After completing your training as a fire chief, you will usually be assigned to shift work (24-hour shifts) in a guard department. As a member of the team, you will be deployed in an emergency vehicle or special vehicle. Here you will extinguish fires, rescue people and animals, or provide technical assistance—a uniquely dynamic work environment where no two days are the same. In office duty, you will perform guard duties in one of our workshops or departments. 

Once you have successfully completed the career examination for the second entry-level position in the firefighting service, you will have the opportunity to advance from senior firefighter (salary grade A8 LBesO) to senior fire inspector (salary grade A9 LBesO) and thus become a group leader or dispatcher in the emergency services, for example.

Requirements for entry into the second entry-level position in the firefighting service at the Mainz Fire Department include:

• a completed journeyman's examination or equivalent final examination in a profession suitable for service with the Mainz Fire Department
• Class B driver's license
• Personal suitability based on the overall picture of the personality
• Mental and physical health and suitability for fire service according to a medical report (fire service fitness) 
• fulfillment of the requirements under civil service law

Further requirements are:

• Identification with the tasks and objectives of the fire department
• ability and willingness to learn
• Sense of responsibility 
• Willingness to work both shifts and day shifts

Recruitment usually takes place on April 1 of each year. Career training for entry into the second entry-level position lasts a total of 18 months, consisting of a basic training course (GAL) lasting around five months, followed by internships. The GAL is completed at the Mainz Fire Department. During the GAL, you will be on day duty from Monday to Friday (unless there are deviations for special training content). 

After successfully completing the GAL, you will then do internships in the guard departments (24-hour shifts) and further training (obtaining a Class C/CE driver's license, paramedic training, advanced courses, etc.). At the end of the training, there will be a two-week course (squad leader), followed by the career examination at the Rhineland-Palatinate Fire Department and Disaster Control Academy in Koblenz.

During the 18-month training period, trainees are already employed as civil servants on probation in salary grade A7 LBesO. The salary consists of the basic salary and general allowances, family allowances if applicable, and a fire department allowance and shift allowance if applicable.

The job advertisement for training as a fire chief, starting on April 1, is usually published about a year in advance—usually in the spring of the previous year.

Ideally, your application should include the following documents:

• Resume
• School leaving certificate
• Proof of vocational training (proof must be available by October of the application year at the latest. If the final certificate is not available at the time of application, an interim certificate should be enclosed).
• Work references, if applicable
• Driver's license (proof must be provided at the time of application)

After reviewing the application documents, we invite suitable applicants to a selection day.

The selection day consists of the following components:

The athletic portion is designed to determine whether you meet the physical requirements for firefighting. Specifically, the test consists of the following components:

• 200 m swim
• Diving
• 100 m sprint
• Cooper test
• Standing long jump
• Pull-ups
• Bench press
• Dummy pull

The practical part focuses on dexterity, orientation skills, a head for heights, and manual dexterity. This includes, among other things:

• Turning ladder climbing
• Breathing apparatus training course

In the written part, you can expect questions and tasks from the areas of logical thinking, general knowledge, and mathematics.

After evaluating the results of the selection day, suitable applicants will be invited to an interview. This will give us the opportunity to get to know each other better and determine whether our mutual expectations match.

A successful interview is followed by the mandatory occupational health and medical examination, during which your health suitability is assessed.