The purpose of a resume is to say “This is who I am!” in 30-60 seconds.  That’s it!  That’s all you get!  Long winded explanations how you did your job and why you were so great are best saved for the interview.  The resume should highlight the path you’ve taken up until now, you’re educational achievements and any other forms of skills or successes you’ve had.

When writing any kind of resume, but especially a firefighters resume, you want to punctuate the most applicable and relevant items first.  This means just what I said – “first”, as in put them at the top.  If you take a look at my resume you’ll see that while I have no experience directly relevant to firefighting, I am enrolled in the Fire Academy and with the academy I’ll be completing my degree in Fire Technology.  For this reason, I put my education at the top of my resume.

Being that I am 32 (33 in three weeks though), I followed Education with Experience because the Captains and Chiefs reading my resume are going to want to know what I’ve been up to.  This won’t be quite the same for a early to mid-twenties person who’s been going to school.  If that’s you, you might want to consider other skills you may have.  Anything technical or mechanical is highly appreciated by hiring fire departments.

Do you work on cars, know a trade like plumbing or carpentry, or just enjoy fixing things?  Find a way to highlight that and put in a skills section closer to the top of the resume.  You don’t have to make it sound so formal or stuffy.  Just tell them what you do.  Remember, a Hobbies category on your resume is perfectly acceptable, especially if you’re younger!

On my resume I have an Objective statement and a Summary.  Both of these are optional, but a good idea to include if you can fit it.  If you have an objective statement, make sure to customize it specifically for the department you’re applying to.  (i.e. To gain employment as a professional Firefighter with the San Francisco Fire Department).  This means modifying your resume every time you apply somewhere.  On that note, make sure to keep your resumes in a folder of their own and figure out a good way to keep organized.  I almost never delete old resumes, but I maintain an organized and methodical filing system for them.

In truth, while your resume speaks volumes about you, and usually is your first impression on an interview panel, resumes are unfortunately not held to the standard that corporations and other business hold them.  This is because firefighting is a government job and the interview process for firefighters is frequently standardized.  This can result in less attention being paid to your resume.  I know this sounds contrary to what I’ve been telling you, but it does not lessen the degree to which having a strong resume can help you.

Your resume is a paper representation of you.  Make it as good as it can be.

Contact me if you have any questions, and be sure to check out the list of fire interview questions!

Just recently I met a 24 year old guy who in the last 5 years has applied to over 150 fire departments, has had about 75 interviews, made it to the chiefs interview with two of those departments and was hired by none.  Like me, he’s got a degree in Fire Technology from Los Medanos College and has his EMT certification.  Unlike me he’s already been through the fire academy, has worked as an ER-Tech, and he’s been on far more ride-alongs and station visits than I have.

He sells memberships at a gym in Brentwood which is where I met him.  He seems to have resigned himself, at this young age to selling gym memberships and anything else where he can make a buck, but he made it clear to me that he’s given up on firefighting.  Nobody will hire him.

He’s young and that may have to do with it.  Fire Departments are often looking for slightly older and more mature candidates, but he didn’t seem immature to me.  I even noticed how many times I had used curse words when it became apparent that he wasn’t using any at all!  He’s a white guy, very well built and about 6 feet tall.  He sure seemed to me to be a guy who knew what the road to firefighting was all about; knew it all too well even, and unfortunately he’s one of the “fallen”.