# San Jose, CA / Southbay San Francisco



## indolent (Feb 10, 2012)

Hey all!

Just joined the forums, this is my first post. I just got my nremt, am 24, and haven't had any tickets in almost 4 years. Any thoughts on ems in San Jose or the southbay area? Most of the websites i have visited for different companies say <insert company name> "is currently looking for EMT's...." These include Rural/Metro, Silicon Valley Ambulance, GoldenState (i think). Any opinions of the companies? Are they _really_ hiring? Ill still apply of course. I go to San Jose State, and live really close. Is it worth it to apply to companies that are further away? Also, i have a friend working for AMR, but they are not in San Jose as far as i can tell, would a hour commute be worth it for the experience? Also, any general advice greatly appreciated. Thanks!


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## BeachMedic (Feb 10, 2012)

Hey there.

I still live in San Jose but have never worked as a Medic or EMT in San Jose. So I might not be the best to come to for advice in that area. I do have friends that used to work for Golden State who have nothing good to say about that company (They are both fire fighters now). If you need experience any place is as good as any other to start though. Golden State gave me an interview right away after I received my NREMT-B.

I was hired by AMR Alameda County though and I worked there for 4 and a 1/2 years. First as an EMT, and then later as a Medic. Great county to work in with great people. AMR lost the countract so I transferred to AMR Santa Cruz; which is a lot smaller but it is Dual-Medic and a good place to work.

If I were you i'd shoot for Rural Metro in San Jose, Paramedics Plus in Alameda County, and AMR in either San Mateo or San Francisco County. Those would be your best options for getting 911 ALS experience and contacts. They also pay a lot more than the BLS companies. 

I live in Japantown (off 3rd St.) and it is almost exactly 30 miles/minutes to both P+ operations in San Leandro and AMR San Mateo County operations in Burlingame. It's not a bad commute at all if you can avoid rush hour. Of course Rural Metro would be the shortest drive. The EMT's for all 3 companies I mentioned make the same hourly rate because they are all under the same union contract; which was negotiated before Rural Metro and P+ took over the AMR 911 contracts in the area.


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## Aprz (Feb 11, 2012)

Just to clarify, the NREMT by itself isn't good enough to apply for EMT jobs; You need to be certified by the state.

I'm an EMT at ProTransport-1 in Palo Alto.

Here's a list of ambulance companies I can think of that are within an hour (or two) from you.

Westmed Ambulance
Royal Ambulance
Rural/Metro
Paramedic Plus
American Medical Response
ProTransport-1
Silicon Valley Ambulance
King American Ambulance
California Ambulance
St. Joseph's Ambulance
Golden State
Norcal Ambulance
Bayshore Ambulance
Cabulance
Merritt Ambulance

A non ambulance EMT job that's currently hiring is also Great America.

You should also be able to see all the ER or ED tech jobs available on indeed.com.

It sucks trying to get an EMT job in the bay area. Apply everywhere.


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## indolent (Feb 11, 2012)

Thanks for the responses guys, its really helpful. Ill try with the first 3 companies that the first response has. Is it worth it to do in person? I have nice clothes (shirt/tie ect...), should i dress semi-casual or with a tie. Where do i get the CA license? Also, i forgot to ask a couple questions while on my ride along. Figured i could try here. How to you feel about 12/24 hour shifts? which do you prefer? 24 would fit in my school schedule better, but would you recommend them for a newbie? I took the class in Monterey, so my ride along was down there, and we had a pretty slow shift, 1 call  and then a transport for like 6 hours. And that was normal Tuesday according to the medic. In these areas mentioned, like San Jose / San Mateo / Alameda / San Fransisco, whats an average day/night shift like? Always crazy? i know it varies, and you can get lucky/unlucky. In Monterey, apparently if you are a crew coming on from 5-10, you are more likely to get long transports. is it the same everywhere? Thanks again.


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## Aprz (Feb 11, 2012)

I thank you for asking these questions, I will answer them, but you should next time search the forum or Google.

You NEED to get your state EMT certification, ambulance driver certificate, and medical examiner card (green card) before you even apply for EMT positions.

