Transferring

adamant19uk · Transferring

Hi everyone,
I'm an 8 year Ff in a south coast brigade, efad & alp, thinking of transferring to the big city.
I've filled in the form, although one never knows what they're looking for theses days, if I get selected I'd like to know whether it would be a good move.
I know the job is all about politics these days, so I'm not niave, my 2 motivations are, firstly I've always fancied working in London, & secondly there is little prospect of promotion in my own brigade.
I look forward to a heads up, thanks.

Straight8 · Re: Transferring

adamant19uk

Is that the sound of tumble weed?

Blaze Bear

Try not to take GBC to seriously, he's a bit like that

I think he's seeing the counseling people

Hi adam,

Where about's do you live and are you planning to travel or relocate to London?

Have you just applied? if so we can't really help you with the application form but maybe able to help with the interview if you get that stage.

London gives you more scope for promotion and a more varied job spec ie USAR, FRU, FIT and others

Downsides are the traveling as about 70% of the workforce live outside of London due to costs.

Rob

Blaze Bear

I'm really not sure where all the crap about women and ethnic minorities comes from, the new firefighter courses that come through Southwark are still mainly white males. The last intake of recruits (2 weeks ago) had NO women and one or two black guys on it.

I have four black guys and one woman on my course at the moment and they are as good if not better than anyone else I've trained so I can say the standards aren't dropping at all to accommodate anyone

adamant19uk

Rob,
Thanks for reply, I've submitted application form which was PQA based, I'm not entirely sure what the rest of the transfer process is for London. When I tansferred to my current brigade it was just an interview & medical.

I live in Bournemouth so I'd be looking at staying up there between days & again between nights, although not sure where at the mo.

Any tips greatly appreciated.

gilbert · Transfer

Hello newbie.
My advice to you would be to stay where you are,
London is fast going down the toilet, and now with Brian Coleman (tory) as chairman of the fire Authority it will only get worse.
Fights between management and unions Blah Blah blah
Poor senior officers
ineffective union

political correctness

Lack of white males on the new website

Poor frontline equipement

A uniform that makes you look like a boilerman

Rising cost of London living

No canteen at training school

Smoke dodgers pretending to be trainers

Believe me the list could go on.
The only good things about being in London is doing the job itself and the people on station

Blaze Bear · Re: Transfer

gilbert

Oh dear hit a nerve have i????

Blaze Bear

No! its just the same rant from the same people who aren't prepared to put themselves out and change things

Straight8

Straight8

Blaze Bear

I agree GBC he has one or two very valid points, I just think it wasn't the right place to vent them.

We all know things about the brigade we want to change and as you know the biggest pain in my rear is uniforms that aren't fit for purpose. The guy wanted some very valid answers about joining our brigade not a rant from someone who is obviously disheartened with their career choice.

I'm sure adamant has similar problems with his/her own brigade but I believe London has some real positives (inc crews (on and off station) and the job itself) as Gilbert mentioned

'Love it, or leave it'

adamant19uk

Well that started a debate.
Like I said, I've been in the job 8 years, so I'm well aware that firemen are the most cynical bunch you could ever wish to meet, myself included. If I didn't get replies saying it's shite then I'd wonder if I was in the right place, but to be fair, I think the problems Gilbert refers to aren't confined to London.

The things I'd like to know about are shift changes, getting time off, career prospects etc.
I don't want to move & then find out that a 5 watch system is on the way, or do what my brigade has done & restructure leaving too many JO's.

Thanks.

Blaze Bear

From what I can gather is they have left the shift alone for now (this doesn’t mean they wont go for them in the future).

I would imagine promotion is a lot quicker because of the amount of operational firefighters we have in London. If you are keen and have a bit of common sense then promotion is fairly quick (I was an instructor WM after 4.5 years) having bought experience in from other uniformed jobs (before the old and bold kick off)

I will tell you about the amount of JO's and if its a problem soon, I've just put in my transfer from the training dept back to station

You get a better chance of specialising as we now have 16 Fire Rescue Units, Rapid Response Teams (Chemical), USAR, FIT and other specialist groups. If you are into your RTA’s and technical rescue then the FRU is the way to go, we are changing that team on a monthly basis.

Rob

Redbusrider

Sorry Blaze but I think some of Gilberts points are valid although not as far as not transferring
I have been there, done it, got the t shirt (well rank markings actually after reverting) and the headache from banging my head on the wall. Unfortunately we still have a problem with some senior mangers wanting to run their own little empires and resenting lower ranks coming up with ideas, something which appears not to happen as much in county brigades. Not sure if the problem is the brigade unable to work out what type of service we are, either a uniform service or business

Every year we are losing people with a lot of skill and real experience, rather than using these people we just let them go, why?

Blaze Bear

Was right in a lot of ways, think he just put my back up about the 'smoke dodger instructors'

Hey maybe I'll get WM at his station and on his watch

gilbert · Transfering

"Some old rant, from the same old people"?
"Change things"?
I have put myself out with promotion and went into a specialist post ,but this organisation is run by professional ametuers on the Authority, Bean counters ,and senior officers who, if you were not in there gang, dismissed new ideas and blamed policy as an excuse not to carry the ideas forward.
For a long time i worked with good forward thinking people who saw an oppotunity to change things for the better, but time and again we were knocked back so much so that over time we all went back to station

Cynical. Yes.
Proud to be doing this job.Yes
Tired of swimming against the tide .Yes.

Tired of the political games that are played out . Yes

gilbert · Transfering

Hello moderator.
Sorry if i put you out with the smoke dodger bit.
I was in training for a while and got fed up with instructors telling people about big jobs they went on before they even joined the job.
Should not tar everyone with the same brush.
Just that my county brigade runs well and ff's are really happy. London is no county brigade. Adamant , think long and hard before coming in.

Blaze Bear

No worries Gilbert, should have a broader shoulders, if you ask the guys in my team they would probably tell you I bitch about exactly the same stuff you came out with.

I've been lucky enough to work with some very experienced and talented instructors but we all have bad days and even I open my mouth at the wrong time

and put my foot in it, unfortunately that is what people remember.

I like you think this job would be perfect if the politicians, do gooders, pc brigade and scared senior officers just let us do what we are good at, our job.

Rob

jabberwocky413

Firefighters just love to moan, they aint happy unless they're ticking away like an old clock! Our mob is just as crap as yours but we get London Weighting! So you might as well be here and get paid more to put the world to rights. Pick the first Stn you hit on your way in and take it from there.

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