Confused on route to go in NJ...

[muckluck]

Hi,

My first post. I'm currently on my way to getting my BA in English but am getting fed up with college and have always planned to be a firefighter and have just been going to college as a backup. I'm pretty sure today is going to be my last day I step foot on my college campus. I live in Harrison and am currently a police/fire dispatcher and have a few questions (sorry if this has been asked to death).

Will my background in dispatching help me get hired?

How do you exactly go about applying for a department? (go firehouse to firehouse or take the state test and wait for a call?)

Should I transfer to a community college and get a Associates in fire science?

The more research I do the more confused I get. I would love to stay as close to the NYC as possible (would love to work for the FDNY). And I'm 19 and male if that helps.

[zachis4wheeling]

Hi,

My first post. I'm currently on my way to getting my BA in English but am getting fed up with college and have always planned to be a firefighter and have just been going to college as a backup. I'm pretty sure today is going to be my last day I step foot on my college campus. I live in Harrison and am currently a police/fire dispatcher and have a few questions (sorry if this has been asked to death).

Will my background in dispatching help me get hired?

Probably not. I mean, not that it can hurt, and it's good you can talk on the radio and whatnot, but unless you want to work for a municipality where you can transfer from one department to another (dispatch to fire), that's about the only way that I could see that it could help. I don't see it giving you a leg up on the competition though.

How do you exactly go about applying for a department? (go firehouse to firehouse or take the state test and wait for a call?)

Go to the department you want to apply to's website and get their information. You can call them up and ask them. (DUH!)

In NJ, I believe they still have a thing called residency. What that means is that in order to even apply to take the exam for firefighter, you have to be a resident of that state, and in some cases, from that city.

Should I transfer to a community college and get a Associates in fire science?

It couldn't hurt. Personally I'd finish up the BA if you are already more than 1/2 way done with it. You'll regret droppin out of college in the future if you don't. Fire Science is something you can work on getting after you get hired, although a couple departments out there require that you have it already done, before you even get hired. To me, this is stupid and I really have no interest in working for a department like that. It all depends on what you want though. Don't let me deter you though. If you want to get on an old school, gritty, hard nosed department that still fights a good amount of fire, they probably arn't gonna require an AAS in Fire Science. But if you want to get on a department that is huge into fire prevention and training and that doesn't get a lot of fires, they seem to be the ones that are requiring it more and more. Again, it couldn't hurt to start taking classes towards it, but I wouldn't focuz solely on that. Look at the dept's you want to apply for and look at what they REQUIRE and start working on that.

New Jersey has some towns that still do see a goood amount of fire AFAIK. I doubt they require any kind of degree to get hired. I imagine they're kind of old school where if you have actually worked out in the real world (i.e.-tradesman), they're more interested in you than if you have a lot of training that you've done to try and look good, that you've prolly already forgot. They're the type of dept's where you pass the civil service test, agility test and if you do good on the interviews and they like you and keep your nose clean (no drugs or felonies) you should be alright for getting hired.

The more research I do the more confused I get. I would love to stay as close to the NYC as possible (would love to work for the FDNY). And I'm 19 and male if that helps.

FDNY will prolly be hiring in 2011 or 2012. Last time they hired was in 07' I believe. They do not require residency, but if you live in one of the boroughs, it helps a lot and gives you extra points in the interviewing process.

[muckluck]

Too big to quote.

That's all pretty much what I figured. I wasn't expecting the dispatching to have all that big of an effect but thought it might help working in some sort of emergency service. I have two years doing warehouse work and a year and a half at UPS and don't even have a misdemeanor so I think I'm good with work experience for a 19 year old. Thanks for the help.