Since you live in San Jose, the closest EMS Agency to you is Santa Clara County EMS Agency (976 Lenzen Ave., San Jose, CA 95126). You need to have your NREMT card, NREMT certificate, class completion certificate, skill competency verification form, AHA for the Healthcare Provider, LiveScan*, appropriately filled out the EMS Personnel Application (EMS 901), and two government issued IDs (e.g. CA Driver License and Passport). You'll need to pay $75 to the state, and $50 to the county. Policy 200, Policy 201, Santa Clara County EMS Agency - EMT Certification & Paramedic Accreditation

*You can do your LiveScan at Santa Clara's Sheriff Office (55 Younger Ave., San Jose, CA 95110). I believe they require an appointment.

To get your ambulance driver certificate, you should go to DMV, ask for the necessary paperwork. They should give you the same form you filled out for your CA driver license or CA state ID, but there is a check box "Ambulance Driver Certificate" that you need to check off. You should also get DL 51. When I got DL 51, the green medical examiner card was already attached to it, but if not, I've read that some clinics have them. You can buy a $5 blue handbook of ambulance driving. You'll need to take a written test. There used to be a website where you could look up some of the questions word to word verbatim, and people would tell you to Google "AMR EVOC". The site has been down, but you can look up the questions (without answers). It's mentioned here. You'll also get the DMV LiveScan form (you can do this at Santa Clara's Sheriff Office also). DMV is generally just as confused as you are about ambulance driver certificates. Ambulance Driver Certification

If you plan on working in Santa Clara County, you'll need SEMS (this is a walk in class that includes ICS 100 and NIMS 700; your company may be able to introduce you to SEMS), ICS 100, ICS 200, NIMS 700, IS 704, AWR 160, and IS 3. After you're hired by a company in Santa Clara County, you'll have to wait for a system ID badge to work in the county, and within three months of hire also attend a county orientation. Policy 214

You are responsible for your certifications, not your company. Your company may or may not help you.

Each company is different. Sometimes you'll dress up like James Bond, and the company will think it's overdone. Other companies will think you're an asset they want for their company. Sometimes you'll dress semi-causal, and you won't be seen as profession, or maybe just professional, but laid back, exactly the kind of guy that'll get along with our current staff. Some companies only take application online (e.g. Royal Ambulance). It may or may not help you to walk in to shake babies and kiss hands (I always get this part mixed up!).

Each company offers different hours. A lot of them seem to have 12 and 24 hour shifts. My company has 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 24. 12 and 24 hours are only for dedicated critical care transport (CCT) rigs and advance life support (ALS) rigs. I've done a couple of 12 hour shifts, and I loved it. I've never done a 24 hour shift.

Call types and volume are going vary by company, location, AND time. At ProTransport-1, crews from the Palo Alto station regularly get long distance transports during the daytime. For those who don't, it's usually slow (<3 calls). I work graveyards out of Palo Alto. We have gone several days without calls. Usually they are not long distance. I worked out of Oakland both daytime and graveyards. During the day, we'd get at least 5 calls. They were rarely longer than a couple of miles (3.1 miles from Eden Medical Center to John George Pavilion felt like forever compared to a lot of our transports). During graveyard, we'd get at least 2 calls a night, usually psychiatric holds, and the transports just as short as the day.


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## BeachMedic (Feb 12, 2012)

indolent said:


> Thanks for the responses guys, its really helpful. Ill try with the first 3 companies that the first response has. Is it worth it to do in person? I have nice clothes (shirt/tie ect...), should i dress semi-casual or with a tie. Where do i get the CA license? Also, i forgot to ask a couple questions while on my ride along. Figured i could try here. How to you feel about 12/24 hour shifts? which do you prefer? 24 would fit in my school schedule better, but would you recommend them for a newbie? I took the class in Monterey, so my ride along was down there, and we had a pretty slow shift, 1 call  and then a transport for like 6 hours. And that was normal Tuesday according to the medic. In these areas mentioned, like San Jose / San Mateo / Alameda / San Fransisco, whats an average day/night shift like? Always crazy? i know it varies, and you can get lucky/unlucky. In Monterey, apparently if you are a crew coming on from 5-10, you are more likely to get long transports. is it the same everywhere? Thanks again.



For AMR i'd say drop off your app in person. I don't think they keep track of the online applications all that well. I'd drop the applications off in person for Rural Metro and P+ too. I doubt anyone is going to remember what you were wearing the 2 seconds you were there dropping off an application. I wouldn't worry about it too much; but I wouldn't go in shorts and flip flops either. Definitely suit up for the interview; and bring a change of clothes if they have a skills demonstration.

