Job Interview! Advice?

[steve10765]

Hi folks, it's me again! Anyway I'll let you know that this is not tech related, it's an EMT-Basic job interview. So I've had a job lined up with a friend who works at an ambulance company, and I just confirmed with him that he could still totally get me a job; the thing is the hours are 4am - 5pm @13/hr though transporting patients between hospitals. To see if I could do better I applied to some other places and ended up with an interview tomorrow at 2pm. Say I get the job and and she wants to hire me, do I let her hire me on the spot? Do I tell her to give me some time? Or that I am considirng another job and I'll get back to her soon? I am not too sure what exactly I should do. I feel like I should accept the job, and then interview at my friends place(they have to) and once I am 100% sure I am in with my friend, call back the lady and tell her that I won't be able to take the job because I found a better offer? I have to give my current job 2 weeks notice so that will be my leeway after I get hired at the first job (hopefully?)

I am a college student so I don't really have too much experience with this stuff, so any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you very much!

Classes: mon - all day. tue-thur 8am-12/1

 

[S0ULphIRE]

There'll be a contract you have to read and sign before you're officially employed by them

So just do the interview - if they want to hire you on the spot, just say thanks and you'd very much like to accept pending on reading through the contract, could you please have a copy to take home? That should buy you enough leeway to interview for the 2nd job and decide which you'd prefer to go with.

And if you decide to go with your friends job instead, just call her back and say that you'll regretfully have to decline the job offer, but thank you very much for your time. Always leave interviews on a positive note if you can never know what might happen in the future!
If she asks for more details, just use whatever's better in your friend's job that's making you want to take that job over her job. e.g. is the pay higher? Just say the salary on offer won't support your needs at this point. Or if it's hours, say you're just not ready to commit to working a 13 hour day atm with studies etc.

 

[MidnightShadow]

There are rarely contracts on jobs like that here in the US, Soul. @OP, I would caution you against taking a job, then bailing on them before you even start. That usually burns bridges. Although there are no contracts as most of the states are "Right to Work" states, folks will remember that. If you've been an EMT for any amount of time, you should know that it's a small world and word about stuff like that travels fast. Especially if there are any full time or part time paramedics that work for a 3rd party ambulance service like that. Then you run the risk of never getting hired on a real truck afterwards.

This is coming from a former EMT-B, current EMR.

 

[steve10765]

Both of you mention good points, but what exactly should I say now that I can't ask to take the contract home and read it? That's what I was planning on saying!

Should I just try to make a decision on the spot? Or verbally mention that I need a moment to think and compare the two jobs? I'm still stuck on what to do.

 

[krazyq]

Both of you mention good points, but what exactly should I say now that I can't ask to take the contract home and read it? That's what I was planning on saying!

Should I just try to make a decision on the spot? Or verbally mention that I need a moment to think and compare the two jobs? I'm still stuck on what to do.

When I was offered my current position, they didn't want me to make a decision right away. They said they prefer that people think about it.
I usually tell them that I need to talk to the family and let them know about it...which is usually true even though I've made up my mind.
Do NOT tell them you have another job pending

 

[MidnightShadow]

When I was offered my current position, they didn't want me to make a decision right away. They said they prefer that people think about it.
I usually tell them that I need to talk to the family and let them know about it...which is usually true even though I've made up my mind.
Do NOT tell them you have another job pending

I completely agree. Definitely don't tell them that you have another job pending. That's a big fail. Many companies won't offer you on the spot like that anyhow, they'll call you after the interview. If they do offer on the spot and don't offer time to consider, I wouldn't think it to be a bad thing to ask for some time to mull it over. Definitely don't take too much time, though. Within 24-48 hours, you should have an answer for them. Much beyond that, they may consider your lack of response as a negative confirmation and move on to the next candidate.

 

[steve10765]

JOB UPDATE:

While being interviewed it became clear that this company was better than the other, in regards to room to move up to the 911 system in the future, the other company didn't even do emergency response. Also the schedule was much better than my friends company who only had 4am-5pm and 5pm - 4am shifts, this has shifts starting from 7,8, and 9am, 12hrs long. They didn't talk about the pay at all though but having extra sleep is fair enough payment for me; I did put down $14.50 as an optimistic number under "desired wage" The interview went extremely well and I was hired on the spot! Even asked me to work full time in the summer. Thank you for all your insights and advice!

I start training Tuesday bringing the 250lbs(~120kg) head dispatcher down the stairs in a stair chair. Them some ambulance time and mentoring a few days later.

 

[krazyq]

awesome
Congrats

 

[S0ULphIRE]

There are rarely contracts on jobs like that here in the US, Soul.

What?! What if I needed an IT tech, advertised for one and got one on the promise of $30/hr, he worked for a week, then I say I never agreed to pay him anything more than $10/hr? Without a contract there's no proof of anything?

 

[carnageX]

What?! What if I needed an IT tech, advertised for one and got one on the promise of $30/hr, he worked for a week, then I say I never agreed to pay him anything more than $10/hr? Without a contract there's no proof of anything?

Well you're just talking about contractors - not quite the same thing as an FTE.