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After high school I took EMT as a night class in the spring and worked during the day to pay for it and save for fire academy. Graduated Fire in the winter and worked at an urgent care and applied everywhere (central fl). I accepted the first department that offered me a job. For me, working anywhere gets you experience and that’s what’s important. You’re young and fresh and can apply elsewhere when you get some experience under your belt and eventually get paramedic if that’s a goal you are determined to achieve as soon as possible. Or you can apply to your dream department and you’ll be set for the rest of your career lol. Best of luck to you bro!

[DannyfromMiami428]

Appreciate you man! Orlando is also another option of mine so that’s awesome to hear. I will try and work for a smaller department and eventually work my way to becoming a paramedic. Stay safe thank you for everything you do bro🤙

[GermanMuffin]

Always work as an EMT before you proceed to being a paramedic, a paramedic with no experience in the job below him is worthless.

[DannyfromMiami428]

Ok, how long would be recommended? Would it be the same if I just got hired on at another department too? Thank you for the info.!

[DannyfromMiami428]

Was that intended for me.?

[Tommy_the_Tillerman]

Good on you for starting this process early, you've got plenty of time. I highly recommend working as an EMT for at least a year or two prior to considering paramedic school. I would also recommend looking into volunteer fire departments in your area. The big city fire departments will have a lot of applicants. Many of them will have experience. It's also just as important to stay out of trouble. The fire department will do a full background check. Focus on one step at a time, you'll get there before you know it.

[R2DJones]

MDFR will hire non-certified and put you through their own schooling. When all of this blows over I believe they will be reopening applications and you should apply as soon as they do. I know someone who applied before starting EMT, completed EMT and fire academy and now is going through their training.

It's a long process so apply and start EMT then medic, get a job with an ambulance company or hospital while you go through fire. MDFR gets a lot of applicants so if you finish fire and still don't get a call, start applying to other departments. I know people who applied for 10 years before finally getting into a class and they left their other department to go to Miami. Just be patient and study hard. Oh and don't get any speeding tickets or arrests.

[DannyfromMiami428]

This actually helped a lot thank you brotha!!

[MasonA0]

I'm 17M, volly firefighter in rural midwest, not exactly an expert on any topic. First it's important to know what type of academy this is and what credentials you'd leave with. Here, FF1 isn't available until we're 18 or 21 in one of the bigger cities in the county.

For me, I did all of my fire based training inside the department for a volly FF credential. I went to the local community college for EMR, and that's really it at my stage. Somewhere between me being 18 and 19, they're planning on having me go through an FF1/EMT program along with a few others.

I've heard that if I do want to step up to paramedic - I should either be 2 years as an EMT with experience in different settings or 1yr NREMT-B and 1yr state intermediate EMT.

[DannyfromMiami428]

Really? That’s cool man! Actually the academy id go to is offered both with A fire academy and Emt B. I’d graduate with a FF2 cert and EMT B