Hi everyone! I'm an EMT student in southern Maine, just started class on January 14. I'm really enjoying class, but I'm worried I'll have a hard time finding a job after I (hopefully) get my certification. Jobs for EMTs are very sparse here, and I worried that because I'm young and experienced I won't get hired! Any tips for what I can do to stand out? Any additional classes/certifications I could get? Thank you!
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EMT student looking for support and advice
- Thread starter daenerys
- Start date
unleashedfury
Forum Asst. Chief
- 729
- 3
- 0
honestly apply everywhere that will take your application,
Getting the First EMT job is the most difficult.
To add to your EMT-B.
NIMS Fema 100,200,700,800
Hazmat Awareness
Emergency Vehicle Driver Training
Its hard to say but EMT's are dime a dozen so to speak. there has been people on here that have waited nearly a year for their first EMS gig.
Getting the First EMT job is the most difficult.
To add to your EMT-B.
NIMS Fema 100,200,700,800
Hazmat Awareness
Emergency Vehicle Driver Training
Its hard to say but EMT's are dime a dozen so to speak. there has been people on here that have waited nearly a year for their first EMS gig.
Hey, thanks for those certification recommendations, I really appreciate it. I will take your advice and be as persistent as I can.
Obviously, working with an ambulance service is what I hope to be able to do. If I can't, what are some other jobs for EMTs that would look good on a resume?
Obviously, working with an ambulance service is what I hope to be able to do. If I can't, what are some other jobs for EMTs that would look good on a resume?
Amber Lance
Forum Probie
- 20
- 2
- 3
I'm not sure if your area has volunteer EMS, but if you find it hard to get a paid position, you can try to get on with a volunteer squad. Then you will at least have some experience to put on your resume.
Also, not sure if you have the AEMT level, but around here at least AEMTs (or EMT-Is) are a lot more marketable than basics.
Also, not sure if you have the AEMT level, but around here at least AEMTs (or EMT-Is) are a lot more marketable than basics.
I'm not sure if your area has volunteer EMS, but if you find it hard to get a paid position, you can try to get on with a volunteer squad. Then you will at least have some experience to put on your resume.
Also, not sure if you have the AEMT level, but around here at least AEMTs (or EMT-Is) are a lot more marketable than basics.
I plan on getting my AEMT, but in Maine you have to complete a certain amount of hours as an EMT before you can even take an AEMT class. So, that's a long way off for me.
My experience.
I actually started my career in Maine, though I left the state some years back.
There's a couple directions we could go with this, depending on what you want to do in EMS, you could go pure EMS, or you could do a mix of EMS and Fire. Your life is easier if you do EMS and Fire, but since I'm a pure EMS guy, I'm going to talk about that first and probably most.
Barring lucking into a job running 911, you generally have 2 routes to gain experience as a brand new basic.
First, as someone suggested, volunteering. You get some ambulance time and experience, but it kind of dribbles in, plus, of course, you have to have a day job. Finally, I know that's harder in southern Maine than it is in northern and eastern Maine, but I don't know how much harder, talk to your iinstructor, I'm sure that they can give you an idea about what services around are taking volunteers etc.
Second, working for a private interfacility service. IFT isn't sexy, and you're not going to get 911 experience, but you will learn ambulance operations, and, I may be in the minority opinion here, but I actually think that IFT is as important as 911, and I believe that you can usually learn more about medicine in general on IFT than you can on 911, since you get a chance to read through charts, and see how they relate to actual patient presentation, the flip side of course is that you don't learn about the EMS specific aspects of medicine so much.
The best suggestion I'd have for you would be to do a combination of the two, work for an IFT and volunteer on your days off. After about 6 months, (Which is the average turnover for training houses, in my experience.), start looking towards finding a job with a 911 service.
Northeast is, of course, the big boy in your neighborhood, I never worked for them, but I worked with them a few times and they always struck me as a good service to work for, and since they're the biggest, they need the most EMTs, and should be pretty good about hiring brand new basics.
If you're willing to relocate, Capital Ambulance up in Bangor is where I started, and frankly, it's the best service I've ever worked for, I had no idea how good I had it there until I went to other services.
The other big player in the state, at least when I left, was Crown up in the County, frankly I wouldn't recommend them...first you'd have to live in the County, and second, again at least when I left, their pay scales sucked...and did I mention you'd have to live in the County?
To go the mixed EMS/Fire route, I'll mostly leave it to others to fill in the details, but go get your FF 1, then start volunteering, then submit apps everywhere you can.
As far as actually finding jobs goes, I don't know how it is down in your region, but up in region 4, the EMS office usually knew about every opening out there, and who was running hirings when, check with them.
And a final thought: Someone else suggested that going for your intermediate makes you more marketable, which is true...but I can't recommend that. When I was a basic, I was actually deferred on entry into the intermediate program, since I didn't have enough experience. At the time I thought that was bull:censored::censored::censored::censored:, but looking back on it I was a better intermediate for spending time as a basic, and I'm a better medic for spending time as an intermediate.
I actually started my career in Maine, though I left the state some years back.
There's a couple directions we could go with this, depending on what you want to do in EMS, you could go pure EMS, or you could do a mix of EMS and Fire. Your life is easier if you do EMS and Fire, but since I'm a pure EMS guy, I'm going to talk about that first and probably most.
