Any one have any experience doing this job? What nonsense came with the position? Should I do it?
>>2843345>nonsenseNone. It was fucking epic. Best job I ever had. I hope to go back to it one day, hopefully next year.Literally no complaints. Was a dream. Completely shits on normal jobs in all ways.t. type 2 handcrew in Oregon/Washington If you have any questions ask away
>>2843345I will say right now, if you want to do next season you should begin your physical training now. The PT test for your red card is a joke. A 3 mile walk with 45lbs in 45 minutes. It's nothing. The job is MUCH harder, especially if you are on a badass crew. You want to be on a badass crew.You should be able to walk 20 miles faster than 3 mph with full gear and be ready to workout immediately after. 5 minute mile, 20 pullups, you want these types of standards.You need a good point of view. You will get hurt. You will feel pain. You need to know how to process that and keep pushing. Training often gives you the confidence and the knowledge of your body and helps you do that.
If you're joining Calfire or Grayback the standards will be lower but you really want to hold yourself to a high standard in this profession and work for a crew with a really solid reputation
>>2843345Don't become the baked potato
>>2843363>oops this fire can melt steel!>too bad
>>2843345It is going to depend heavily on where you go and what kind of crew you're assigned to. Most people don't have experiences like >>2843355. For the love of God, please don't go CalFire. You'll spend more time accidentally starting fires due to incompetence than you will actually fighting them.
>>2843372how does food work? do crews get cooks hiked in or MRE type bullshit? any bizarre stories from crew members' behavior? I don't want to be with a bunch of ass wipes.
>>2843355USAJOBS is a shit show of a website. How long did it take for you to get hired from when you sent in your application? Was pay decent? I'm a 2LT in the Army Reserves and looking for a job since I got laid off. >>2843356I'm not too worried about it uncle sam already has me running around. I did some trail crew stuff a few years ago in New Mexico. Those packs were like 80 pounds
>>2843383I contacted the company directly, flew 2500 miles with no resume whatsoever and just simply did it.If you have a pulse, a contractor will hire you. You'll be fine, just focus on the certs and leadership since you're ex-military. Many people you'll work with are straight out of highschool until you get to the type 1 crews.
>>2843384sweet sounds like onboarding is pretty easy. yeah economy is fucked i'm just gonna do what makes me happy and go innawoods.
>>2843385you're gonna have so much fun bro
>>2843345I did it for a little while. Awesome work for little pay; good for single, young, healthy guys with very few outside commitments. Not a good long-term career. You should try to transition into something else on the federal NatRes side eventually. A few folks I workes with went on to become other various -ologists who kept their red cards and went out for a couple weeks every year. That's the sweet spot imoI had to stop due to health issues. I miss it every day
>>2843386Don't fall for this he's trying to trick you
>>2843345I did helitack in Canada. Best job ever, great people, good summer money. Fought fires around Canada and down in Montana. Was our crew's tree faller towards the end, loved running the saw. Initial attack is so based, I worked hundreds of fires in just a few years.
>>2843345I was in fire from 2012 to 2021 including 8 years on a R6 IHC. It’s great when you’re a young guy. It’s definitely a lot of work and requires some extreme endurance and physical fitness - especially if you want to be on a type 1 module. I was usually middle of the pack in terms of fitness but I could still run a mile and a half in 9-930 minutes. When I started in fire I was on an engine and desu I have really fond memories of that experience - maybe even more so than being on the hotshot crew. It was a very chill environment and I don’t think I got more than 500 hours of OT in either year when I was on the engine. Obviously that meant I was poor and so I ended up working in timber during the winter instead of getting laid off. When I went to the hotshot crew, it was completely different; I don’t think I ever got less than 1200 hours of OT. But that meant I felt comfortable enough to get laid off and I ended up traveling a lot which was an awesome experience. But working that much burned me out and 2021 was a brutal year for me and I ended up quitting fire altogether. If I could do it again I probably would have gone back to the engines or rappelled, something that allowed more of a work life balance.
>>2843345Go for it. You'll see new places, make great friends, learn valuable lessons and be set financially in the winter months to do whatever you feel.Been in it since 2019 and will keep at it for another 2-3 years 'til I move on. USFS. Engines & Helitack.Apply for the feds on USAjobs.gov don't bother with private contractors or state agencies. Do a couple summers on an engine or Type 2 handcrew and move onto a Type 1 handcrew or helitack if aviation appeals to you.>>28433872nd what this guy said. Not a viable long-term career but you won't regret doing it in your 20's if you aren't burdened with any of those outside commitments. It'll set you up to springboard into and succeed wherever life takes you next.
>>2843387>>2844042DOD fire is the way to go
>>2843345>Should I do it?No. The Mexicans who mow my lawn get paid more for less work.
>>2846653You get paid in sunsets for wildlands.
bump for interest
>>2846653>>2847902they just got a big raise this year, 21 an hour to start with no experience at gs3
>>2843345It's really unfortunate that forest jannies and hot shots get paid dogshit wages while white collar fake work email job government employees living near DC get to be GS12s.
