videos coming up here and those are called youtube calls those cards i have so many videos on this channel that a lot that address a lot of the individual thing the little things that i'll talk about in this video it's going to be too much for me to put in the cards so what i would what i'm going to say is that if you hear something that you have a question about or you're not sure about look in the description below this video each section i'll have section one section two and section three i'll have all the videos on this channel that pertain to things that i talk about in there listed out so if you want more details for example i'll talk about a polygraph test if you want more details on what to expect on a polygraph test i'll put that down in there check out those videos watch those videos there's so much content on this channel that will help you through it but if there's something that i don't talk about that you do have a question about feel free to leave it in the comments below and speaking of that if you find this video useful and helpful give it a thumbs up give it a like you guys have been really responsive and i appreciate that and yeah let's jump right into it so the first thing i would say to become a firefighter the first is going to be the basic general criteria and the first thing you're going to need to do is you're going to have to be 18 or older makes sense you have to be an adult to be a firefighter so what i would recommend to any high schoolers or people that are under the age of 18 is look into a junior firefighter program there's also things out there at vocational schools where they'll have you go to a fire academy or get your emt certificate ahead of time while you're in high school so that when you finish high school you can just get rolling if you're in high school and you know that's what you want to do start working on that now but generally you're going to have to be 18 or older a lot of career departments will also require you to be 21 or older but if you're 18 and you have a firefighter certificate or a firefighter card or an emt card get on a volunteer department tomorrow get on a part-time department as soon as you can start gaining that experience now even if the full-time departments in your area won't hire you until you're 21 i promise you it will help you down the road next you need a high school diploma or a ged now firefighting is one of the few careers out there it seems like that are left where you don't need a college degree but if you do want to get a college degree i actually have a video about that you can check that out down below you don't need one fire science is nice all these other things are nice but you don't need it so if you for some reason dropped out of high school you don't have your house high school diploma go get your ged whatever you do you need that diploma uh number three need a clean criminal record now i talk about this in one of my other videos as well which you can find down below about how to get around some questionable things in your past maybe you were fired maybe you had a drug charge or something like that generally speaking fire departments career fire departments won't hire people with felony backgrounds they will i i've heard of them hiring people with misdemeanors or duis and speeding tickets uh things like that but you you're going to get asked about that in your interview and you're going to want to address that properly so what i would recommend to you though is don't get into any trouble don't drive like an idiot don't hang out with idiots don't drink and drive stop messing around with drugs if you know that you want to get into the fire service stop doing those things now the other thing that i would recommend to you is that if you have social media and you use facebook or you use any of the others get rid of it and i say that because anything that you've said or done will be found out and a lot of people say and do stupid things on social media and post stupid things on social media and you don't want that to come back to bite you later on now if you're one of those people that has social media and you just never go on it well then i guess it doesn't really matter but generally speaking a lot of people do and say a lot of dumb things on social media so if that's you get rid of it uh you're going to be required to pass a medical examination you may be required to pass a psychological evaluation and you may be required to take a polygraph exam now the medical evaluation isn't that big of a deal they're probably going to do a drug test they're probably going to do a stress test where you walk on a treadmill and they test your heart and make sure there's no other issues you know just a general physical draw some labs make sure everything's okay make sure that you're going to be up to the stressors of the job the psychological evaluation there's a few different ones floating around out there the ones that i took generally they give you hundreds of multiple choice questions the ones that they'll give you they'll give you a sentence and they say like strongly disagree disagree neutral uh agree strongly agree and you have to pick one and then they make you sit down with a psychologist afterward who asks you a whole bunch of questions some departments do this some departments do not um what they do with that information and from that psychologist after they write up a little report on you is they report back to the chief or the department whoever they need to talk to and then kind of give them their feel for you how you would handle the job psychologically polygraph for those that aren't familiar with polygraphs is essentially a lie detector test a lot of departments do do this i had to do this a lot of departments don't do this so it just depends uh there's two forms of a polygraph there's the traditional polygraph but then there's another thing and the purists out there will say it's not a polygraph it's a cvsa computer voice stress analysis they hook a little microphone up somebody will ask you questions and you answer the questions and it supposedly measures the the stress in your voice and tells whether you're not lying or not they use it as a tool to weed people out if there's something in your record they'll give you a polygraph and if they don't like you they'll say well it seems like you lied on your polygraph so they use it as a tool so but you may come across it there is a video down below about that and what to expect going forward um you will need a valid driver's license this is why i say don't do stupid things