CAL Fire reviews

Poor pay, poor schedule, poor logistics

Often times you will get stuck with sub par employees and partners because its so hard for the state to fire people who don't do their job. This department is riddled with "this is the way we've always done it", which means many ideas for new and innovative things gets shot down. There is a lot of bureaucracy which can hinder and stifle creativity, development, and success. The job application process is an absolute joke. The state exams you must take only quantify you experience in numbers rather than in a qualitative way. The exams are more of a hoop that you have to jump through. If you have a family, it might be difficult to adjust to the summer months if you do incident work - you work 16 hour days for up to 21 days at a time. Folks with families often don't understand this kind of job duty making work life balance tough. Its difficult to do anything outside of the box because of all the red tape.