Civilian Job, Reserves and Volunteer Fire? Have any of you juggled three obligations?

SPC(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 14 Aug 2016 17:13:12 -0400

I've been considering volunteering for my local department, but I already have 2 obligations and curious if anyone on here has done something similar? My career goal is to be in Networking but I feel like a change once in a while is good (I do IT as well in the reserves).

Response by Maj John Bell made Aug 14 at 2016 5:23 PM

Maj John Bell — Sun, 14 Aug 2016 17:23:47 -0400

I've juggled self-employment (70+) hours per week, volunteer fire and rescue, and a separate ambulance service. The hard part is annual Continuing Education Units (CEU's). Most volunteer departments are happy to open their classes to a visitor that needs to make up a required CEU. But I've had to drive 160 miles one way for a two hour class I've missed. Fortunately, being self-employed, the boss is pretty understanding when I need to modify my work schedule.

Most of the firefighters and EMT's from rural departments have very supportive employers. Some even have employers that keep paying them if they have to leave work to answer a call.

Response by CAPT Kevin B. made Aug 14 at 2016 6:08 PM

CAPT Kevin B. — Sun, 14 Aug 2016 18:08:41 -0400

I did a regular job, Reserves, and full time MS program. Bottom line, I have no memory of those 2 years. You can get so saturated where there's no quality. Don't know how'd I do it if I had kids at the time. What you have to realize is there's pretty much no part of your life that you can own so it can be done in short bursts. I don't recommend it for the long term.

Response by CPO Mark Castlebury made Aug 14 at 2016 9:56 PM

CPO Mark Castlebury — Sun, 14 Aug 2016 21:56:06 -0400

I work as a professional Firefighter, and I'm in the process of retiring from the Navy Reserves, and just finished my Masters degree. It was hard, and painful to say the least. My recommendation is wait on the volunteer Fire position until your reserves is over, or explain to them your obligations and be totally open about the units and your own expectations. It may be a workable situation, but most likely not. If you have a spouse and or/kids then recognize that they are going to suffer for your desire to serve. My family suffered due to my inability to juggle my schedule.

Response by SGT Jerrold Pesz made Aug 14 at 2016 10:07 PM

SGT Jerrold Pesz — Sun, 14 Aug 2016 22:07:10 -0400

I did it for many years and it was a large part of the reason that I also spent most of my life alone. A family doesn't usually hang around when they only see you a few hours a week. Looking back I wouldn't recommend doing it.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 14 at 2016 11:09 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 14 Aug 2016 23:09:50 -0400

I put in 13 years in the guard and I am in my 16th year in the fire service. I volunteered the entire time I was in the guard while also working and/or going to school. Currently I am the Chief of a Professional Volunteer Fire Department (professional does NOT equal a paycheck) and a career firefighter/AEMT for my full time job. I still go school whether it be fire service/ EMS related or college and make time for my fiance who has stuck it out with me for the last four years. Sure sometimes it is a drain and as chief I have more on my plate than my average fireman but if you have the ability to prioritize things in your life then you will be fine. Understand that the first year or so joining a department will take up most of your free time due to training requirements and the fact that you want to make a good impression on your brothers and sisters. Once you get whatever certifications out of the way that the department requires and off probation, the pace will back off a bit. I saw in another comment where you currently do not have family obligations and want to do something rewarding. Go for it now while you have the time available. The average service time of a volunteer firefighter in this country is five years. A lot of folks join young and with no family obligations. As life changes, so do priorities and that's ok. Who knows, you may fall in love with the fire service and make a paid or volunteer career out of it. Most volunteer departments are happy to have veterans as well as those still serving as members. Best of luck to you.

Response by LTC Stephen C. made Aug 16 at 2016 12:40 PM

LTC Stephen C. — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 12:40:55 -0400

SPC(P) Private RallyPoint Member, I think we all have our stories about having too much to do, and not enough time to do it. In the '88-'89 timeframe, I lived in Oklahoma City and was a sales manager for a large insurance firm. I had employees to manage, budgets to create and update, sales meetings in different states, etc. Whatever goes with being a sales manager I did, which included many nights of working late.
At the same time, I was in a USAR TPU that essentially drilled twice a month because of the unit's mission. The unit would do its' normal MUTA-4 and then take AT time and frag into into additional weekends. Then we had additional duty orders because we had to conduct exercises for various units. At the same time, I was in the C&GS Officer Course, so one night a week, I was at a USAR school, had C&GSOC writing assignments and one of those years, I did an additional AT to complete another phase of the C&GSOC.
At the time, we had two young children. My wife and I have talked about those two years many times, and we don't know how we did it. Thankfully, she was a stay at home mom, and picked up lot of slack for me. I don't think we even took vacations those two years.
As was the case for CAPT Kevin B., the entire time was a blur, and correctly, Captain Ball recommends not to allow such a lifestyle to continue indefinitely.

Response by Cpl Justin Goolsby made Aug 16 at 2016 1:33 PM

Cpl Justin Goolsby — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 13:33:47 -0400

Not to that degree, but I have juggled 3 jobs before I joined the military. By day I was in lawn care and landscaping, by night I was shipping packages for UPS and during the weekends I was working as a florist.

The biggest thing is finding a place that has a set in stone schedule or finding a place that is willing to work with you on your schedule. Lawn care only worked during the day Monday-Saturday, so that left evenings and Sundays open for me to pursue other things. UPS only had shifts open either early evening or late evening Monday-Friday so I picked early evening so I could bounce straight from one job to the other with enough wiggle room for traffic/chow. This left my Saturday evening and entire sunday available for work so I picked up a 3rd job arranging floral bouquets during the weekend.

The key thing to consider also is that the place I worked the most also was paying me the most and gradually went lower in pay. You don't want to be devoting the most of your time to the place that pays the least.

It's completely manageable what you want to accomplish, you just need to find a way to schedule it all. Just don't burn yourself out. I was pulling 3 jobs to get myself into a better place financially, but I was burning myself out because I didn't have the off time to recharge my batteries. If you feel yourself starting to burn out, it might be time to step back.

Response by CPT(P) Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 16 at 2016 11:55 PM

CPT(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 23:55:31 -0400

Totally, I work as needed in an ER, will be starting full time at the VA here hopefully soon, I am the MRO for my unit and down-trace unit (my reserve unit is a 6 hour drive from my HOR), I have a side gig as a consultant for a skin care line, I am wanting to write for a clinical journal and presented at a national conference in June (that was a lot of work !), a mom to a high school kiddo who plays sports, a wife to an AD Air Force Nav... and a dog mom.
At one time - not too long ago - I was in school from 2008-2014 to get where I am now along with working full time in the ER, working as a SANE on the side, doing my reserve duties, taught RN students for a semester during 2012 - moved across the country and back to the midwest .... always burning the candle at both ends.. It can be done. Some people thrive on stress/being busy... you can always put one thing down if you feel your pulled in too many directions. If you don't try, you won't know what your capable of. So why not ! Cheers.