Been grinding for the last year and decided to sign up for a fire academy, I’m nervous! Any advice on how to do well?
After a ROUGH 2025, (I got laid off early in the year, got another job, held it for 6 months, got laid off AGAIN) I decided to put in the effort to become a firefighter. I went through a basic emt program, got certified, applied for a ton of different cities in my area, made it to the interview stage with a few of them, and didn’t get hired. Talking with the people I did physical assessments with, I came to the conclusion that I was the least certified person in the room, which probably contributed to me not getting hired. My college is opening a fire academy that’s being sponsored by a pretty big department that oversees a lot of the downtown SLC area, and I decided to sign up for it. It’s starting in a week and for the last month and a half I’ve been;
\-reviewing EMS textbooks/medical terminology/
\-working out 4 to 5 days a week, focusing on cardio and strength training
\-trying to put myself into a pretty rigid sleep schedule (except for tonight cause I’ve been simmering on this)
But the biggest thing I’ve been trying to do is get my head into the right mindset to succeed, because to afford things like food/gas/life I’ll have to put in about 34 to 40 hours a week at my current job, which the academy is gonna to be 30 hours a week on top of that for the next 14 weeks…..
I’m extremely grateful that my current job is willing to accommodate me with scheduling around it.
I guess what I’m asking is,
\-how did y’all make it through fire academy?
\-what else can I be doing to be prepared/succeed while going through fire academy?
*also any other advice about interviewing at stations/ride alongs/etc is welcome*, *I’ll take anything y’all got.*