If you wish to join a full time dept many hire people with no experience and train them through a rookie school that is held in house. By the end you will be a firefighter 1.

If you wish to join a department that only hires certified firefighters then you may have to go to your states fire academy and take the firefighter 1 course. It will teach you basic firefighting and will certify you in the end.

The testing will be both written and practical. In Georgia for the National Proffessional Qualification Firefighter 1 you must have a 70 to pass the written and zero mistakes on all the practicals.

The best advice I can give anybody is to become a volunteer first so that you can see if the job is for you before you put everything on the line and leave your current job. Its a great career but its not for everybody. I’ve seen more than one spend weeks in rookie school then go on their first couple calls and quit because it was not what they could handle. Its not always a matter of physically handing it, a big part is mental.