Make Your First Job First

This is the third post on making yourself an attractive prospect for promotion. These are just quick tips that I have had passed on to me and things that I look for as one who has been on intreview boards for promotional processes. This list in no way gaurantees a promotion nor does it contain everything you might want to consider. But, those that have used these and paid close attention have had good luck.

In the first post we provided a list of things for consideration when trying to prepare and move on to the next position or level in your department. This post is going to focus on making your first job first.

As firefighters we all know or have been involved with side work on our days off. I have known carpenters, real estate salesman, mortgage salesmen, roofers, computer IT techs, excavators, wood workers, tree trimmers, mechanics, instructors, curriers, and the list goes on. I’m sure you could add many more to the list that were firefighters and did these jobs on their days off.

We get full days off and our pay is not always enough to support our life styles, so we work a second job. I have and do work a second job and luckily for me it’s still in the fire service. But, as an officer and even as a firefighter, I make my primary job my primary responsibility, especially when I’m on duty.

If you want to show those that decide on promotions a reason not to promote you, spend more time on your second job while at your primary one. Spend more time and energy on making sales calls from your cell phone on your down time than learning your craft if you don’t want to be promoted. Spend more time surfing web sites for everything except fire related content if you don’t want to get promoted. I think you get the idea.

I tell my members, “Give me at least as much time as you give non-fire related activities while at work.” If they are going to spend 30 minutes looking up how to fix their RV, give me and the department at least that much back by reading an article or watching some training videos. I think that’s only fair.

Your disinterest is noticed and it makes it very hard to imagine you will change if you were to be in control of the schedule. Fair or not, those perceptions are reality and you need to consider them.

When you are at work, your primary job, be engaged and make it your priority. If your officer is constantly asking you to be a part of the crew and hears you more interested in your second job or activities, don’t be surprised when you don’t get that promotion.

Take care and get your priorities straight. Tomorrow will be here before you know it and when it does, you may have placed yourself behind the eight ball.