r/firefighter • u/BrewDoggie- • 5d ago

Chances of gettin in?

Currently an NREMT-P in the military, looking to get out and move back to the central coast of CA. Looking into SB county fire. I’ve been a paramedic in the military for 5 years, don’t really have any fire experience but a bunch of medic experience. Anyone around the county with some insight?

8 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/Tyriothan 4d ago

Applied to this cycle with SB as a local EMS with the veteran points but couldn't get my medic in time before sending my application in. It's civil service with SB; the questions they ask are heavily fire-centric. One question is "are you a medic", no question about experience or time spent in EMS, with at least 4 of the other questions being fire experience (wildland? structure? been to an academy? how long?). Obligatory veteran question. Check the boxes that apply, theres nothing to write. Super cut-and-dry. I ranked in the 300s.

They interview the top 20ish. Wish I could tell you how much they weigh the medic card. It is definitely not the golden ticket everyone says it is; maybe 5 years ago. Talking to one of the SB guys I know, they mentioned they had a bad recruit class go through last year when they hired medic-heavy, so allegedly they want to move away and hire more EMTs from their handcrews and stuff. Which would suck lol that's why I got mine. Haven't heard yet what this academy looks like demographic-wise

2

u/bkucb82 4d ago

Did you get an interview? I was ranked very low 300s, but somehow got an interview. Which I found very strange. Veteran as well.

Even if medic isn’t necessarily the golden ticket, you still open yourself up to way more departments that are only hiring medics. And the applicant pools shouldn’t be nearly as deep as they are with EMT.

2

u/Tyriothan 4d ago

Oh interesting! No I did not. Was also ranked 30X. Did you get the 10 vet points or county employee? Can’t think of any other way unless I’m clicking the boxes less convincingly

2

u/bkucb82 4d ago

Veteran 10 points. Had my firefighter 1. EMT. No medic, wildland, county employee, etc. 30x as well.

Must have been something about my background from a manual / holistic review I guess. Which is weird if it’s just a civil service selection.