In case you haven’t noticed we have a bit of a crisis worldwide and more people are staying home teleworking. Industry still must have employees, for you this is good news as many companies have transitioned to more online activities, this includes the hiring process which involves interviews. Things are looking up as you made … Continue reading Online Interviews
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Today’s Atmosphere
Today’s Atmosphere It is no surprise to anyone who has been awake for the last several months that we are living in interesting times! Whether you are fire, EMS, police, or even military you no doubt have been very busy, maybe confused, and possibly wondering about the future of your chosen profession. First things first, … Continue reading Today’s Atmosphere
Back in the game
Once you've been in the fire service for years it's in your blood if you truly love the job. I was recently approached by another interested individual about getting on the job and how to go about it. It really put the fire back in me (no pun intended!) to know there are people out there who … Continue reading Back in the game
Welcome to the Truck!
Part 3 “Many are called, few are chosen” In my humble opinion there is no more pivotal role in the fire service today than that of the company officer, it’s truly where the rubber meets the road. This is the third in a series of four from the Fire Mentor on preparing today’s firefighters for … Continue reading Welcome to the Truck!
Welcome to the Truck Part 2
You stroll into the kitchen and grab a cup of coffee. Most of the crew you know from working as a fill-in on various shifts. The Captain asks if you are totally checked off as a back-up driver and have all the required certifications to fill-in for the Engineer position today? You confidently tell him … Continue reading Welcome to the Truck Part 2
Welcome to the Truck!!
In the fire service, these are the words we all long to hear at some point in our career, whether we are starting out at the entry level and getting hired for the first time, or you have been promoted to an engineer or company officer position and are reporting for the first shift in … Continue reading Welcome to the Truck!!
Lead from the front
As many of you know yesterday marked the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on our country. These attacks affected our entire country, but most locally in New York City, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, PA. The reason I bring up the obvious is that some of our newer generation firefighters were barely alive or have … Continue reading Lead from the front
-Keeping the fire After a long summer time sabbatical, The Fire Mentor is back!! I had a moment of rejuvenation, you ask why? There was a young man, not that young, but younger than me use this website to contact me about joining the fire service. The good news is this website and it’s intent does work! The real point of this post, is that the young person in question was really looking for information on how to join the fire service and get on the “job”. Many times in the fire service we get side tracked on budgets, projects, and metrics on how to measure our success or service delivery. These are all great things, but they sometimes snowball us into a lull in our chosen profession, I can clearly say that as a Fire Chief I can lose focus easily. Needless to say, I found it refreshing that this individual just wanted to be a firefighter, and was willing to train, attend any type of meeting, or even pay his own way to the local state academy to get hired. We talked at great lengths about area departments, pay, retirements, run volumes, manpower, and budgets. After that conversation we talked about the job, how cool and fun that was!! Just talking about the job, fires, old times and now current times, mixed with some technology in today’s fire service. I can’t wait for the next one to come in and ask questions, new or old, on the job already or wanting to get started, “Your either going to do this job or be great at it”!! Stephen McCaffery-Backdraft Stay safe and email me at: listening@thefirementor.net Visit: www.thefirementor.net
Make time to talk with your friends
One of my privileges as The Fire Mentor is to simply share experiences and enhance the physical , spiritual, and mental aspects of the aspiring firefighter and the existing professional. Whether you are starting your career or you are many years into your chosen profession, it is important to build and keep relationships. When we … Continue reading Make time to talk with your friends
Time for the Company Officer to prepare
- As we start a new week it’s time to focus on the current company officer and advancement. This can take many forms to include a promotion to a staff position like Training Officer or the next level company officer-Captain or even to Battalion Chief. The first step in this process is to truly know … Continue reading Time for the Company Officer to prepare
