Leaving a High-Paying Job for EMS

[mediumpimpin04]

I wish I could even find a job as an emt-b so I could complain about the low pay. How do you get started? Everyone wants people with experience, but nobody wants to give you a chance.

[Dustdevil]

Just curious, did you check out the job market in your area at all before investing in school?

Truth is, you may have to move if there is nothing in your area.

[mediumpimpin04]

There is a decent market here. The thing is that nobody wants to hire someone with no experience. If thats the case how do you get experience. I already have some volunteer fire departments in mind, but that isnt tons of emt experience.

[Dustdevil]

There is a decent market here. The thing is that nobody wants to hire someone with no experience.

You call that a decent market? :?

If there is such a surplus of EMTs that transfer companies can afford to be that picky, I would call that a terrible market.

[HamptonTravels]

I'm just curious as to where you live, Medium. Are you applying everywhere or just with the municipal or hospital ambulances? Those are usually more difficult to get into than it is with the private ambulances. Here in New York, private ambulances pick up EMT's from left to right. But that's because not many people want to be in the private companies and those who are in them are waiting to get into the FDNY ambulance. Hospital ambulances are even more difficult to get into if you don't have experience.

I know how you feel though, buddy. All these places want you to have experience but nobody is willing to give you a chance. So how could you get experience If the job market in your area is bad, you might need to relocate as Dusty suggested. Either that or become a paramedic. According to statistics by the U.S. Department of Labor, the higher your training, the better your hiring chances. And from my experience in searching for jobs nationwide, there seems to be more of a need for paramedics than EMT's.

Are you willing to commute? You may have to in order to find a job. That's what a number of people in my old company did. There were people who drove an hour to get to work.