City of Kent Lateral Firefighter job posting

[samthefireman1]

Does anyone know about this job posting and why they're testing for laterals and how many they will hire, any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Sam

[ffbam24]

Ct?
Mi?
Oh?
Wa?

[samthefireman1]

City of Kent in WA state

[ffbam24]

Which is now part of Regional Fire Authority. This article also provides some insight: http://kent.komonews.com/content/buc...-will-add-jobs
No longer financing a department opened up some extra $$$. Hire a lateral FF and you save even more by not sending a new hire to State Fire Academy. Haven't seen the job announcement yet myself. I'll ask around.

[powerhourcoug]

Word on the streets is they could potentially hire 7.

Kent has never done a lateral process before, so there are many unknowns internally (amongst line members) as well.

Kent has been short on staffing for quite some time. A lateral hire would fill those needs much quicker than an entry level candidate, who would spend up to 16 weeks ramping up to hit the line.

Also, there are quite a few departments who have laid off or are on the verge of. They might be doing a lateral to support those folks.

[Fmac]

Any further updates from those in the know ?

[KCFF84]

Word on the street is that Kent didn't pick up as many laterals as they would have liked and are getting ready to pull scores for entry level firefighters by end of the year from PST. I don't know how credible this info is but hope it helps.

[ffbam24]

Did you mean "credible"? LOL

Interesting tho. I was looking at the requirements, not everyone has an actual WSFA certification. I'm out.

[powerhourcoug]

Did you mean "credible"? LOL

Interesting tho. I was looking at the requirements, not everyone has an actual WSFA certification. I'm out.

I'm sure they would look at your current employer and be very tempted to make an exception

[Fmac]

My understanding is that 15 candidates were invited to the preliminary interview and a total of 10 candidates will be moving forward in the selection process. Not sure of the timing details or if they are still planning on picking up laterals. Anyone else have some insight?

[BearTech]

I work for Kent. They were doing the laterals partly to save money and ramp up time (with pre-academy, Bates, post-academy, and a 1 month EMT refresher it adds up to 5.5 months!!) and also to help out some area departments that were laying off. Word is that the chief wasn't thrilled with a number of the candidates so they scrapped laterals and are going completely from PST. I have heard both the number 4 and the number 6 thrown around, but not sure. They tend to move REALLY fast since they want to get them into Bates. I had my oral board in early June '09, chief's interview within a week after that, and the background investigation a started a few days after the interview. I had my final offer one week into August with class starting Sept 1st! And all completely out of the blue, as I thought that the economy would prevent anyone hiring in '09.

The RFA is basically the exact same fire department, we just split away from the city government and became autonomous. Much better to have a defined budget that comes from a tax levy that is based on property value and use.

Anyone heard about chief's interviews?