911 Dispatch EMT Work In NYC or Surrounding Counties

[CaliforniaBoy92]

Hi Everyone,

I'm from Los Angeles and am interested in doing 911 Dispatch EMT work in NYC or the surrounding counties (especially Westchester), and I feel completely lost. I would love it if you could provide some helpful advice on which companies do 911, how I can make myself competitive, or other general advice.

Some background-
-I have a Bachelor's degree in Accounting as well as a CPA license
-I'd like to eventually go to medic school and become a paramedic firefighter with FDNY.

 

[NysEms2117]

Have you considered New Jersey? Jersey city, west NY and secaucus or however you spell it. All right across the river and pretty "young" places to live.

 

[VentMonkey]

IIRC, and TMK re: FDNY-

There is no FFPM positions. You're either one or the other, and most FDNY EMS folks that want to slide to the suppression side wouldn't think twice about being cross-trained or dual role, let alone letting licenses lapse.

It's unlike SoCal, OP where they pretend to care about being FFPM's.

 

[DrParasite]

I'm from Los Angeles and am interested in doing 911 Dispatch EMT work in NYC or the surrounding counties (especially Westchester), and I feel completely lost.

the only 911 dispatch center in NYC is FDNY Dispatch or NYPD Communications. EMT is a little more complicated (and I won't even try to confuse you with that).

here is a newspaper article from a few years about about life as a NYC 911 Operator: http://nypost.com/2013/07/28/my-hell-as-a-911-operator/

I would love it if you could provide some helpful advice on which companies do 911, how I can make myself competitive, or other general advice.

if you are deadset on NYC, apply to every private and hospital based system out there, including FDNY. If you want to make more money, work 12s instead of 8s, and deal with less traffic, work in NJ, at one of several urban environments that are within 20 minutes of NYC

Some background-
-I have a Bachelor's degree in Accounting as well as a CPA license
-I'd like to eventually go to medic school and become a paramedic firefighter with FDNY.

As was mentioned, there are no paramedic firefighters in NYC; you are either a paramedic on the ambulance, or a firefighter on the engine. there are several firefighters who happen to be paramedics, but they only function at the BLS level. If you want to get on with them, check out http://www1.nyc.gov/site/fdny/jobs/career-paths/firefighter.page

My advice (and you can take it or leave it): move to NY (or NJ, in a major city that has a residency requirement to get hired by the civil service exam , NYC is grossly overpriced and expensive), and get a job as a CPA or something in finance. That will pay your bills while you are here. get a part time job doing 911 EMS in either NY or NJ (although I am still biased towards NJ, more money, 12 hour shifts, more patient contacts, etc). Speak to some paramedics, and see what they do. Do that for a year, and then look at paramedic school. once you have looked at paramedic school, make sure you understand how much of a paycut you will be taking, and go for it.

your only young once, and east coast is waaaaay awesomer than west coat

 

[EpiEMS]

Hi Everyone,

I'm from Los Angeles and am interested in doing 911 Dispatch EMT work in NYC or the surrounding counties (especially Westchester), and I feel completely lost. I would love it if you could provide some helpful advice on which companies do 911, how I can make myself competitive, or other general advice.

Some background-
-I have a Bachelor's degree in Accounting as well as a CPA license
-I'd like to eventually go to medic school and become a paramedic firefighter with FDNY.

As somebody who works EMS part-time (full time...about as far from EMS as one can get, more like accounting, honestly) and lives in NYS, I'd tell you to work in the NYC-area in something *not* EMS...and do EMS part-time.

Why do you want to work for the FDNY?

 

[Handsome Robb]

FDNY FFs operate at the CFR level. They literally only do the most basic of first aid. Not even to the EMT-B level.

According to the FDNY thread the wait to get into FDNY EMS is about two years from testing to the start of your academy then you still have to wait for a "promotional" exam to become ALS or lateral to suppression then the waiting period after the exam.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Grozler]

As of a year ago, FDNY was desperate for dispatchers and was sending upwards of half of their EMT academy classes straight into dispatch (an automatic 2 year assignment). This could be as high as 75 people every few months. Since then, the staffing problems have improved but soon they will be coming up on the end of those two year assignments and will be back where they started. If you get hired as an EMT and state a preference for dispatch you will be welcomed with open arms. FYI there are no civilian dispatchers as is the case for the fire alarm or NYPD dispatchers; you must be hired as an FDNY EMT first then complete the 9-ish week academy before being assigned to dispatch. And some people choose dispatch because it's easy on your body and they don't want a potential injury to prevent them promoting to fire.

In Westchester, the county runs dispatch, called 60 Control, for basically all first responders except the largest private company (Empress EMS, who does their own dispatching in house).

However this does not sound like the system for you because of your stated goals.

 

[EMS Pursuit]

They privates also offer dispatch positions you may have to start there while trying to get in with the city. AMR has a job posted right now that I see in New York.