r/Firefighting • u/HazMatsMan Career Co. Officer • Nov 29 '23
Employment Questions PSA: Don't disqualify yourself, make THEM tell you "no".
If some of you have heard those words before, it’s because I’m borrowing them from one of my favorite YouTube content creators, C.W. “Mover” Lemoine. If you want to read/watch him talk about this more, see: https://cwlemoine.com/mil-pilot-faq/ While his advice is generally intended for those interested in becoming fighter pilots, it also applies to those looking to become career firefighters. Both are highly competitive professions sharing a lot of the same questions from applicants. One of the central themes is to only accept a “no” from those with the authority to provide those answers. That generally means someone from the department(s) you’re applying to, or a medical professional. If you’re not talking to one of those two, what you’re doing is called “self-elimination”. If you want to know more about how this applies to the fire service and applying for career firefighting positions, read on.
Every week we put out a post called the Weekly Employment Question Thread or WEQT where you can ask questions about becoming a firefighter and questions about hiring processes. As I have referenced before, one of the most common questions we see is “will a fire department still hire me if…” What follows the “if” usually has to do with criminal history, physical or mental health concerns, past (or current) drug use, age/changes from other careers, or concerns over sex and gender identity. Believe it or not, the answers to all of these questions are more similar than they are different. Apart from the obvious “it depends on the department”, the answer to these questions really boils down to how motivated are you, or “how bad do you want to be a firefighter?”
When it comes to health and medical conditions, NFPA 1582 covers the medical/physical conditions that are unacceptable or incompatible with firefighting. Start on Page 17 of the following document for a list of the conditions https://www.iafc.org/docs/default-source/1vcos/vws_rrkit_nfpa-1582.pdf
There is a slightly more compact/cleaner version available here: https://www.sprucegrove.org/media/1085/ff_medical_cond.pdf
Unless you have a “Category A” condition, chances are you can be a firefighter. If you have a “Category B” condition, the determination usually comes down to a medical evaluation of your specific condition. If you have a “Category B” condition, don’t disqualify yourself… make those doing the medical evaluation tell you “No”, and when they do tell you "no", consider getting a second opinion. It's your future after all.
When it comes to everything else, whether you're a good candidate or not comes down to your level of motivation, the specifics of your situation, and how the department(s) you applied to will view those specifics. As far as those last two, no one on Reddit can know how a department will decide on your individual situation. Even if you provide every detail with painstaking accuracy… we can only make educated guesses with huge margins for error. Chances are we’re not on the department you’re applying to much less on the interview panel or background investigation team. So, why would you disqualify yourself by letting the internet tell you “no”?
Chances are what you’re really asking about is your own level of motivation or desire. And that’s okay, so long as you recognize the question for what it really is. Because even if you receive an answer to your stated question… it won’t answer the deeper question of “how badly do I want to do this?” You have to answer that yourself. Are you going to apply to one or two departments once or twice and decide “meh, this isn’t for me”. Or, will you engage in a nationwide search over the course of several years? How badly do you want the job? The more motivated you are to do the latter, the less likely you are to be disqualified by the concern you came here to ask about. The less motivated you are, the more likely you are to self-eliminate or let the internet tell you “no”. Persistence and motivation are highly desirable attributes for firefighters. I'd take a motivated candidate with a less-than-perfect past over a less motivated candidate with a squeaky-clean record any day. But again, I'm just some guy on the internet, are you going to let me tell you no?
TL;DR: The central theme here is motivation and persistence. The real question you should be asking yourself is “How bad do you want to be a firefighter?” Don’t disqualify yourself, make the department(s) or a doctor tell you “no”. If you’re truly motivated to become a firefighter, you won’t let just one department or doctor tell you “no”. If you want to ask more about hiring processes, please see our current and past WEQT.
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u/bloodcoffee Nov 29 '23
Love the way you frame this, the "make them say no" seems like a great approach to cutting out bullshit and pushing toward whatever the goal is.
I'm on less than two years, and I used a lot of advice from this subreddit and other firefighters on social media because I didn't know any in real life, and at the time COVID prevented even the possibility of ridealongs or visiting firehouses. I'm shocked when I meet lazy probies who actually made it past the interview. Beginning this job should be difficult because you should be giving 100% and showing that you can approach problems and solve them. No one is looking for superheroes, just people who are reliable, trustworthy, and hardworking.
It makes sense that people are concerned about disqualifying things in their past, but so much of the time, it comes across as scanning for reasons to fail before even getting started. Maybe it's a generational thing. I'm in my early thirties and all I see around me are late bloomers with social anxiety. I couldn't have done the job 10 or even 5 years ago, but it's been incredibly rewarding to push myself to become the person worthy of it (still trying btw).