2 job offers around the same time?

I posted previously in the meet and greet & figured this was my next best stop. Who here has ever had 2 job offers at around the same time? Does this happen often or has this ever happened to anyone here or someone you know?


Would anyone here ever quit one academy to attend another?

I will explain in more detail once I get some replies. I am just trying to save some time/space.

dance with the one that brought you.

it does not look good jumping ship early, you may wind up no one wanting you because of that.

how far long are you in the present one?? plus you kind of already know what is expected in this one.

have you completed and done everything, that you know 200% that you would be in the other academy??

give this dept a chance and spend a couple of years there, then decide if youwnat to jump, you may find out you lilke it!!!!!!!!!!

I had tested for a fairly large suburban department about the time I had tested for the department I ended up spending most of my career at. I had dreamed of working for the suburban department for years. After I had been at my department for just 2 weeks, the suburban department called me up and offered me a job. It took me about 10 seconds of internal struggle, but my answer was a definite but polite "no." I revisited that decision for several years afterwards. Due to the smaller size of the department I stayed with, the promotional opportunities were slim to none. The larger department was turning over dozens of people a year and people that got hired after my offer were making ranks like battalion chief in record time because they couldn't fill slots fast enough. Despite that, it felt like the right thing to do and I believe it still was. Jumping ship after two weeks would have marked me forever.

Hasn't happen to me. But I know guys who have finished academies or close to, jump into another one (Phoenix).

Im neither for or against jumping. I'm big on loyalty to those who give you the chance. But at the same time, do what's going to make you happy, if it's jumping to your dream dept then why turn them down. If its just another dept and you're still planning on testing else where, I'd stick with the current.

Ok here’s our situation. I apologize in advance for this being long!

I hope that some higher ups that are familiar with something like this can see this & help!

First off, my husband has been trying for many years to become a firefighter. The competition is fierce today, much more so than when his father applied to become a firefighter. His father showed up at the fire station with long hair and a tie dyed T-shirt, straight out of Vietnam, and got the job. Nowadays, it is a long, hard drawn out process that takes up a lot of time and energy.

My husband has applied to many different stations in his home state, as well as many other states across the United States. It has been his dream, his passion, and it is indeed, his calling in life. I knew of this desire before we married & I have been there in my best efforts, to support him in any way that I can.

Then after years and years of filling out long, detailed applications, taking tests, physicals, a few polygraphs, a few psych evals, and many interviews, not to mention all the traveling and expenses involved… all of the sudden, two offers come his way, all within weeks of each other.

This past year he received an opportunity to interview for an out of state job after fulfilling all the other requirements of the department. They liked him and gave him a conditional job offer pending the decision of a psych evaluation. He took the psych eval and shockingly to us and everyone that knows him, he failed. My husband is not crazy or inconsistent by any means. He is completely competent, intelligent, hardworking, ethical, he doesn't have anger problems, and overall emotionally stable, etc. He wanted this job so bad at this department & everyone told us to appeal the decision & we knew this was best, so we did. We did not have the money to make this appeal. We had to borrow money from both my parents and his parents. Between the 3 of us, we all split the cost of the appeals process. We all believed in him enough to know that the appeal process would be well worth it and in fact, it was because, he then passed all 3 psych evals from 3 different psychologists. He only needed to pass 2 evals to get re-offered the job, but he passed all 3.

So while this whole appeals process was going on, my husband was desperate to achieve his dream and he applied at another fire department because in all actuality, he did not know what was going to happen. Then lo & behold, he was given the 2nd job offer at the 2nd location except this time he didn’t have to take a psych eval which made the process for him a little easier.

He was given the official offer at the 1st location (out of state) & with what all he had been through, he told them he would accept the job offer. He wasn’t about to pass up any offer that had finally been given to him. Then came his 2nd location official offer. This Academy was starting first before the out of state Academy. He believed at the time that it would be best to stay at his 2nd location and accepted the 2nd location offer as well. He never told the out of state job that he received another job offer, and knowing that anything can happen in Academy, he still has not told them anything different.

Let me add that he has not lied about anything to anyone during this entire process. When asked in the 2nd location interview, if he had any other job offers, he told them no, (because he was going through the appeals process and had been previously denied the job offer), so he did not have a current job offer during the interview date, so therefore he has not lied about anything.

He started thinking about things more and looked into the pay scale at the out of state job offer & realized that he would in fact be making more money there than his 2nd location. So now he is re-thinking things. To put this into some perspective, he would be making a substantial more amount of money. For example, if he took the out of state job offer, he would be making about $6,000.00 more in just 2 years than compared to 11 years that it would take to get just close to that amount at his current location.

