Thanks for the replies fellas, they're much appreciated.
Really? Fairfax county is beautiful country and I've been hearing for years about the phenomenal pay up there. I didn't give it much thought as I assumed it would of been one of the more challenging areas to get on with.
What do they have up in that area for single role EMS services? I would love to start out with FD but realistically can't justify the financial cost associated with half a dozen trips up there for every step of the process.
Do you have any info on Virginia reciprocity? I have my Florida/National Pro Board FF 1&2 and my NREMT-P in addition to my Florida Medic cert.
I work in St. Pete, FL at the moment. Our service more or less hires just about every Medic that applies unless a major issues arises during the process. Is the third party EMS situation up in North VA somewhat familiar?
I honestly would love to do contract work but obviously am unqualified. I'm really not too interested in Hawaii, the whole tropical thing isn't that big of an appeal to me and I'm not willing to pay the massive cost of living increase associated with it.
I'm currently working on an application for Acadian in Austin but wouldn't mind working in Houston or Dallas. One of my biggest concerns is the ability to work OT, I have a decent amount of debt I need to pay off and have no qualms with doing 60-70+ hour work weeks.
Our hiring peocess basically requires three trips - the entrance exam, the CPAT (unless you have it, then only two trips), and the poly, medical, and psych, which they'll schedule back-to-back-to-back for people out of state. No oral boards.
For single role EMS, you have Alexandria Fire and EMS, which I would recommend, and D.C. FEMS, as a single role medic. Everything else is fire based . There is RAA in Richmond, for single role. I wouldn't choose Richmond Ambulance Authority as a place to move cross country for, to work 25+ years for, since the pay isn't that good, and they use system status management, so you can count on being very busy all of the time.
For pay, Northern Virginia is where it's at, particularly in Fairfax. Our firemedics make over $70k/yr after being cleared off of ALS in internship, which is the academy plus four months, basically 9-10 months after hire. I've made north of $130k/yr here over the last several years, and I've blown past $80k already this year (nearly my base pay for the year ). Too bad I can't be like those "Deadliest Catch" fishermen and work six months straight for lots of cash and chill for six months every year haha. The training at Fairfax is world class, and medics are now finally getting ample opportunity to get off of the box and do Hazmat, TROT, ride Heavy Rescue squads, and ride Truck companies.
Regarding pay, I notice that after you go south of Northern Virginia, the base pay drops percipitously. I'm talking $50k-$70k down to the mid $30k's pretty fast. I worked NYC EMS for five years before selling out and going fire based. I worked for Charleston County EMS (SC), who, at the time, hired at $38k/yr, up to $45k/yr after six months and clearing internship as crew chief. I thought that this was reasonable since the cost of living was cheaper, until I realized that I was only making around $11.50/hr! This was a 24/48 shift, so it was a 56 hour workweek. I was highly ignorant to this, so I only had myself to blame whan I opened my first pay stub. Realize that I had left NYC, where I was making $30/hr on a 40 hour workweek. Basically, on a 56 hour/week schedule, if you're making less than $50k/yr to start, you're getting ripped off, but that's just me. Thank goodness that Fairfax called with a job offer only four months after I was hired with charleston!
Speaking of Charleston, I took a look at Charleston City Fire's pay scale. As a Charleston County medic, my pay was the same as a C.C. fire Captain. My pay right now is even with a Charleston City Assistan Chief! My advice, stay out of the southeast, as the pay is horrendous. You may have better luck in Texas.
It's not too hard to get on with Fairfax as a medic if you can pass all of the tests. We're hiring vigorously right now. NERMT reciprocity will work fine. That's what I did from SC to VA.
Edit: sorry, I would have replied sooner, but I've been so very busy with all of this OT, and I'm also finishing up my AAS in EMS. That's worth 10% on the LT promotional exam!
