|
CAPT. STEVE PRZIBOROWSKI CAREER ARTICLES:
How Do I Find Out Which Fire Departments
Are Accepting Applications. Phase 2 - Chapter 2
B. CHAPTER 2: Fire Departments City-by-City
Label the second chapter of your binder, Chapter 2. Now that we have found out which fire departments are in the county, we can now narrow our research down. Based on the Santa Clara County example above, I will start with the Santa Clara County Fire Department. Why? Because if you notice, they provide service to the cities/towns of Campbell, Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Morgan Hill, and portions of Saratoga. I can just write Santa Clara County Fire Department on the top of the page and list the cities that they provide services to. That way, I don't have to phone each of those cities individually, I can just contact the Santa Clara County Fire Department. Now you can write out individual pages for each city or fire department, but I would suggest creating a template (or using the sample I have provided), making copies of it to put into chapter 2.
NOTE: The testing process for firefighters for most county fire departments is usually done through the County Personnel / Human Resource offices, just like with municipal fire departments. However, in the case of Santa Clara County, the Fire Department Personnel Office handles the testing process.
Because you will be listing fire departments in various counties, I would suggest separating this Chapter with dividers of the Counties that you are concentrating on, in alphabetical order. For example, since I live in San Jose, I would initially concentrate on the following counties: Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, San Francisco, San Benito, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin, and probably Marin. That is a lot of different counties. Putting them in alphabetical order with a divider, starting with Alameda, would make my life easier. Then within each county, I would list the fire departments in alphabetical order.
In the next issue, I will discuss how to obtain specifically obtain the information that is expected to be placed into each of the blanks on your fire department information sheet. That article will cover Phase 3: Obtaining the necessary information for your firefighter candidate research binder.
SAMPLE FIRE DEPARTMENT INFORMATION FORM
Click Here for Phase II - Chapter 3
KEY POINT:
I would suggest making multiple copies of this form, punching 3 holes in them, and placing the blank copies in Chapter 2 since these will be your worksheets when you contact fire departments and personnel departments.
Feel free to modify this template as you find necessary. You may even think of many other relevant items to include when doing your research.
NOTE: If you would like a copy of this in Microsoft Word, email me at sprziborowski@chabotcollege.edu and I will email you a copy.
Until then, keep plugging away - there is a badge out there just for you!
|
 |