He is considering quitting his current Academy to go work out of state at the better paying job and start that Academy there.

Due to the fact that he failed his 1st psych eval and had to do an appeals process, some of the family is concerned that the out of state job location, he may not be treated fairly or receive some sort of back lash regarding that issue. Does this process come into play? Does anybody know?

Who else here has or do you know of others in a similar situation? What did you do? What do you think he should do? Can he get into any trouble or do you believe there would be any back lash if he quit one Academy to go to another? Would either fire department or both find out about this issue? Is it worth the risk? Would you quit one Academy to attend another Academy for better pay and better standard of living? Would you quit one Academy even if the 1st job offer, you had to fight for it, by an appeals process?

I/we are trying to remain anonymous. I am not naming any names, locations, states, dates, etc for fear of somebody finding out about his situation due to how hard it has been for him to get on and how long it has taken him to get this far. Call me paranoid if you want, I don’t care. It is a delicate issue that we can’t take lightly.

In the end, it is his decision and his alone. I will support him whichever path he chooses. I just hope and pray that he goes where God leads him. And I just want to help him make the best possible, informed decision.

Forgive me if I am being ignorant about some things, I am a newbie, and a newbies FF wife, I am only trying to help my husband and make the right decisions!

Another thing that I want to add is that my husband (once he decides once and for all where he needs to be) he will remain loyal to where he is at. He will not jump ship and go looking to find another place.

Thank you all to have replied so far. I appreciate your thoughts/input. I hope that you see my detailed post where I explained more about our situation again & curious to see if you have any other thoughts/ideas/advice.

I sitck with my original comment, dance with the one that brought you.

there are just to many variables invovled in taking the out of state job, for me to say go for it.

yes may be more money, but you have to move, what is the cost of living comapred to where you are at, support of family and friends already, schools, etc.

get on where he is at now in the academy, give it a couple of years, and maybe he may just like it there, also, he can start applying after he gets some time under him and move if he wants to.

yes he won the appeal, should it go against him, something like that no, but still he is the one that appealed, at least it was not a drug use or some other thing like that that he appealed.


also, he only works so many days a month 6,000 a year/ 500 a month/125 week/ is easy to make up just cutting grass or something else, or if he has or will get emt, he can work at many places.

That was a really long and a bit confusing explanation, but I would echo fire49's comment that he stay in the current academy. First, let me say that I personally don't like psych exams because I've seen people get washed out over some really stupid and questionable stuff. I trust them about as much as polygraph tests, which studies have shown to have as much as 50% inaccurate. The other part about them is that the really wacko people and sociopaths seem to breeze through them just fine. That leaves people like your husband who get chewed up and spit out based on some vague answer he likely gave on his relationship with his mother.

With that being said, he appealed the process and won. I agree with your family and friends who feel that this could be held against him by some in the organization. It's sad, but it's true. Stay put is my opinion.

Ok I don't mean to keep hammering away here, but wanted to add some things to maybe make myself a little more clear here. I don't think I explained the $6grand difference well enough. It is not merely a $6K increase. What I was trying to explain is that it would take 11 years of being a FF to not even make what he would make in 2 years out of state as a FF, with still a $6K difference. Does that make any more sense?

And I understand if your answers are still the same, but after I explain the pay scale a little more, maybe you or others would change their mind. But maybe not...

The 1 year difference in annual starting pay recruit is plus $10K. After Academy, the difference in pay is plus $13K.

As a 1 year Firefighter, the annual difference is plus $17K.

As a 2 year FF, the annual difference is plus $21K. And the pay scales differ dramatically if he was to move up in positions, which I know he would, as it is a bigger Fire Dept., bigger city, and he would have better opportunities available to him.

Also, he does have his EMT-B. And yes, he has a guaranteed slot in this out of state Academy. He was officially offered the job at both locations. He has his set start date & pay rate & has completed all his requirements.

And yes there is of course an increase in Cost of Living, but in 2 years difference with $21K plus, that increase in Cost of living wouldn't hurt us. It would only help us.

In today's economy, are you telling me that people wouldn't go where the money is? We are a struggling society & I myself am tired of struggling so hard to make ends meet. We live paycheck to paycheck, & only by the Grace of God, has God allowed us to get by. I know & have talked to so many people that would go where the money is...

Thanks for your time. I appreciate it. Still, all I am doing is just trying to make an informed decision, but just trying to explain things better.

I mean no disrespect whatsoever.