What i will say, is that after working for three different private companies in LA Co over the years (PRN....before they got bought out, Gerber...before they went out of business, then finally McCormick), only my time spent as a fire department Ambulance Operator (AO) was I working for anyone woth higher morale, better equipment/station life/etc etc.
Don't underestimate how nice it is to be able to have an actual station identity, St 2 The Brook is MY station, I'm gonna take care of it...not just because station chores are a chore you gotta do, but because it's MY station and crews take pride in that, and yeah that reflects when crews get together and design station patches and logos and the like. If that's just an extraneous detail to yoy...so be it, you can always stick with day cars that don't have a set station (and no one is forcing you to wear a station patch if you don't want one)
Yeah it's important sometimes to remember we're only BLS transport, that theres lots of days where we only end up doing glorified IFTs amd take a bunch of people to the ER that we suspect dont need the ER....but that's not the same as hating on the job and saying we shouldn't enjoy it or try to emulate the Departments that lets face it, most EMTs want to use McCormick as a step stair to join. Enjoy the grunt work, even being a FF is full of that (besides 80% of FDs calls being medical, 80% of the remainder is "just" "smells and bells")
At least within LA, despite the low pay, McCormick is still prob the best private. At least with the low pay you know the remainder isn't funding the owners next Land Rover, instead ots going to a brand new fleet (literally McCormick is buying brand new ambulances for every unit, something 60 new rigs....amd most of them are already in Service, no 1 new rig a year there....oh and each one is coming with both Power Load and Power Cot systems