Barring lucking into a job running 911, you generally have 2 routes to gain experience as a brand new basic.
First, as someone suggested, volunteering. You get some ambulance time and experience, but it kind of dribbles in, plus, of course, you have to have a day job. Finally, I know that's harder in southern Maine than it is in northern and eastern Maine, but I don't know how much harder, talk to your iinstructor, I'm sure that they can give you an idea about what services around are taking volunteers etc.
Second, working for a private interfacility service. IFT isn't sexy, and you're not going to get 911 experience, but you will learn ambulance operations, and, I may be in the minority opinion here, but I actually think that IFT is as important as 911, and I believe that you can usually learn more about medicine in general on IFT than you can on 911, since you get a chance to read through charts, and see how they relate to actual patient presentation, the flip side of course is that you don't learn about the EMS specific aspects of medicine so much.
The best suggestion I'd have for you would be to do a combination of the two, work for an IFT and volunteer on your days off. After about 6 months, (Which is the average turnover for training houses, in my experience.), start looking towards finding a job with a 911 service.
Northeast is, of course, the big boy in your neighborhood, I never worked for them, but I worked with them a few times and they always struck me as a good service to work for, and since they're the biggest, they need the most EMTs, and should be pretty good about hiring brand new basics.
If you're willing to relocate, Capital Ambulance up in Bangor is where I started, and frankly, it's the best service I've ever worked for, I had no idea how good I had it there until I went to other services.
The other big player in the state, at least when I left, was Crown up in the County, frankly I wouldn't recommend them...first you'd have to live in the County, and second, again at least when I left, their pay scales sucked...and did I mention you'd have to live in the County?
To go the mixed EMS/Fire route, I'll mostly leave it to others to fill in the details, but go get your FF 1, then start volunteering, then submit apps everywhere you can.
As far as actually finding jobs goes, I don't know how it is down in your region, but up in region 4, the EMS office usually knew about every opening out there, and who was running hirings when, check with them.
And a final thought: Someone else suggested that going for your intermediate makes you more marketable, which is true...but I can't recommend that. When I was a basic, I was actually deferred on entry into the intermediate program, since I didn't have enough experience. At the time I thought that was bull:censored::censored::censored::censored:, but looking back on it I was a better intermediate for spending time as a basic, and I'm a better medic for spending time as an intermediate.
I actually started my career in Maine, though I left the state some years back.
There's a couple directions we could go with this, depending on what you want to do in EMS, you could go pure EMS, or you could do a mix of EMS and Fire. Your life is easier if you do EMS and Fire, but since I'm a pure EMS guy, I'm going to talk about that first and probably most.
Barring lucking into a job running 911, you generally have 2 routes to gain experience as a brand new basic.
First, as someone suggested, volunteering. You get some ambulance time and experience, but it kind of dribbles in, plus, of course, you have to have a day job. Finally, I know that's harder in southern Maine than it is in northern and eastern Maine, but I don't know how much harder, talk to your iinstructor, I'm sure that they can give you an idea about what services around are taking volunteers etc.
Second, working for a private interfacility service. IFT isn't sexy, and you're not going to get 911 experience, but you will learn ambulance operations, and, I may be in the minority opinion here, but I actually think that IFT is as important as 911, and I believe that you can usually learn more about medicine in general on IFT than you can on 911, since you get a chance to read through charts, and see how they relate to actual patient presentation, the flip side of course is that you don't learn about the EMS specific aspects of medicine so much.
The best suggestion I'd have for you would be to do a combination of the two, work for an IFT and volunteer on your days off. After about 6 months, (Which is the average turnover for training houses, in my experience.), start looking towards finding a job with a 911 service.
Northeast is, of course, the big boy in your neighborhood, I never worked for them, but I worked with them a few times and they always struck me as a good service to work for, and since they're the biggest, they need the most EMTs, and should be pretty good about hiring brand new basics.
If you're willing to relocate, Capital Ambulance up in Bangor is where I started, and frankly, it's the best service I've ever worked for, I had no idea how good I had it there until I went to other services.
The other big player in the state, at least when I left, was Crown up in the County, frankly I wouldn't recommend them...first you'd have to live in the County, and second, again at least when I left, their pay scales sucked...and did I mention you'd have to live in the County?
To go the mixed EMS/Fire route, I'll mostly leave it to others to fill in the details, but go get your FF 1, then start volunteering, then submit apps everywhere you can.
As far as actually finding jobs goes, I don't know how it is down in your region, but up in region 4, the EMS office usually knew about every opening out there, and who was running hirings when, check with them.
And a final thought: Someone else suggested that going for your intermediate makes you more marketable, which is true...but I can't recommend that. When I was a basic, I was actually deferred on entry into the intermediate program, since I didn't have enough experience. At the time I thought that was bull:censored::censored::censored::censored:, but looking back on it I was a better intermediate for spending time as a basic, and I'm a better medic for spending time as an intermediate.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write that out. There is a lot of good info in there. I never thought about working for an IFT. That is really smart, and would definitely add something extra to my mostly blank resume. North East actually does some inter-facility transport, so that would be a really good opening for me. I can't believe I never thought of that before. Thanks again, that was all really thoughtful advice, I appreciate it very much.