ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area What do you do on the side?

DougW,
I wouldn't necessarily say that Volunteer Fire-fighting is done "on the side", I have been both a Volunteer and a Career(Paid) Fire-fighter.
And I just love the dedication and comrade-ship that comes from a Volunteer Fire Brigade(Department in the US), regardless of wether you are Full-Time or Part-Time, makes no difference, you are serving your community,and that's all that matters!
My Boss knows that, if my pager goes off, I have to be at the station, no worries and we regularly have a Dinner put on at a number of local restaurants, to say thanks for letting us attend these incidents, but,they know we are providing this service and I quite often, get paid, even though I am attending a Fire Call, it's all about working in together!!.

i'm a soon to be electrician and i have been a webmaster for about 6years now. i do web design work and also run some websites. i will continue to do the webmaster thing even after i become an electrician.

Trumpy:

No offense meant to our volunteer brethern at all. I'm still an Engineer on my VFD (14 years this August), despite working 24/48 for the City.

I know that being a "career" firefighter doesn't automatically make you a "professional" simply by virtue of it being your primary source of income. I've known a lot of volunteers who conducted themselves more professionally than some paid guys.

Mom and I had an interesting debate after I was late for dinner (the first of many times) due to a call. Her comment? "It's not like you're doing it for real".

My rebuttal: "Fire doesn't care if you're career or volunteer, new or old, wear yellow or black. Fire just wants to burn. Besides which, if we weren't doing it for "real" why would (our hometown career department) call us for help at every fire they go to?"

Be Safe!

heh~ you know as well as anyone Doug, that look in the eyes of those who wait out our response times.....

I work full time for a large gov't facility as a planner/Estimator. I also have a part time Electrical contracting company, which I operate.
Very busy with a great wife and 2 kids. Its amazing how busy we get and try to balance everything out. I had a carpenter tell me a long time ago, that you need 1 day a week to "put it all together". That being, not working Sundays if I can help it. It helps balance life