To encourage more ladies into my profession....

[Hannah4banana]

Come on ladies, there must be some mumsnetters bored of the 9 - 5 and looking for a challenge. It's not for everyone but the time off and holidays are fantastic and there's a degree of flexibility. I work 2 x days 2 x nights for 7 weeks then get 18 days off.
I'd love to have some more strong inspiring ladies in my crew.
Here the link
www.myjobscotland.gov.uk/emergency-services/scottish-fire-and-rescue-service/jobs/wholetime-firefighter-149388?from=org
Any questions ask away. I'm 5ft 2 and 9 stone and I can do it. It's more than being a big burly bloke these days

Tulippa you can actually apply if you wear glasses now. We have special lenses that fit into ba masks made for your prescription.

I think you might to work for the Scottish Fire Service bobster or else the commute might be a bit of a killer. But your local fire service might also be looking for 'ladies' too.

But as I'm not in a rush to take a near 50% pay cut to do a really really hard job, that I maintain I would not pass the fitness test for, I'll pass.

I would have thought that £22k would go a lot further in many areas of Scotland than it would in London, even with the London weighting.

Totally agree Barbara, I took a 10k cut for this job but I absolutely love it. The top line is now 30.5k after training which is a bit better.

So what do you do on a normal day?

Beyond recruiting MNs that is

I would really love this. But there are no whole time positions available where I live only retained. Plus I'm 41 so surely a bit old? I can run a marathon and am physically strong though, 5'8" and a size 12.

I could easily freelance in my current role on the days off as well...

I work in a job that seems to be male orientated but there are a lot more women in it since I started 6 years ago.

In fact my exfil asked if there was many women that worked there when I started

I have always thought this would be a great career, but worry about the fitness/strength aspect.. in Scotland too - so will have a look again..

Hi cheshirecat hope this helps! Here's a run down of my day yesterday.

8am roll call - get assigned a role in the fire engine and carry out checks on the ba sets and equipment.

Wee cuppa afterwards.

9am daily station work routine. clean the fire engine, replace any equipment that's missing or damaged and check the specialist equipment at our station.

10am breakfast

1030 drilling. Anything from a BA scenario with search and rescue for a casual to pitching ladders or a chemical incident. Our training schedule is assigned monthly and we do lots of diverse things.

1pm lunch

2pm nursery visit. My fav, we basically give very basic fire safety advice then play with the kids for an hour with the hose and water. It's about making sure they aren't afraid and know that to do if the smoke detector goes off.

230 - home fire safety visit. There was evidence of scorch marks on her carpet and sofa so we fitted smoke detectors and referred to social work for fire retardant bedding. This part always gets to me, you are invited into people's homes and some times you are the only person they see all day. It breaks my heart sometimes.

3pm cooksafe demo. This is a new initiative covering homeless hostels and universities. It's to try and reduce the number of fires in contained accommodation. We go out and do a chip pan demo and give advice on what to do.

4pm gym time. We are encouraged to stay fit and have a really good gym and time to use it in the day.

In between all this stuff we had 8 turnouts, 2 were fires, 1 was an rtc, 1 was to open a door for the ambulance and 4 were false alarms. Thankfully.

Between 5 and 6 we input all the paperwork and record our training before the nightshift comes on.
I am at a fairly busy station but that's a brief rundown onf a day.
Hope that helps!

Knitter of socks that is not too old! There's no upper age restriction. I had a female firefighter in my course that was 45 and she was a machine!

I’m in the US but this is what I’m applying for after my army reserve training

A colleague is married to a woman who is a firefighter: her employer wasn’t willing to give her relatively stable shifts making it very difficult for the couple to find affordable paid childcare. They could only both continue to work with family help.

Well I clicked on this expecting to be all huffy and annoyed about being called a 'lady', but that was really interesting reading, thank you OP

Loopy

That was the problem Jack Monroe had as a single parent. She couldn't make it work so ended up unemployed and on benefits.

I know a couple where he is a fire fighter and she is a police officer. They have 2 primary age DCs so fuck knows how they make it work with shifts and childcare.

A berp test? I might be able to pass that one 😂😂
Seriously though, thanks for the work you do OP.

PlainSpeaking StraightTalking
need a 2nd job? no but they're all at it, cash in hand on their days off.

You make it sound like they are doing something dodgy/you don’t agree with them doing it. Surely it’s up to them? I know that the fire brigade condone it because my mate’s husband stores his tree surgeon equipment in fire brigade premises.

Fair play to you OP and to all firefighters. I would love the community side of it but being called out to RTC's and fires...So hard. Respect.

If it helps one person who is swithering to make a decision to apply then I'll be happy. Thanks for all your comments, I wasn't sure about posting in aibu but I know it gets a lot of traffic. I think I've been let off relatively gently so far

Hiya OP

Thank you for your post.

I am 48 and very fit. I have tried and failed to get into London Fire Service for the last two years. I prepared well for the numerical and reasoning tests (worked through examples on various Fire Service websites - Tyne and Wear, Sussex etc). I also borrowed books from the library on these tests and worked through examples. The mechanical reasoning test was hard and I failed. I have since worked through a mechanical reasoning examples book and a GCSE Physics book.

I was invited to take further tests and turned up at Hammersmith Fire Station. Out of thirty people there was only one other lady besides me.

I went to an Open Day at Paddington Fire Station and took the physical tests. I passed several of them on my first attempt. I was the oldest person there.

I wanted to join the service when I left school in the eighties. I tried my local force (in the north) and was laughed out of the fire station and told to go down to the local tech and become a secretary, which I did.

I have taken a qualification with the Institute of Fire Engineers which I passed. I studied independently with no help. I took the exam at London Fire Brigade HQ near London Bridge.

I passed the personality and situational behaviour tests on both occasions.

Do you have any advice for me love? I think I am too old. I hope they have a recruitment campaign this year. I am thinking of relocating but all my friends (and athletics club) is down here.

Thanking you in advance for a reply!

Forgot to add I am single with no kids. Used to shift work too. Full driving licence with no points.

Thank you!

Hi miss Guernsey, that's really tough! Where are you falling down? At what part of the recruitment? You are never too old. Definitely apply again. If I can help get you through the sections you are failing at please let me know. You sound exactly like the right person for this job!

Forgot to add I passed the maths and verbal reasoning tests on both occasions!

YABVU to ask for 'ladies'.

I am a woman.

Hiya

Thank you for your reply.

It was the mechanical reasoning test that I failed.

The physical tests I passed were the one where you had to put together a pump within a time frame and the one which tests your ability in a claustophobic situation. I failed the one where you had to drag a dummy around a course (one second out). I passed the ladder climb.

Hope this helps!

What’s wrong with being called a lady?

Well I'm too old, too fat and too feart, but thanks for doing this op!