Any firefighters on here? DS interested as a career

[mugglemother]

my DS finished school next year and interested in training to be a firefighter. Anyone here work for the fire service who could give some insight into the realities of the job. Also interested to know how likely it is he would actually get a role as a wholetime firefighter as I can see it's quite a lengthy application/on-boarding process but there doesn't appear to be any actual job vacancies advertised other than non frontline roles.

My DH is a firefighter. It’s one of those jobs that people don’t seem to leave (as long as you can cope with the physical/mental demands).

Have you got any retained stations near you? DH went retained first for a few years and then whole time but in the MOD.

Depending on shift pattern, your location etc you might find that he might be better off applying for other counties. It is a very lengthy application but if you are able to get a retained position you can do transferability once applications are open which shortens it.

The other thing he can look at is RAF Firefighter or private such as MOD.

In regards to realities of the job it depends what route he goes down. With retained: it’s a massive commitment, you are essentially stuck in the local area waiting for shouts. Some jobs allow you to be on call at the same time if it is local. You will attend things such as alarms, RTCs, house fires, animal rescue etc. Depending on area you might not have a shout for a week!

My advice to anyone who is looking at fire service as a whole is too look at retained first, they normally have open evenings at your local station when they are recruiting, I hope this helps!

My DH is a firefighter. He loves his job and has been doing it around 10yrs. From speaking with him it seems like every county has their own way of working things which is confusing to me, I assumed everyone worked in the same way.

it’s very physically demanding, obviously. I can’t even lift DH’s kit bag that he has to take into work so no idea how he wears that kit day in day out. He’s not physically large so he took plenty of time before applying to work on his fitness and strength. I think he was a trainee for 2yrs and I don’t think that time frame has changed. The pay was dire but that might have improved now.

My DH works 4 on, 4 off but it’s not 4 full days off as he doesn’t come off shift until 8am on his first day off.
Has your son got any specialisms? My DH is an experienced climber which helped him when he was working rope rescue. He’s now water rescue but will soon be moving to another station where he’ll be another specialism. He really misses being a basic firefighter as now he’s higher up the chain, he mainly just bosses people around.

One thing he’s complained a lot about is the lack of capable recruits - ie can’t follow an order, dawdle when asked to do something, can’t think for themselves etc. So if your son is a very capable person, it will be noticed. My DH works hard with his recruits but not all do.

Once you’re in, promotions are hard to come by - the promotion process is crazy and extensive but a year later there’s still no available roles, everyone is just on a list waiting for someone to retire. A lot of firefighters seem happy with being a general firefighter though on the lowest grade as they are the ones that actually get to do the exciting stuff.

Thanks both that's really useful. He's definitely not wanting to do retained - if for not other reason than he then needs to think of another career and finding one is hard enough! He's a fitness fantastic (gym, runner mainly but anything goes!) so no issues on that side and has had/has a couple of PT jobs and done various volunteering things so no lack of 'get up and go' and his employers have all raved about him as he's very sociable and engaging, punctual and hard working.

It sounds like an open day might be a good start and contacting the local branch for advice. Will also mention RAF / MOD as possible alternatives but military hasn't really appealed in the past (he's quite a home boy for someone so sociable!)

Definitely tell him to go to an open day.

It’s probably worth noting the mental health aspect of the job too. On several occasions my DH’s station have been called out to deal with suicides of their own workers. He definitely needs to be able to healthily deal with all the awful stuff he will see and be prepared to see things no one wants to have to deal with.

My DH has been to some horrific scenes and is also required to be present during riots (they get projectiles etc thrown at them) and has to go out searching for drowned children in the local river. They spend a fair bit of time out searching for people with mental health conditions to make sure they haven’t gone into rivers or stood waiting to jump off a bridge. But equally there’s a lot of installing smoke alarms for people or breaking into homes in the middle of the night to let the paramedics in.

There’s a lot of wasted time and resources - one of my DH’s bugbears is seeing 6 ambulances and 8 police cars alongside 4 fire engines to deal with 1 person who may or may not have entered a shallow pond. It drives him mad. We have a huge issue with lack of resource where we are and sending everyone to one incident is infuriating and frankly dangerous for anyone else who may be in trouble a few miles away.

Where we live there are a lot of field fires, hay going up in flames and the moors on fire. This can mean very long shifts and cancelled leave. They occasionally get the chance to work in other areas of the country during major incidents and will be offered a chance to volunteer to go.

When my DH started there was definitely a culture of the ‘blokey’ types but thankfully that’s eased off now. My DH raised concerns and complaints and was treated as being ‘weird’ for not joining in the sexism and misogyny. There’s been a huge change in how it’s dealt with but it does still exist on some watches.

Yes! 20 years in, I've worked in control and as a firefighter now im in a specialised role.
Ask away!
Most firefighters will say its the best job in the world, me included! I would say retained isn't an easy path into full time in my service but they are becoming more open to the idea.
Whereabouts do you live?
What makes him want to follow that career path 😊

There are other emergency services that are worth considering too as well as a variety of adjacent professional roles within them. I do IT for one and love it. If he's set on firefighting, there's also that in the military. And it's a component of seafarer training. My advice is to think broad and apply to opportunities as they come up.

Wow thanks this is so helpful. I asked why he wants to join the fire service and it's a combination of wanting to help/care for people but not in the medial sense (no definitely not healthcare) he's very sociable so likes the idea of being part of a team and working face to face with people, he doesn't want a desk job & is conscious of so many corporate jobs being overtaken by AI & being (in his words) boring as hell! He was originally thinking teaching but too many teacher friends & family seem to have put him off but the education side also interests😀 him. I think being & keeping physically fit as part of the job is also a key part. We're in Kent.

I mentioned seafarer training - absolute hard no to living at sea! And similar response to military where there is lots of cross-over but he just doesn't want to live miles from home full time at this stage and it just doesn't excite him as much as fire service.

Its great that he has a focus.
Recruitment was paused with a lot of services but its starting to open up again. All services have their own recruitment criteria although they are usually pretty similar.
Follow Kents website usually all the stages are there with videos and descriptions of the standard required.
One thing I would say is I joined at 25, already had a bit of life experience and had worked in the Ops control room. I think I coped better with everything chucked at me.
The days of being yelled at are away now, its about getting the best out of people but you get out what you put in.
If you want to dm me I will happily help him with any applications or prep.
Cadets is a great way to get a feel for the job and equipment and would definitely give him a step up for intervuew prep.

Cheers
Ff1

Its great that he has a focus.
Recruitment was paused with a lot of services but its starting to open up again. All services have their own recruitment criteria although they are usually pretty similar.
Follow Kents website usually all the stages are there with videos and descriptions of the standard required.
One thing I would say is I joined at 25, already had a bit of life experience and had worked in the Ops control room. I think I coped better with everything chucked at me.
The days of being yelled at are away now, its about getting the best out of people but you get out what you put in.
If you want to dm me I will happily help him with any applications or prep.
Cadets is a great way to get a feel for the job and equipment and would definitely give him a step up for intervuew prep.

Cheers
Ff1

If you're in Kent, coastguard are also there. Some are volunteers spread around the coast and do things like mud rescues, but there are full time ops staff in Dover. RNLI and potentially other independent lifeboats are also options if he wants to volunteer alongside for experience.

Also, I'd recommend a few first aid classes eg Red Cross to see if he likes it and to start preparing him for applications.

Airport firefighter again opportunity may be few and far between but it is full time.

There are associated long term health risks to consider, ppe is much better than it was but not infallible.