Tips for Climbing the EMT Ladder?

Just wait around. I find that if you just simply stick it out through the politics you will end up becoming cheif due to length of time on the job.

I have been on my department since the summer of 2008 and have seen three chiefs and turned down several officer positions. I was offered the positions because to the majority of the crew, I have been there longer than anyone.
 
The interesting thing I found about college based EMS agencies was they tended to turn off a lot of people who came with experience. When I was on the college squad we had maybe a dozen people who came with experience, EMT certs, from busier agencies than the college squad. Almost everyone who was in EMS prior (myself included) left within two years.

all their supervisors were home grown (as in all their experience was college based), and many people were using supervisor positions just as a resume booster, nothing more. They "promoted" seniors to CC status, and if you were in the clique (prereq was being home grown), you were given the chance to succeed, if you weren't, you had no chance to advance. Also, I found it helpful to think of the agency as a private EMS agency, instead of a real 911 agency with an actual primary coverage area.

Oddly enough, quite a few homegrown people did go on to join local EMS agencies, a couple became EMT-Is and paramedics, and some even started working per diem for the local 911 service while in college.

but small agency politics, who likes who/who is sleeping with who/who wants to sleep with who, and who is part of the in-crowd (unfortunately) played a much bigger role in deciding who was a crew chief, instead of who actually knew what they were doing.

maybe my experience was unique, good luck on your journey to climb the ladder.
 
Always know what you are talking about, if you don't keep your mouth shut. Respect and listen to those who know more than you if you hope to one day be in their shoes. I was lucky when I first started in the EMS field to have 4 people who had over a century of combined experience training me. I learned more on the rides back to the station than I could have ever learned from a book. I also learned that just because someone had more experience does not mean they have more knowledge, one of the worst medics on our service has a PhD and I don't trust her to carry the trauma bag and even though she has 3 years over me she drives and I ride. It's not about brown nosing it's about knowledge and confidence in that knowledge. People will begin to respect you as a medic, you don't need a title to be a leader just people who will follow you.
 
Take credit for the work of others, be loud, be nosey, interrupt conversations and do it loudly, ask questions you already have an answer to, and bring up topics that you know nothing about and be one sided about 'em.
 
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