How did you chose where you work?

[PotatoMedic]

I am wondering how people chose where they work. I know a lot of people here picked the first thing that offered them employment but for everyone else, the people who researched, studied, and picked their employment (or trying to get to their "dream Job") what did you look at? What qualifiers did you have for the service you wanted to work for?

Scope of Practice?
Transport?
Events?
Location?
etc.

Thank you!

 

[NomadicMedic]

All of those. As I mentioned before, there were some pretty serious criteria that need to be met before I would move. No system status management. It had to be an all ALS system. I didn't want to do interfacility transports. I wanted relatively progressive protocols. I wanted to live on the East Coast, and relatively close proximity to my parents and within two hours of a major city. Cost-of-living, benefits, pay, promotional ladder. All of those items played in to why I moved to Delaware. Everybody has different ideas as to what makes up a dream system, the best way to find it is to start talking to people.

All things created equal, I don't know if I could find another system that would meet my needs as well as Sussex County does.

 

[HotelCo]

It's close to my house.

 

[TransportJockey]

Interesting place, good protocols, paid education, more money than local

 

[46Young]

For a long term employer, I value things in this order:

Retirement, pay/work hours,medical insurance, 911 only, paid time off, OT opportunity, type of system (no SSM or PUM!!!), job security, career advancement, call volume (not too much), frequency of mandatory holdover and recall (forced OT), scope, equipment, apparatus

For a first or second job in EMS, I just want a busy call volume in a poor area so that I can see sick people, and use that as a stepping stone until I can get on with a more desirable department.

 

[DesertMedic66]

Wanted a 911 company. There is only 1 company in my county that does 911 calls. Applied for different divisions in the company. Got hired at an amazing division and haven't thought about transferring out. It's a really good place for a first job but it's not the best for a career (no ambulance company in CA is).

 

[epipusher]

Best all around offer of employment.

 

[Chewy20]

Everything, I wanted to work somewhere that I could make a career out of. Oh and I hate IFT.

 

[MMiz]

The service I worked for was the most responsive to my emails and phone calls, offered BLS the opportunity to run 911 calls, and as a new company had the best equipment in the area.

Pay and scope were similar at the 5 or so privates in the county.

 

[DrParasite]

As DEmedic said, no system status management was the big one for me. I didn't want to be changing posts every 10 minutes. Also, I didn't want to be posted on a street corner when I'm not on a call; if I'm doing a 24 hour shift, I want to be in a station. If I'm doing a 12, I want a place to do that lets me out of my truck.

I didn't want to do interfacility transports. I wanted relatively progressive protocols. and I wanted to live on the East Coast.

Cost-of-living, benefits, pay, promotional ladder, and the chance to do something at my agency besides be on an ambulance for the rest of my career. that's right, i wanted a career, not a job. oh yeah, and i wanted a pension, so I could retire in 25 or 30 years and not have to work on an ambulance when I was in my 60s.

I just left New Jersey for a county agency in NC. It's different, but so far it looks like I will have more potential for career advancement here than I did at my last job. I might have to wait a bit, and I need to go to paramedic school next year, but I'm confident I will get to where I want to be in the next few years.

 

[Clare]

There was nowhere else to work!

Even in Australia and the UK there are only a handful of employment opportunities within Ambulance. For example; the entire state of New South Wales (the largest ambulance service in the world) or London (the busiest) you have the option of ... one employer.

 

[NomadicMedic]

Clare, find an American guy, fall in love, get married, move to the states, get your permanent resident card and you'll have your pick of places to work.

See? Easy!

 

[PotatoMedic]

I have a cousin in Oregon Clare...

 

[TransportJockey]

Clare, find an American guy, fall in love, get married, move to the states, get your permanent resident card and you'll have your pick of places to work.

See? Easy!

Or let said guy move there with you and be very happy about working in a good place