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Well, my brother in law just paid to go through police academy but he has a job coming out of it though, but he had to pay for it so yes I know of several fire programs in my area that they have to pay and NO they are not guaranteed a job. As a matter of fact, only 50% of the graduates of my brother in laws academy program are employed. The draw of going to fire school on your own dime is that when you are out and looking for the job, a fire department can say "hey, we won't have to spend the money to send him to class". And now that I know where you live, I understand what you mean by the best jobs are in the fire sector and not private ems.

What Mike said it seems that many times, if you read between the lines of mikes and my post, the ambulance on many fire departments is where they put people who they don't want to be FF's or who are in trouble. If you don't fit the list above and you just want to be a medic and not really a fire fighter, then let them know that when you get hired, but NOT before you get hired, and I'm sure you will get put on a medic unit. you will still get the title FF/EMT-P but just not the experience putting out the fires. But if you want both worlds, then don't tell em you want to only be a medic. But in all honesty, many places in the U.S. you gotta do both to make the good money and have advancement. That's just the name of the game. Sucks if you aren't really interested in being a smoke eater but you do what you have to do to feed your family and put a roof over your head.

Hi JT, Welcome to the City. Is it worth it? That's a good question. The jobs are, indeed, hard to get. If a FD job as an EMS provider is your best bet locally for a stable, well paying job then you should probably go for it. If your local department is anything like departments commonly discussed here and with which many of us have experience you probably won't have much trouble getting plenty of ambulance time. Should you stick with EMS? That depends on you and what you want to do. If you want to be an EMS provider you can make it happen. If the FD is the best option for an EMS job in your area then you should at least go for it. The worst they can tell you is that they don't want you as a FF. The best they can tell you is they want you on the ambulance so all the other guys who really don't want anything to do with EMS can be on the engine. There is plenty of discussion here about fire based EMS. If you're looking for some light reading take a look through the forums.