I’m currently a member of the ranks of the unemployed in the United States. I had retired from Chesterfield (Va.) Fire & EMS Department, my employer for more than 25 years, to pursue a second career in the private sector managing a small EMS service in southeastern Ohio. I’d been working with the company’s owner and his staff for about 18 months as a planning and teaching consultant before accepting his offer to become his chief of operations. After about four months, it became clear to both of us that my public-sector upbringing and their private-sector, family owned ways of doing business weren’t a good fit. And in that environment there’s really only one person who can go.
Now, I have lots of lines in the water, but no bites yet. I have applications out for a variety of emergency services positions, for which I think my first career has prepared me. But I will say that the Internet sure makes looking and applying for jobs a great deal easier and less costly, especially given the cost of gasoline today. FIRE CHIEF’s Job Zone and the IAFC’s Candidate Center have become popular places for localities to post their public safety vacancies to attract the best candidates. I’m also a registered client with Monster and Yahoo Hot Jobs, especially for potential job opportunities outside the fire and EMS service.
Recently I wrote a piece for Writezilla, an Internet writing service, about where people are looking for jobs and how they’re getting jobs. In a 2007 survey of 15,000 visitors, WEDDLE’s found that almost 27% of the respondents — the highest percentage — both found their last job and successfully applied for it online. The numbers were almost double what the same survey found in 2006.
One thing I’ve learned in my experiences of trying to find good people to hire — and now my own efforts to find gainful employment — is that if fire and EMS organizations want to address their recruitment needs more adequately they need to get better connected with sites like Monster or Yahoo Hot Jobs and put resources into their own Web site design and maintenance. The sites that provide me with everything I need to make an informed decision about the advertised position, complete an application online, and submit my electronic resume and application are the ones for which I take the time to apply for a position.
How many of your Web sites currently allow an applicant to do that?
