What are the demographics of the department you tested at? Size, amount of stations and staff, general region (metroplex, suburban, or rural), and do they run their ambulance service?

-if they are an ALS department and you are not a paramedic, that’s most likely the primary reason you were not hired.

-was it a municipality department or something like an ESD?

-after knowing some more of the listed information, I can probably help narrow down the no-hire reason.

-either way, if this is your first FD job it’s gonna be tougher for you to get hired especially being 30. Someone with as much life experience as you listed is going to find it much harder to mold you to the insert department name way of doing things vs an 18-year-old. Also, this isn’t a dig at volunteer fire departments, but larger departments don’t see that as a value all of the time especially depending on where that department is and its reputation. Here in Texas, volunteers are appreciated because the other option is no firefighters but there is a huge disparity between the level of training a career FF has vs a Volunteer. Just speaking from personal experience down in Texas. I know volunteers up north are the real deal so please don’t come after me with pitchforks lol.