>>2848663Fire got an up to 30% increase to basepay this year, so they can make decent money once you add up overtime, hazard pay, and the lower living expenses. Us forest jannies are still fucked though. Fast food would be a lateral move in pay.
>>2843345Its fun and if you work for a contractor and go year round you'll easily clear 6 figures
>>2843345how do u get into this?? i've applied to a lot of job postings, got emails about "interest checks" and now nothing. do i just have to be patient?
>>2848833you need to tell them that your dick is 2 feet long, so they know you're serious
>>2848881i better get paid extra for bringing my own fire hose then.
>>2848833It takes a while for offers to come out. After applying for the next year's season in Aug/Sept, I got interest checks for about 3 months after. I didn't get a phone call from the engine captain usually until ~Feb/March. It's normal, but if you don't hear anything by like, April I would start calling some of the stations you got interest checks for and follow up.
>>2849598>>2848833they dont hire until the spring dont even bother right nowthey do "interest checks" because youre WAY out of seasonfind a private contractor that will pay for your red card, ez pathshit like grayback is low bar, id say just dont look like a pussy but hell you probably could look like a pussy, ive seen fat women do this job, it varies widely by crew, there are type 2 crews where every man could make type 1, and then there are thicc latinas in the same uniform on a different crew but its still type 2. Reputation is big, and the assignments your crew gets are highly dependent on thisIf you are type 2 being assigned initial attack work, good job, you have a solid crew >>2849036they call it hazard pay
>>2849598>>2848833>calling stationsI feel delirious when I hear people try to begin this career via government workPrivate is by far the easiest path, as easy as getting a job digging ditches. Also private contractors are wild bastards and their off season work can be totally cool as fuck(my company was doing security in Guatemala LOL WTF)
>>2849667>>2849668>find a private contractor that will pay for your red card, ez path>Private is by far the easiest path, as easy as getting a job digging ditches.Feds pay for you to get your red card, also. Plenty of stations will put you through the basic S130 classes for you to get your basic FFT2 qual during your first couple weeks out there. Private contractors do make more, but the Feds open up more doors for career progression long-term if you wanna stay in the natural resources business. In my offseason I went to do Rx burns in the southeast, northeast, northwoods, Australia, Canada, all sorts of stuff. Or, if there was nothing to burn/keep from burning, I got to detail with USFWS and help the -ologist nerds with their own special projects. There's always ski bum gigs, SAR, and snow ranger autism, too.Not saying that private contractors aren't a good avenue, but the ceiling is lower from my point of view even if they start at a higher pay rate.
>>2849686Bro the thread is full of limp dick fags that are like "i dun knoooo i appwied but nobody respwonded" buncha fucking pussy bitches private is the way to go because A LOT of those dudes will hire you if you have a pulsea government job you actually have to be a functional human, not private these are 4channers and they seem to specifically always find a way to talk about how things are hard, fucking pussies goddamn fuck government is ONLY GOOD if you are a functional human with a good resume, ALL OTHERS go private, you'll do better, you won't even need a resume, might not even need an applicationprivate outfits often ALSO pay for your training, and sometimes gear
>>2849688>tl;dr: if you're a rabid hobo go private, if you're ex-military without a criminal record go government
>>2849688Feds paid for my training and gear, too. All I had to do was show up. They give you a boot voucher every 3 years, too. Or at least the USFS does, I dunno about the other agencies>without a criminal record go governmentEvery other smokejumper or rappeller I met had a DUI or some sort of retarded assault case they got in a bar fight. I had three possession charges between two different states when I started.
>>2849691Look this is universal for all jobs>private is ALWAYS easier for entryGovernment is the "good version" of the job, anon
For the record the choice you are making in life between public and private is the right to be a degenerate more often Other people call it fun
>>2849706I'm never denied that private is easier to get intoI wanted to clear up the apparent misconception that gov't wildland fire is hard to get into or doesn't provide as much training/gear as the private side when starting off, which is just flat out untrue. They provide plenty
>>2849714I dont think that misconception existedIf you get a gov job you typically expect an ass wiping and a pensionIt *is* harder to land than privatePrivate you could use a totally fake resume with no references lmao
There is an alternative to working directly in fire.If you get any other kind of job working for federal land management agencies in a local office/station you can then get your red card and go on fire assignments. In forest service and BLM offices especially, this is very common and the offcies plan their workforce around people leaving for fires in the season, and depending on the office you can get up to months worth of assignments.You get to pick and choose assignments as they come up, work different jobs, and can often extend past the initial 2 week assignment. You get all the good pay and experience and shit without having to only do fire. You can also get to higher pay grades faster and get paid at that rate while on assignment regardless of your actual fire job.
>>2849828Decent suggestion, but not viable right now. Feds aren't even hiring non-fire seasonal staff right now or for the foreseeable future. Let alone year round employees.