don't get so many speeding tickets that you lose your license don't get a bunch of dui's so that you lose your license inevitably if you're a firefighter you're going to have to drive vehicles and you don't need a cdl by the way um so make sure you have a valid driver's license you will possibly need an emt or a fire card for example where i work um everybody before you even show up and sit down for the test is required to be a paramedic and have a firefighter 2 card just to show up to test if you don't even have those don't even bother they won't let you sit for the test they won't let you apply however some departments especially the bigger departments won't require you to have really anything except for b18 and high school diploma and they will send you to the fire academy or to any sort of ems training that they want you to go to just depends on where you apply but just know that some places will require you to have that ahead of time and then finally you're going to be required to pass a written test and physical tests now the written tests are things like civil service exams basic firefighter exams on this channel i have hours of content of me literally teaching on a whiteboard how to do math problems how to do vocabulary how to do uh mechanical mechanical advantage type of questions mechanical reasoning those are all types of questions that you'll see on civil service exams and firefighter exams so go find that on this channel and watch those um if you have one coming up now for the fitness tests uh the cpat for those of you that have heard of that or you know they all have different names for them it's generally the same set criteria that's functional job sort of activities like they'll make you do things like run up and down stairs with a hose pack they'll make you wear a pack they'll make you do some sort of forcible entry drill there will be at the time of making these videos those these other videos haven't been out yet but when i i am working on videos for how to prepare for the cpap and the best exercises you can do and literally you can work out alongside and just do those exercises as well but just know that those are coming as well and you'll be able to find those down below so if you have any questions specific to your state because every state is going to be a little bit different and then within every state every department will be a little bit different my department is has some different requirements than departments that are 20 30 minutes away so check with the individual department if you're still not sure on a kind of a macro level call your state fire marshal every state has a state fire marshal they're kind of the ultimate authority on all this kind of stuff they'll be able to tell you exactly where you need to go what kind of training you need and what the requirements are also depending on wherever you are and sorry canadians i don't have one for canada but if you go on firefighternow.com i have a uh each state the requirements to be a firefighter in each state has its own blog post so if you i live in ohio if you live in new york california or texas or oregon or montana wherever it is that you live just go on firefighternow.com and go in the little search button and type in how to become a firefighter and wherever you'll find all the general criteria and things that you need to know some different departments the biggest departments just some basic criteria about firefighting in your state so if you have any questions about that visit firefighternow.com and look that up okay so number two if you and i are sitting down at lunch and you were to say hey mike i don't know where to start or i've started doing things i've applied to a couple places but i'm not sure what to do next what advice would i give you so here's the advice i'd give anybody number one if you're not sure what to do go on google and look up every single volunteer in part-time department and full-time department in your area there may only be a couple there may be 30 it just all it obviously just depends on where you live once you have that list go to every single one of those departments and sit down with them or talk to a lot of times there'll be a secretary there or if there's one of the firefighters there literally walk in hi i'm mike i'm interested in becoming a firefighter i'm not sure where to start i just wanted to find out what the hiring process is here firefighters are like anybody else generally they're very approachable you might get some jerks you might get some really nice people but just go to every department in your area and find out what their requirements are now what i would recommend to you is if you have no fire experience i would apply to a part-time or volunteer department now volunteer departments have a lot of turnover they have a really hard time holding on to firefighters so that's a great place for people with no experience to start it gets you experience but more importantly it gets you around other firefighters if you want to become a firefighter start spending time with firefighters makes sense right so go join your local volunteer department go join your local part-time department the other thing i would recommend too is if you have a full-time department near you or wherever that is go take their test go apply now like i said for example where i work you have to be a paramedic and a firefighter just to show up for the test to apply some departments will require that some don't care at all some don't require anything just show up and take the test start taking those tests get used to taking those civil cervix exams and i would even recommend to you that if you know that this is what you want to do and you know you're going to have to take civil service exams start taking the police test too even if you don't want to be a cop that's totally fine a lot of these tests are very similar a lot of them are based on general knowledge a lot of them have similar types of questions start taking the cop test too get used to it get used to taking the test get used to the types of questions in the way they're asking the different questions and just get as much get as much practice in as you can next get physically fit if you are not fit i promise you you are going to have a miserable time in the fire academy now i talk a lot about what to expect on the fire academy i'll put that video down below as well um but you have to be fit if you are morbidly obese or just horribly out of shape you if you make it through the fire academy you are really going to struggle and you are going to do