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[quote=Anonymous]Firefighting tends to be hard to get into (at least the high paying competitive locals) but has a lot of great benefits and is actually pretty interesting work with some pretty interesting people.  Unfortunately, the cancer risks are very real--people have all sorts of crap in their house that is toxic when it burns.  Also, you can be fired for off the job conduct -- so you always have to be on best behavior and you are subject to drug testing so no recreational weed anymore.

Police departments pretty much everywhere are desperate for recruits.  But it is hard, hard work.  Drug tests, of course, and also scrutiny of your off the work conduct.  No remote work -- you need to be on shift on time every day, and will likely be called in for more OT than you possibly want, including on holidays.  You deal with many of the most difficult people in the area -- people who are drugged out of their mind, crazy guys mad you won't let them beat the crap out of their girlfriend or kids, guys who have warrants out for violent crimes and see you as the thing that's going to bring oyu into prison.  Even the sort of boring calls have potential to be a real PITA, with some drunk guy throwing up on you or taking a swing at you.  A lot of the officers I know say that it's hard to get through a shift without someone doing something like that.  Plus everyone expecting you to deal with people in mental health crisis when you don't have that traiining.   And no real support for your own mental health when you have to do things like respond to highway crashes with people's guts spread on the street, or responding to a call where a guy has a gun to his kid's head, or responding to a call where someone has shot his mom in the head.  Or responding to a call and not knowing whether the people inside are armed with weaponry suitable for a minor civil war.  Plus having people post on your FB how awful cops are and how you're probably a fascist.  It's a really, really hard time to be a police officer, and most of hte ones that do it now are looking to retire as soon as possible.  I really think we need some way to make the profession more tolerable.  Sensible gun control would really help, but it doesn't seem like that's on the table for the moment.  [/quote]

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