How to become a firefighter?

Feral makes some really good points and probably has the best answer, but this is my experience. I think it differs from state to state, but as there seems to be more and more competition in the fire service I think you will start to see more potential applicants with degrees in Fire Science. There are 3 different types of fire departments, one is Volunteer Only: a department with no full time employees, and may pay a yearly clothing allowance only. You can get decent training from some of these that will help distinguish you from other candidates. That being said, make sure your volunteer department of choice has a good relationship with the paid departments near by or you could blackball yourself, as some fire departments hate to "re-train" people. There 2nd type is a split department: a department with both full time and volunteers, most if not all hire exclusively from there volunteers and the waiting line for a job could be long, up to 10 years sometimes depending on the amount of jobs open. The last type is a Paid department: no Volunteers, probably union. A lot of these departments have a interview process consisting of a physical test (most likely the CPAT test) as well as a scored interview process. My local department takes applications from everyone, with any amount of experience. Candidates with Military experience are most likely to be hired infront of someone with out it. As far as actual fire training, most will require you to go through there training process even if you have the required certifications. Also some departments have an age limit so check for that to, most likely you have to be under 36 to be hired.