commentary firegeezer on 29 May 2007 08:08 am
Promotional opportunities
WITHIN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY of western Oregon, there are at least 8 fire chief vacancies. And announced retirements will add another half-dozen in the next month.
This sudden plethora of job openings is partly the result of the rapid expansion of FD’s in the 1970’s. All the people who came to work during that period are now retiring and there is concern about maintaining the leadership at the chief officer level.
This is a nation-wide situation caused by the earlier influx of the “Baby Boomer” generation when they came of age and moved into formerly rural areas bringing demands for more public services. Now, as they are retiring, Fire & Rescue departments everywhere are scrambling to recruit replacements. Fairfax County, Virginia is preparing to hire 100 firefighter/paramedics every year for the foreseeable future.
All of this competition to fill vacancies, coupled with ever-increasing standards for employment, will cause two things to happen. First, entry-level pay scales will climb in order for a department to stay competitive and maintain its level of service. Second, there is a tremendous opportunity for advancement for those currently on the job and who have been preparing themselves for the promotional opportunities coming up. Just read the article linked above to see what’s happening in just one small area of the country.
Where will all these new recruits come from? There is a much smaller number of people in the age group where recruits typically come from. Couple that with the fact that volunteer fire departments - one of the largest feeder systems into the paid ranks - have rapidly-shrinking memberships too. So there will be more active searching within the populace by the local governments that are progressive enough to go that route. And there is one more potential group that will be dropping in on us. As military enlistments expire and the thousands of soldiers, marines, etc., come back home job-hunting, they will be excellent recruits because of their basic training and physical conditioning. After previous wars and conflicts, both the U.S. government and state entities have traditionally added as many as 10 points on entrance exam scores to military veterans. It will probably happen again.
says Firgeezer
