ATCEMS questions

[wordsarewords]

Hi all,

A few years ago, I was fired from a position in Houston for a no call no show. It wasn't intentional, but reasons and excuses are usually not enough when applying for a position somewhere else. I've been very good about being to work on time since then and even early for my last position in Central Texas. ATCEMS just opened up today and after speaking to a recruiter, it sounds like I would immediately be disqualified from even applying because I was fired a few years ago.

Is this true?

Could I skirt by if I used a burner phone?

Thanks.

 

[luke_31]

It's never a good idea to start an employment process by lying. Apply be up front and honest about it, and show how you have changed to not have it happen again. Ultimately it's up to the employer if they choose to hire you or not. But if I found out you lied at any time during the process you would be gone in a heartbeat.

 

[TransportJockey]

Too small a community here in the Houston Metro and even all the way up there. Just apply based on your merits and tell the truth. Anything else will get you blacklisted for sure.

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[Handsome Robb]

ATCEMS's process will sniff out any discrepancies in your employment history/story. A burner phone won't do anything.

Generally with a few years passed with good job performance and some extra leg work you can get past it but lying will be found and you'll be D/Qd from the process and any future processes.

Their process is no joke, my fiancé went through it and pulled out after she decided she didn't want to work there.


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[Medico]

Do you not have integrity? Trying to circumvent a process due to your mistake is a huge red flag.

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[DrParasite]

Do you not have integrity? Trying to circumvent a process due to your mistake is a huge red flag.

hmmm having integrity and no job because you were honest about a mistake in your past (which is treated as an automatic diqualifier from consideration for the position), vs a little less integrity and employed successfully at a well known EMS system, where you are successful and have a future as an FTO paramedic.....

to paraphrase Captain Bob from eatstress.com, "Nothing counts 'til you have the [job]. Nothing!"

and using a burner phone wouldn't help at all, that's just, well, stupid.

 

[terrible one]

I'm curious why you would be DQ'd? Because you got fired or is it because of the reason you got fired? If a couple years passed and have steady employment since I would think you would be ok, or am I being naive?

 

[DrParasite]

am I being naive?

I think you are being naive. incredibly naive.

A company (any company, not specifically public safety or ATCEMS) has 20-100+ applicants for 1 position. If being fired isn't a DQ offense, why is it even asked on the application, as a yes or not question? Other than for an HR/Hiring manager to say "well, if this person had been fired already from one job, than I don't want him working for me" and they can remove all the "previously fired from a job" applicants from their application pool.

If you want to ask a person why they are no longer at the job (as part of the job history), sure. maybe they will be honest, maybe not. I'm sure you (the hiring manager) will do a background check, and see what your previous employers say about you, and if you were terminated or not. And in those cases, it's much easier to explain any mitigating circumstances as to why you were terminated, especially if asked in an interview settings. Or maybe they will see that a person was fired, and it will immediately bias the person to not hire the applicant.

or maybe your right, and I'm being overly skeptical.

 

[Handsome Robb]

The way ATCEMS's hiring process is I doubt that the OP would get through it.

They contact Supe's from all your previous jobs, professional references, personal references, written psych eval, interview panel, psych eval with a psychiatrist.

That's just off the top of my head. It takes a good 2-3 months for the process alone.

They get enough applicants that they'll DQ people for really petty things.


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[RocketMedic]

And all to work a year as a Basic for mediocre wages in a mediocre system that still doesn't offer much job security.

 

[Qulevrius]

You don't have to state the reason you left [any] job, unless specifically asked to do so. It's not a confession booth, and even if/when a background check is in progress, your former employer's HR is only going to be asked to verify your employment history. Everything else - including hearsay, grapevine and locker room talk - applies.


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[terrible one]

I think you are being naive. incredibly naive.

A company (any company, not specifically public safety or ATCEMS) has 20-100+ applicants for 1 position. If being fired isn't a DQ offense, why is it even asked on the application, as a yes or not question? Other than for an HR/Hiring manager to say "well, if this person had been fired already from one job, than I don't want him working for me" and they can remove all the "previously fired from a job" applicants from their application pool.

I can understand if it was a recent termination, and depending on what exactly you got fired for. But with time between a firing and a good reference for your current position I'd think you'd be ok.

But I've been wrong before, but I know friends that have been terminated in the past and still got positions with fire departments a few years later.