Anonymous wrote:My neighbors college educated son became a cop. A friends son became a firefighter and didn't go to college. Many of these jobs pay more than your average college required employer.

And safe from AI.

Anonymous wrote:My son is a police officer.

He makes a nice salary, even better with OT, his health insurance is fantastic, can retire after 25 years of service, gets plenty of time off.

Yes there’s definitely the risk of danger. But I’m very proud of him and thankful for all who take on that risk to keep us safer.

Best of luck and safety to your son.

Anonymous wrote:In many places where firefighters are paid well and have good benefits it is actually really hard to get a job because so many sons, nephews and grandsons get the inside track to getting hired.

Recently cities have passed anti-nepotism rules but it can still be hard to get hired in many cities.

My son’s math teacher told me a few years ago he tried to become a firefighter but said it was so competitive and he had bad luck in a lottery so after getting an AA in firefighting he transferred ti a 4 year college to get a math degree to become a math teacher.

Yup. And often times , people age out before they have better luck in the lottery.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Firefighter jobs are pretty hard to get, and most pay far below $240K per year.

But firefighters are revered first responders, and it's a terrific career for the right kid.

+ 💯
FDNY is very competitive to get into and many firefighters work OT shifts. My nephew is interested in it and it’s a long road; he just completed NYC EMS as a stepping stone into the FD and loves it so far.

A big thank you to your nephew and all other first responders. True heroes.

Thank you!

Compensation in those fields also includes the potential for civil service pensions, and for relatively early retirement, partly because salaries are not usually very high, especially outside of major metropolitan HCOL areas, and partly because the physical demands of the work take a toll as compared to white collar work. The best approach for many is to rise through the ranks, which brings higher compensation and, usually, less stress and routine physical exertion. Management and executive roles in the fire service and in law enforcement are essentially white collar positions.

Anonymous wrote:My dad was a NYC firefighter in the 70s in the Bronx when “the Bronx was burning”. It’s a hard job to get. You’ll be competing with people who have wanted to do it their whole lives for only a few spots. For some people, it’s a calling. My dad used to work about 1 week on/1 week off. During the week on he would sleep at the firehouse and we wouldn’t see him. During the week off he spent time with the kids. Retired at 20 years with full pension and then became a fire safety director in NYC. Every high rise building in NYC has one and the are usually retired firefighters, very well paid. This was about the time I was in high school, and it was like my family suddenly had a lot of money. My dads pension was 150,000/ year and he made $130,000 at the fire safety job, and this was in the 90s! I’m very proud of my dad- he worked so hard to provide for our family and did something that actually made a difference in this messed up world. He saved countless people’s lives, carrying babies out of burning apartment buildings, old people out of nursing homes. I don’t know if I would feel the same admiration for my dad if he had worked a white collar job.

$150k a year pension in the 90s means your dad was totally scamming the system. That is ridiculous. You shouldn’t admire him. He was a crook stealing money from taxpayers.

My dad was a NYC firefighter in the 70s in the Bronx when “the Bronx was burning”. It’s a hard job to get. You’ll be competing with people who have wanted to do it their whole lives for only a few spots. For some people, it’s a calling. My dad used to work about 1 week on/1 week off. During the week on he would sleep at the firehouse and we wouldn’t see him. During the week off he spent time with the kids. Retired at 20 years with full pension and then became a fire safety director in NYC. Every high rise building in NYC has one and the are usually retired firefighters, very well paid. This was about the time I was in high school, and it was like my family suddenly had a lot of money. My dads pension was 150,000/ year and he made $130,000 at the fire safety job, and this was in the 90s! I’m very proud of my dad- he worked so hard to provide for our family and did something that actually made a difference in this messed up world. He saved countless people’s lives, carrying babies out of burning apartment buildings, old people out of nursing homes. I don’t know if I would feel the same admiration for my dad if he had worked a white collar job.

A relative of mine completed his Accounting degree and became a tax accountant. He hated that boring job so after several years he quit and became a fireman.

He had played team sports since he was a child. A firehouse is a team and he integrated perfectly, making a viable career out of it. On the side, he would do tax returns for people during tax season.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM snobs only want other people's kids to be firefighters and cops.

Or they just want their kids to make more and be in safer jobs? Weird that you consider that snobbery.

Don’t be so sure that your non-firefighter or police child will make more money.

For certain fields it is almost guaranteed. Firefighter and police pay are not bad but there are plenty of fields where that level of pay is not overly attractive. And that’s particularly true in major HCOL cities where a lot of these bigger numbers being thrown about are coming from.

In any event, you can’t say it’s not snobbery when people become firefighters or police officers because they find the pay attractive and then claim it’s snobbery when people aim for pay higher than that.

Anonymous wrote:As long as AI can’t run into fires, it’s a better career choice than 90% of current jobs.

+1,000,000

As long as AI can’t run into fires, it’s a better career choice than 90% of current jobs.

Anonymous wrote:

Don't think I have ever heard of a kid on here who wants or is a cop or firefighter.

Probably because their parents aren't posting here on the college forum. They know what they want to do and are already taking steps to get there.

They are both important careers; both are physically demanding. Police work requires a high degree of "emotional intelligence" that many do not have. One needs to be the right type of person to do either sort of work, unlike office-drone work, which pretty much anyone can do with the right training and experience.

Including most current police officers.

Anonymous wrote:My neighbors college educated son became a cop. A friends son became a firefighter and didn't go to college. Many of these jobs pay more than your average college required employer.

I agree. My brother is a police officer. His base pay is almost twice what I make now as a teacher with a Masters. He has the opportunity for overtime; I don’t. (And I work way more hours).

My neighbors college educated son became a cop. A friends son became a firefighter and didn't go to college. Many of these jobs pay more than your average college required employer.