nothing but do yourself a disservice and by the way do the rest of your crew a disservice if you can't keep up so don't be that person get in shape like i said there's going to be plenty of content on this channel as well about how to get fit about fitness for firefighters to pass the cpap and more so check those things out and then finally if you really if all of you've done all those things and you're in the process of doing that you're not sure what would be another another good step that you could do to kind of stand out a little bit more go get your emt or your paramedic certificate i would highly recommend you get a medic card now i recommend this for a few reasons number one if you can't get fire experience on a volunteer part-time department the next best thing is to get ems related experience that's important because when you get ems related experience you're going to be spending time with a lot of firefighters now i get it if you want to get into fire ems might not be your thing but it's going to give you valuable experience and it's going to put you around those people it also gives you a built-in b job and i talk about b jobs i'll put that in the in the description below if you're interested in looking into things like that so i would highly recommend you get your emt and metacard you will stand out more than somebody else that does not have those things finally section three steps of a full-time hiring process now like i said every department is going to be a little bit different but they're generally all going to have these similar steps or something that you're gonna have to do and number one is the application you will have to do a written application it's probably a twenty five or fifty dollar fee you just show up you fill out all the paperwork it's usually a big thick packet with that application sometimes is a background questionnaire where they'll ask you about your criminal history speeding tickets things like that um and just give them your fee give them uh like write them a check or a money order like i said everywhere is a little bit different but you're generally going to have to apply it's going to be very step number one that will be posted um at least in ohio it's required to be publicly posted so in the newspapers they have them but you can go there's a bunch of different sites that have job openings for different fire departments it's public knowledge so go find the fire departments in your area that are hiring and go make sure you get that application before the application deadline you're gonna have to take a written test i already talked about this a little bit before civil service exams written tests uh go on this channel you'll find all sorts of of stuff on how to pass the test different things that you can do cpat and fitness test you're going to have to take the cpat or some sort of equivalent now some departments have their own particular version the first department i got hired at had their own they didn't want anybody else's cpat they did their own fitness and agility test and you had to take that when you applied like i said every department's a little bit different but you will have to take one inevitably panel interview almost well i've never heard of a full-time department that did not require a panel interview a lot of the content on this channel is about the panel interview and i cannot stress to you enough how important the panel interview is it's their first impression of you there is a ton there is a ton of content on this channel dedicated to the interview namely and i'll even put it right here just a quick it's about it's a little over an hour primer of the complete guide to the firefighter interview watch that you will have to go through an interview it's a very stressful event everybody has to do it though so there's that the chiefs interview some places do it some places don't there's also a video about that down below it's essentially usually it's after the panel interview and you sit down with just the chief or maybe a chief and a captain or maybe a chief and the mayor or something like that and you it's just a little bit more of a lower key a little more personal of an interview they ask you a little bit more about yourself they just want to get to know you a little bit better polygraph psych evaluation i kind of touched on that before not all departments require that where i work it was both of them were required so i've taken all of them a lot of departments do require that just again there's information in that on that in the uh in the description below so make sure you check that out as well medical and stress test talked about that as well it's a basic physical you just show up get your blood drawn go from there and then probation now i have a video down below and i'll probably link it right here as well about the 14 things you're going to be wanting to do on probation long story short probation is your usually your first every department has a little bit different of a timing i've heard of six months is the shortest probation period i've ever heard of and two years is the longest probation period i've ever heard of when you are on probation they have the right to fire you for any reason at any time it's essentially a year-long tryout most places do a year-long probation and you're called the rookie you're called the probie you're called the new guy the new girl whatever you are going to be expected to kind of prove yourself to your crew and your department over the course of your probation and then once you're done you're a full-fledged member of the fire department you're you're already a member when you're on probation but watch the video on the 14 things you need to be doing on probation and i go a lot into a lot more depth on what to expect on probation so i hope you guys found this video helpful i hope you found this useful if you did give it a thumbs up and a like consider subscribing to the channel and i will be posting a lot more content like i said if there's any sort of questions you have please leave them in the description below i read and try to respond to every single uh comment check the description for any other videos and i will see you guys in the next video

Channel: FirefighterNOW

Views: 10,210

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Firefighting, Firefighters, First Responders, how to become a firefighter, firefighter fitness, firefighter interview, firefighter testing, study, firefighter nutrition

Id: 5tuVtLdn9BM

Length: 18min 50sec (1130 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 28 2021