I've been considering firefighting recently because I feel like my degree isn't right for me. I like the idea of having a job with lots of stability that isn't some variation of being a slave or an asshole (military or cop). They have weird schedules where they work 24 hours a day then get 24-48 hours off. There's also unlimited overtime so you can easily save up for a house. You get to make friends with people who are willing to throw themselves into harm's way to help others. You will also never worry about being jobless. The only downsides I can think of are the schedules. I don't mind working 16 hours a day, but 24 is kinda retarded. You need sleep otherwise you risk being too mentally incompetent to do your job. There's also the hazing mentality that's still present in a lot of departments. I'm too old for that shit. The risk of lung cancer is also a fear but not nearly as bad as having to deal with terrible sleep.
>>34644480Long hours of boredom punctuated by minutes of sheer terror.
>>34644755Not to mention you gotta be constantly fit to be a firefighter, like in general you need to be strong enough for a dead lift.
>>34644792the fitness part isnt an issue
>>34644480You have to be an extreme extrovert or else you get fucked as the rookie because they’ll want you to talk as much as possible, basically. At the department I worked at it was mandatory for you to *eventually* be a paramedic so if you hate medical shit and the idea of learning dozens of medications and the dosage rates for them it would be hell. Also it’s very easy for a 24-on 48-off to turn into 48-on 24-off because your replacement got sick or is an asshole and has a bs excuse to not work that day. It was a very interesting job overall and I definitely don’t regret going through the academy because it helped my confidence a lot, but it just wasn’t going to work out for me in the long run, I couldn’t stay there until retirement
>>34644947Also forgot to mention that, obviously, if you work long enough you’ll see some bad shit. You might think you can just brush it off easily but you WILL see something that get under your skin eventually. The divorce rates for firefighters are actually pretty high because of the natural stress of the job + being gone for long stretches of time + inevitably getting traumatized
