Police or Fire service??

[scVale]

Which offers the best career??

[bookworm]

neither.

[Lawrence]

Fire service.

For a start you have the benefit of union protection & the right to strike which means you are treated better than police officers

[Warren]

The Fire Service involves a lot of do nothing time between incidents and training. Incidents with fire often involve rescue and injury whereas police work is mainly communicating, engaging, arresting and processing. The Fire Service can be prone to people rising to the top ranks with poor management skills and the semi militaristic culture and self centred attitudes can lead to a bully culture and nepotism. Putting aside all my negativity both offer viable careers, both must reduce costs which will impact on employment conditions going forward. Union membership is expensive. In general unions remain of some use in personal representation situations for grievances and disciplinary matters, but they are not effective in employer / service level negotiations with employers in my opinion.

[Paul6754]

The change in times is interesting in that when I left school in the early 70's it appeared both services were desparate for applicants whereas nowadays the competion for positions, certainly in the Police force, is strong. Both these services appear to offer secure jobs with little prospect of forced redundancy, the prospect of a career with promotion possibilities and a solid pension at the end. If you're considering applying then apply to both and see which one offers a position.

[Jimmy]

Elderbezza is the best bloke to put this question to..........;)

[JOHNNYAITCH]

Which offers the best career??

 

What do you want from your career?

[Santa]

What are you better at? Putting out fires or harrassing innocent away supporters catching criminals?

[scVale]

What are you better at? Putting out fires or harrassing innocent away supporters catching criminals?

 

Lol wondered how long it would be before someone said that. Given some officers can be heavy handed at the end of the day its a career, hopefully something I enjoy doing which helps pay the bills.

[Leicestershire Valiant]

Which offers the best career??

 

Harry Hill says: There's only one way to find out......!

[scVale]

What do you want from your career?

 

See Johnny thats the million dollar question, I've never really known what I wanted to do. Over the last 3-4 years I've drastically improved my fitness and as I'm coming up to my last year in uni have really taken a shine towards a career in one of the public services. Not sure which one though fire or police. Think both would offer positives but I don't know which one would offer me the most. Most people I've spoken to seem to be saying fire, but I have got A-Levels in Law and and doing one half of my degree in Crime. Fire seems a very exciting career aswell, and pays more money initially.However, the option to move up the ranks in the police via Sargeants exams etc seems to come about more readily after just a few years in the police. Always wanted to get into sport but just haven't been involved enough in my youth, and its really hard to get in at my age now. Both careers seem very rewarding as well, they're both something which I'd be proud to say I did.

[RAF Vale]

Why dont you have a look at the Armed Force's see what they have to offer. They also have police & fire (RAF only) trades.

 

With your qualifications I would imagain it would be worth looking at a commision.

[JOHNNYAITCH]

See Johnny thats the million dollar question, I've never really known what I wanted to do. Over the last 3-4 years I've drastically improved my fitness and as I'm coming up to my last year in uni have really taken a shine towards a career in one of the public services. Not sure which one though fire or police. Think both would offer positives but I don't know which one would offer me the most. Most people I've spoken to seem to be saying fire, but I have got A-Levels in Law and and doing one half of my degree in Crime. Fire seems a very exciting career aswell, and pays more money initially.However, the option to move up the ranks in the police via Sargeants exams etc seems to come about more readily after just a few years in the police. Always wanted to get into sport but just haven't been involved enough in my youth, and its really hard to get in at my age now. Both careers seem very rewarding as well, they're both something which I'd be proud to say I did.

 

All good stuff :)

 

Seems you know in a somewhat abstaract way what you want but are struggling to tie it down. For example my brother always wanted to be a music teacher and so pay, promotion etc didn't come into it for him..he just wanted to do that job!!

 

Seems to me it might be worth putting together a pros and cons list for each and then scoring each pro and con according to their importance to you and that will give you a guide perhaps

 

Police Pros Cons

Nice uniform (1) Lots of admin (-5)

Decent benefits (3) Poor pay (-3)

Early retirement (9) get called a pig a lot (-100)

 

Overall - 95 (not for me)

 

Fire Pros Cons

Bigger helmet (100) Fires (-80)

Lots of time off (40) Rescuing cats (-6)

 

Overall 54 (Job's a good un)

 

Good luck

[Valiant Richie]

Being a fire-fighter is a cracking job - I would never say otherwise. The good side to the job by far outweighs the boring/politics side of the job.

 

The training is broad and constantly changing which means you always have to adapt, and people will always have fires which is what your core training teaches you to deal with on a day to day basis no matter how big or small. That would be a massive plus for me in my pros and cons.

 

Don't forget about the whole range of rescues the fire service now get called out to do including RTCs, Water Incidents, Rope Rescue, Trains, Trams etc etc.

 

Go big or go home!

 

VR

[Valiant Richie]

Just to add to that - due to the current economic climate, you will probably find it very hard to get into and Fire Service for a few years to come. My advice would be to look at your local FRS and seek opportunities to be a volunteer, in this case when they do eventually recruit you have the upper hand on the thousands of people that will be applying.

 

Also be prepared to apply for any FRS within the UK just to get your foot in the door, you can always transfer later down the line.