A Bachelors and a Job.

[Tigger]

Tigger, so a BA is something that would not be immediately helpful, but down the line when supervisor or higher positions are avalable, it would help?

Regardless of its assistance in getting me a job, I am going to get my BA for me, it would just be nice if it could help job-wise.

Possibly, many places are moving towards having degreed management.

 

[ChanelCinq]

I've heard the job market for RN's was pretty tight in parts of CA; I didn't realize it was that bad.

It is awful for new grads but if you have even one year of experience you can get a job no problem. Many friends moved out of state or down to southern CA for a year or two and now are back in the Bay Area.

 

[ChanelCinq]

Is the term Graduate Nurse not used anymore? or do you lose that title once you take the NCLEX?

I remember 5 years ago when I started my science pre-reqs (my first Bachelors was in French) Kaiser was offering an unpaid internship and everyone was balking at it. Prior to that, maybe 7 plus years ago nurses got sign on bonuses when hired. Ha those are gone. But people were putting down this unpaid internship. I think if you did it and proved yourself you were guaranteed a job. Now, I think people would kill for that. Now there are dozens or more applicants for each new grad position.

So no they don't have the graduate nurse position anymore because they don't need to. There are more people coming out of more schools and they don't have to beg and bribe people any longer.

Though St Croix does have the graduate nurse position and you get 6 months to work as a graduate nurse and study for NCLEX. If you don't pass you are out. I don't think anyone would move to St Croix for that.

 

[Antioch]

Ba

I'm glad you asked this. While working in Fire Rescue (still am), I earned a liberal arts BA just last August. I just wanted to know. I believe(d) in the idea of a well-rounded person. I'm convinced that it has armed me to look at life holistically instead of having to rely on others to guide my life and career decisions.

I have to point out, that if you have a bachelor's degree of any sort, it puts you on track to become a Physician's Assistant. Just take the science pre-reqs, add in your EMT/PM hours, and boom, you're ready to go. Or, if you do EMT/PM work while doing the pre-reqs you'll gain the hours of experience required (usually a couple thousand) in order to get into PA school.

I considered the above route, but in the end decided that a PA life would not be my cup of tea despite the monetary opportunities it offers.

Best of luck!

 

[CodeBru1984]

I have found my college experience (or whatever you want to call it) to make for good conversation in interviews, but that's about it when it comes to getting the interview. As far as I can tell private ambulance companies could care less if you had a doctorate and were applying for EMT-B jobs.

My new hire orientation class had at least 15 EMT's (including myself) who held bachelor's level degrees. From my understanding it made us standout from the 300+ applicants that had applied for 30 positions.

 

[ms93]

My new hire orientation class had at least 15 EMT's (including myself) who held bachelor's level degrees. From my understanding it made us standout from the 300+ applicants that had applied for 30 positions.

I had a similar experience. About half of the new hire group had a BA/BS. I don't think that it really makes a difference. A lot of the fire candidates don't need a bachelors and therefore won't get one. This doesn't make them less qualified for jobs or less competitive in the application process. I find that they have the same great clinical skills and judgement.

If ALL else is equal between two applicants, MAYBE it may be of value. Personally, I had a lot of good experiences during undergrad with internships, tutoring jobs, leadership positions that may have helped on paper and was something to talk about during my interview. At the end of the day, having previous EMT experience far surpasses having a BA/BS in terms of "standing out" when it comes to a 911 ALS position.

Don't stress out about having a bachelors for getting an EMT job.

 

[rescue1]

If ALL else is equal between two applicants, MAYBE it may be of value. Personally, I had a lot of good experiences during undergrad with internships, tutoring jobs, leadership positions that may have helped on paper and was something to talk about during my interview. At the end of the day, having previous EMT experience far surpasses having a BA/BS in terms of "standing out" when it comes to a 911 ALS position.

Don't stress out about having a bachelors for getting an EMT job.

While I agree with not stressing, since you can totally get hired without one, I was hired over providers with way more experience thanks to my college degree, so I think it has more merit than a tie-breaker.

And about half my fire academy class had a bachelors of some kind. Did it help us get hired? No idea. But it is something to think about.

 

[Emptythought]

good luck