What was your path to becoming a first responder?

Question

Dave Robertson · Answer

I got a question from Blair O'Donovan. What was my path to becoming a first responder? Blair, it's a very sunny day, pardon the sunglasses as I answer from outside. My path was not a straight one. I was a ski instructor initially and in the summertime when there was no snow that first year I had nothing to do and so I kind of accidentally fell into being a volunteer firefighter. Did not have it stuck in my mind that I was going to be a firefighter, totally by accident. This was up north in Canada, as you can tell I'm in Canada right now. I met someone from California, moved down to California, pursued my professional career there again starting as a volunteer and then a reservist and then a paid reservist and eventually a full timer and then bounced around that way. Another part of my first response life was being a paramedic. In the United States, fire and EMS run side by side. Most of the EMS is run by the fire departments and so I became a paramedic as well, largely to become a firefighter, to get hired as a firefighter greatly increased my chances. So my path was not necessarily a straight one. It involved two countries, a couple of volunteer positions and now fire department number five, as I'm rolling towards being a chief. Thanks for the question.

Patrick Fitzgibbons · Answer

My path to becoming a first responder was, I grew up in a military family, so I had that strong Foundation. My dad was in the military for many years, but I also have First Responders in my family. There a lot of them were Chicago police officers. So my pathway was the military. It was kind of a natural progression for me. Coming from a military family, even though some don't go that route, I went that route and as soon as my military time was over, I knew I wanted to serve continue to Serve in a law enforcement capacity so that was my route. The military, instill discipline, you know, being disciplined, physically fit mentally fit into the daily life of being into a being in the military, so that carried on into my law enforcement career. But I think you'll see that a lot in First Responders, a lot of them start out in the military and then get into law enforcement. So, great question. I hope you are having a great day.

Eric McCants · Answer

What was your path to becoming a first responder? My path was a little bit different than most. I didn't choose law enforcement at first. Like I said, I went off to college to begin business management, but I was doing martial arts and I wanted to run the business side of the martial arts school. Eventually, I got kicked out of school, was working at a local grocery store, seen a police officer there telling another guy about the police academy. My mother was bothering me about getting back to school. I needed to find something to do. I eventually ended up talking to that police officer, ended up joining the police academy, went through and I fell in love with law enforcement. So that's kind of how I became a first responder and being in law enforcement. Like I said, I wasn't one of those people that I had family members that did. I did have an uncle, but he did before I was born. And also I wasn't around too many police officers my whole life, but it was something that I grew into and became a passion over time.

Robert Verhelst · Answer

What is my path to becoming a firefighter? You know, my path was kind of all over the board. I've always been in a position that I wanted to be able to help people. And so I was the first aid instructor, I was a lifeguard, all sorts of things. I went through the fire academy before, I actually had a job with the fire service. And when I lived out in California, I actually was an EMT. And I was did a safety director for a construction company. And so, Does a lot of things that I had done before I got into the fire service, that kind of was a catalyst to me applying. So I had applied. All that city of Sacramento applied for city of Madison, a few other places and I got the city of Madison job and I've been there ever since and I love it. I think it's a great profession. It's a it's a really Dynamic profession and it really makes you constantly get better and constantly grow and at the same time it's difficult and that's Okay. That's that's what we all look for. I think it was a lot of people in the first responder community that have went down the path of really getting all the knowledge, they can before they apply to be able to know what it is. They're getting into and I think that's probably one of the best ideas and that's what I did. So I love it, I love the job. I do hope that helps

Jim Keiken · Answer

What was your career path to becoming a first responder? Excellent question. So I was one of those kids that in the 70s, watch TV show, emergency Johnny and Roy. And I said that would be a great career. I think I want to do that. So I got ahold of high school counselor and talk to him and asked him. How do I become a firefighter paramedic? And he says, I don't know. But I know somebody that money and And one of the high school teachers that was my Fayed teacher was on the volunteer Ambulance Service and he put me in contact with him and he got me into the volunteer Ambulance Service. Got me into EMT class while still in high school completed EMT training and was a volunteer on the ambulance service. Also while I was in high school, that same teacher said his hometown was hiring firefighters. I had already seen the job and applied and told him that I applied for a career department and was hired at a very young age and become was lucky enough to become a career, firefighter at 19. So that's how I got started.

SuperDave Leath · Answer

My path to becoming a first responder is a little different than others because when I was in high school, a recruiter came to my school, he handed out cards and he said you'll never know where you'll be four years from now. And I took the card and filled it out and the guy was funny, he kind of piqued my interest a little bit, but I was on the path to becoming a pilot. And then I was told that we were pregnant, me and my high school sweetheart, who later became my wife. And I had a choice to make, pilot or police officer. And police officer seemed like the easier, faster route. It was the easier job that I could get without going to a lot of college. I did do two years of college and got my criminal justice degree, but it wasn't required. And I joined the New York City Police Department and then I got out of there as fast as I could. I had one month left to graduate and I went to a higher paying department, one in my local county and I was been there for the last 25 years and the rest is history. But my one piece of advice to you is to do your research. Now we have the internet, you can do a list of the top 20 highest paid police departments and start there. Apply, apply at those. Why not? You have nothing to lose.

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What was your path to becoming a first responder?

Dave Robertson

Dave Robertson

Patrick Fitzgibbons

Eric McCants

Robert Verhelst

Jim Keiken

SuperDave Leath