getting disillusioned with my job as a firefighter. i have to spend half my life away from my family (working 4 or 5 days and nights at a time), and much as i try to develop myself into management, theres too many people after too few posts, and i seem to be well down the ‘pecking order’. from being a crew manager on the retained side, and doing external management courses in my own time, ive been forced to give that up, and now just settle for firefighter doing a shift system thats affecting the family. there doesnt seem to be anywhere for me to go now.

you only get one life, and with that in mind, i want to start looking at whats out there (if anything) and put my cv about. ive got an engineering / aerospace background, and could possibly go back to that, but id feel like i was going backwards going back to factory work.
i think im a good man-manager, and with the management course ive done, plus experience of managing crews and incidents, id prefer something with more responsibility.

google brings up a few jobsites, but ive no idea which ones are any good really. do i just stick my cv on them all and see what comes back, or are some far better than others?

ta

EDIT: also just completed an ITTT teaching english abroad course, so thats a consideration too, but not sure the whole family are ready to move yet.

“what jobsite?” yes jobsite
http://www.jobsite.co.uk/job/fire-safety-advisor-944500730?src=search&utm_expid=64185315-18&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2F

http://www.jobsite.co.uk/job/business-financial-manager-training-centres-944617872?src=search&utm_expid=64185315-18&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2F

Jobsites in general are just lists of jobs from many different companies and agencies.

The usual advice on CVs is have it tailord to fit each specific job that you apply for.

Where are you located.

eg Getting into the training side of things might be a way of staying in firefighting, eg with Serco at IFTC Durham Tees Valley Airport.

Jobserve’s the best for my industry (IT) but I’m pretty sure they cover many different industries. Good luck!

I’m not so sure I’d be looking to change career if I was in your situation. Maybe give the dust a bit of time to settle and things become stable again before you go making such big changes.

I’m not sure you’ll notice too much difference, you haven’t mentioned just how much off duty you get because of the longer shifts. Working Monday to Friday 9 to 5 means you’ll only see them at weekends and evenings. You also have fairly good security, although I do understand that isn’t great at the moment due to the reviews on going with Fire Services. Then there’s the pension, if you’ve been in a long time then you have the old pension scheme right? That won’t be beaten anywhere without a huge payment from yourself.

I’ve been in your situation a few years ago, felt I was being ignored overlooked. Looking back I wasn’t being flexible either so missed out on promotion there, I finally got the promotion and love it but some times wish I hadn’t bothered as it’s real pain in the arse too. I’m glad I stayed as I’m now financially better off than I would have been, my job is very secure in present climate even more so in relation to others. I miss out on family things from time to time, I’ve worked more Christmases then I’ve been off. My kids though no different though they just accept I’m at work when other kids have their Dad at home.

The time off I get makes up for it though, I often take and pick them up from school, I can make school plays which are on during normal working hours when other have to beg their employer in order to get.

The grass isn’t always greener but then again if your really that unhappy then maybe you are right.

nice insight drac, and believe me i do realise im lucky to be in a secure job. not been in that long so pensions nowt to be excited about tho. shifts are 4 on 4 off, with a 5 on 3 off every third ‘tour’, but the problem is having to stay over to do night cover as well, and we’ve got some serious probs with our teenage lad at the mo so i need to be home more.

glupton, its not really a case of waiting for things to get stable, thats the problem, theyre TOO stable for me! im not going anywherre, and at 48 i dont want to spend half my life living in a ‘pod’ waiting for incidents through the night. i want to be home more and developing myself in my career, rather than going stagnant. as i said before tho, i do realise im in a secure job with decent pay which isnt to be sniffed at.

thanks for your advice so far peeps, im taking it all in 🙂

Yeah the nights bit is a pain, although I do prefer them and it allowed me to look after my kids when they were preschool. Now that funnily is around the time I wanted out, I guess staying awake after nights then going into work was a bad idea.

Have you spoke to management see what they can do to help, explain your problems they might be able to help out. Perhaps offer you a temporary role somewhere for a few months.

