Gents,

Been lurking for awhile now and just wanted to get my story out there and open a discussion regarding the hiring process, ideally would love someone with a bit of experience to kind of mentor me along as I don't have anyone I can directly use as a resource.

28 y.o and spent the first 6 years of my adult life in the Marine Corps reserve and receiving my associates degree. I got out and worked for a couple years before setting out and traveling the world for the better part of 15 months. I came home and worked hard again for about a year and a half and I am now on my last extended travel trip in SA.

I'm ready to completely settle down now and find a career I can both be proud of and give my full attention to. Firefighting is something I always thought Id like to do but knew that I wanted to travel before settling down into a career.

Ideally getting hired on in a big city would be my first choice as I could get paid and learn the skills instead of paying for all the certifications and then simply hoping to get hired at all.

Being 28 I need to get my act together and don't want to waste any more critical time and money on schooling when theres not a definite career path. Firefighting would be my first option and I guess I'm just trying to figure out what realistic chance I have of getting hired on and any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

(I live in the Midwest)

- J