fire academy 1st or emt cert.....

[yogi13]

first a little background info...i'm 25 and want to be a firefighter/paramedic. the fire academy in my area has a potential 1-2 year wait period for acceptance. i am basically starting from square one in that this is a total career change and i don't have an emt cert.

so the question is...would it be best to jump start and go ahead with emt cert. then the paramedic program. or take the tests and wait it out (if and when i get accepted at all).

any bit of direction would be a great help.

thx

[yogi13]

Thanks!

[KYEMT325]

Go ahead and get your EMT-Basic Certification, you can't go wrong there. If you've checked out the 911hotjobs site, you see that almost every advertisement for firefighters require you to already have your state or NREMT certifications before they will even let you apply.

I agree with jmooney, don't waste your own money on the paramedic certification. There are 2 reasons for this, 1) If you can get them to pay for it (most fire depts have their own paramedic program in place or arrangements with colleges to give you the class), then let them pay for it. 2) Not sure about Florida, but in Kentucky, you have to work 24 hours a month as a paramedic in order to keep your certification. It would be pretty bad if you went through all that school, then didn't get a fire dept job and couldn't find a place to let you put in your 24 hours a month, you would lose your certification and there's your money down the drain.

So, in recap, get that EMT certification. It's good to have in the first place, and it can only help you in attaining a fire department job later. Good luck to you.