The other person already explained out to get your state/county EMT cert. http://www.sccgov.org/portal/site/e...ntId=8bd6a7fe58b34010VgnVCMP230004adc4a92____ . The process is outlined there. 

What do I think of 12 hour shifts vs 24s? Well I worked in a system that ran almost 12 hour cars exclusively for years. To be honest about 12s I hated them. They eat up your whole day. 12-14.5 hours (The bay area EMT/Paramedic NEMSA core union contract allows for 2.5 hours of mandatory overtime if there are not enough units to cover the system at your off duty time.) + the recommended 6-8 hours of sleep? That's 20 hours of your day gone on a good day. Throw in 1 hour for commute and 1 hour to cook and eat something? You see where I am going, your whole day is pretty much dedicated to work unless your sacrifice sleep like so many of us do. That wears on you over time.

Now I work in a system that works almost all 24s exclusively I miss the chance to go home and sleep in my own bed every day like I had on 12s. 24 hours if a long time to be away from home and a tougher shift to get through. But I think the 12s wear on your physically more over time and it's nice having the extra days off.

Since you are new, you probably wont get your choice of full time shift. You wont have any seniority. The plus side is that you will probably get hired Part Time, which means no bennies, but you can set your own schedule, which is awesome. I loved being part time. AMR's only requirements were that you worked 36 hours a month (24 here in Santa Cruz). So you can work when you want to and avoid work easily when you need the the time off. This will probably work really well in ALCO with P+ since it's such a gold mine for OT up there. I still get multiple emails for open shifts with P+ every day. You can work as many hours as you want as well.

Average calls in an ALS system? It's region specific for sure, so I can only speak on what I know. In Oakland you will probably average 7-8 calls on a day shift with about 7 transports. 10+ on a busy day, and you're not stopping at all on that shift. From Fremont to Hayward i'd say you're averaging 5-6 calls a day with about 5 or 6 transports. Like anything else it is hit or miss. You will probably have a lot of steady days with some slow days mixed in. At least as an EMT you wont have to worry about paperwork all that much while working ALS. ALCO is the busiest system in the area by a long shot. 

You do not do inter facility transports in ALCO on an ALS rig. You might do ER to ER transports, but that is rare. A situation like that would be you're sitting in Summit's parking lot and some guy drives his buddy with 3 bullet holes in him into their ER. So now you have to take the guy to Highland since Summit is not a trauma center.

Santa Clara is probably the next busiest county, and the peninsula is slower than the south bay.

In San Francisco nearly all of your calls would be inter facility transports. Unless you happen to get hired with SFFD and put on one of their ambulances; but they only hire every 3 or 4 years.

Night shifts are slower in general; but don't ever come to work expecting to sleep. You'll be up all night. Especially in Oakland on a Friday or Saturday night. People are even more drunk than they are usually, and everyone has a gun.

If you do decide to go the BLS route and happen to get hired by one of those companies first, take the job and then keep trying to get on with ALS/911 systems. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to get hired by AMR first. I was offered other jobs but when it started to look like AMR was happening I waited for that. I've talked with a lot of BLS crews and there was always this misconception that AMR was, "never hiring" when in reality we had a new hire class literally every month, or every other month for the first 3 years I worked in ALCO. After we lost the contract, that was when AMR stopped hiring. So you really just never know. My best advice to keep calling AMR, P+, and Rural Metro and asking for an update. In my opinion, nothing will burn you out faster financially, or mentally than doing inter facility transports as a BLS crew all day. Anyone currently doing that please do not take offense to my statements. You already know how it is. (At least for most people) 

Hmm..if you have any further questions feel free to PM me.


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## indolent (Feb 12, 2012)

One final question, for now. Ill post an update after i send out some app's. How do the companies feel about people that have prescriptions for adderall? Tried some google searches, but couldn't narrow the results to anything difinative. Even though its legal for me to use, should i stop for a while to pass a test, or just tell them i take it?


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## Aprz (Feb 12, 2012)

Be honest. I don't know what companies think about people who take Adderall, but I do know that nobody looks kindly on liars. A lot of companies do random drug testing, test after an accident, or test when they are suspicious of use.

The equal employment opportunity act may apply to you, but 'm not sure.


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