Trouble with the new shifts tho Drac is you now go to work on the first morning on then you are there for the full four days solid :'(

Have you spoke to management see what they can do to help, explain your problems they might be able to help out. Perhaps offer you a temporary role somewhere for a few months.

i have indeed drac, and i was promised a temp stint at home station which would have solved the whole situation. but it was kyboshed by a couple of high up gaffers who dont particularly like me cos ive questioned them before when these shift changes came in. prob didnt do myself any favours there, but i always speak my mind. not a good idea sometimes :-/

like firestarter says, im on call for 4 (or 5) days and nights solid, its not just nights. i certainly wouldnt mind nights if the days were mine 🙂

Aye **** that a few of our stations are on that shift system now, I’d rather leave and take my chances than stay, I’ve 15 years in the pension but that’s goin to get wrecked anyway

Use jobisjob. It farms ads from the major job sites. Also try monster.

Ah right sorry didn’t realise you were on a new shift system, that sounds awful and how is it allowed?

Ah right sorry didn’t realise you were on a new shift system, that sounds awful and how is it allowed?

good question. the union have agreed it so cant argue with it, but they say its within the working time directive. apparently we have to have 11hrs rest between shifts, so they give us ‘compensatory rest’ if we’re out for more than 2hrs in the night. to me thats still not 11 hrs rest. take last night. finished at half 6, on call through the night, got a shout at half midnight for an hour, back in bed for an hour, another call at half 2 for an hour, about 4 o clock back in bed, up for half 7 start. yet because theres 11hrs rest in there between shifts, its allowed and no compo rest given.

dont get me wrong, i love the job itself, and dont mind unsociable hours, but to be doing that for 4 or 5 days and nights without seeing family is tough (and tiring). some people live close to the station, so go home and theyre happy enough. unfortunately im 20 odd miles away.

where i maybe p*ssed the management off is by opposing it. we get 20% extra for doing this, no extra hourly payments. other brigades get 30ish. my point is theyre getting the same cover as paying another watch, for 20% instead of 6 X 100% wages if you see what i mean.
we were threatened that if we didnt accept, thered be job losses and the county could go fully retained, but i wanted to call their bluff and voted no. it was voted in tho, and my face doesnt fit now :-/

That is interesting as we abolished stations running on call at night as it broke the working time directive.

ah but this is where the witchcraft lies 😀

the station isnt running at night, our ‘pods’ are detached from the station to comply with the laws. so we’re just doing retained really, much the same as the normal retained. except we have split alerters, so only us wholetime get called through the night. great innit :-/

Have you considered promotion in another brigade, the larger shires and met brigades offer more scope and oportunity!

Sneaky aren’t they our new stations have your rooms so that you have to leave the station door to go out in the open air to get to your door and that gets them round the work time directive

aye mick, to be fair, theyve done an extension on an old station house, and its nicely kitted out. spose they wanted us onside so supply wifi etc, and some lads (in fact most as it was voted in :-)) are happy to do it. some even like being away from wives 🙂
tis not for me tho. not when i think im 48 now and this is the rest of my working life mapped out, living away from home half my life with 4 sweaty lads 😀

Have you considered promotion in another brigade, the larger shires and met brigades offer more scope and oportunity!

ive had links with 2 other brigades. did my training at west yorkshire, and during the training i was impressed with them more than my own county, and sounded em out about staying there. think they wanted me to, and looked into it but decided it probably wouldnt go down too well 🙂
i was also accepted by derbyshire before i started, and still got a contact there. i decided to stay with my own county tho as i thought itd be closer to home obviously. i reckoned id be able to slowly get myself to my home station. thats turned out not to be the case, ive sounded my mate out, but theyre not accepting anyone.
and thats pretty much the same all over at the mo. some are only recruiting from home county postcodes, others are cutting back.

West Yorks are the bees knees lol tbf we are shutting 21 stations bringing in close call stations and the ops pool is getting massive . I’m actually thinking of joining the pool as my station is getting shut 🙁

Btw have you looked at fire service airport or defence fire service jobs mate

not sure what defence fire jobs are, but know a few airport firefighters and theyre bored stiff!! no action, just big watches sat round doing nowt most of the day 😀
might appeal to some, but not me really :-/

Defence ones are ones on military bases some of the big ones have fire cover especially the us based over here. Probably just as boring tho but compared to new shifts in fire service the shifts tend to be better and the money is too

Depends what you wanting tho busy with rubbish shifts or quiet and better shifts , personally I’d rather be busy lol