Quote Originally Posted by carlson View Post
I'm going to the college in duluth that's a FF college I love it, not sure if the guy from the cities knows what one i mean. An k ill just finish up next year and see where I can go excited for school to be done and get on a department. School has turned into alot of drills, live burns and we work on oral board stuff in one of my classes. Getting ready to take my FF 1 and hazmat ops cert test in a couple months. I passed my emt pratical just got to study my butt off for the written test. Just wanted to get some imput from you already in the field cuz I'm going on 25 would like to get on a crew before I'm much older
Nice you're going to the fire academy in Duluth? I hear its a great place to train. I did mine at Hennepin Tech. I am not sure if your familiar with the process, but when I applied to a few different departments here in the cities (about 4 or 5 years ago), there were three steps to the process. The first part was a written test consisting of basic fire knowledge, read the article provided and answer the following type questions, map reading skills, that kind of stuff. Then was the physical abilities testing, carrying a hose bundle up stairs, proper form for raising a ladder, search and rescue, assembling a hose and charging it at the hydrant, swinging a sledge X number of times, a body drag, and a few other different tests. Then the oral interviews.

As was already said, and I cant stress enough, be prepared for the oral interview boards. When I went through the process, I scored very high on the written (I personally know a fire fighter on the dept for many years and I guess they hadn't seen a written test score so good in a long time but that's hear say, looking back he may have been trying to cheer me up), average on the physical ability but TANKED the oral board. I had never done anything like that in my life, I had never really had to interview for a job even. The jobs I had up to that point I filled out the applications, dropped them off, got a call a couple days later, and then told me what I was in for, finished the paper work, started the next day. A week after the interview I got a letter in the mail that told me how they weighed all the tests and what my scores were. 28 out of 30% on the written, 22 out of 30% on the physical abilities, and 8 out of 40%. The letter also told me that there would be 7 others offered a job before I would be offered a job.

To add more to your question of should you put in the time and get your paramedic, I don't know to tell you the truth. Its going to have to be something you need to a bit of research for. Some one told me once that MPLS and ST. Paul require paramedic, but I don't know for sure. I know where I applied they told me straight out, that before your year of probation was up, you HAD to have FF 1 and 2, Hazmat Awareness and Ops, and EMT. No one was a medic.

The best advice I can give you is to get on a dept as a volunteer or paid on call after you pass state fire board, get some experiences while looking for that full time gig. That will be a huge factor going your way.