The department operates 34 fire stations organized into six battalions and responds to over 100,000 incidents each year, providing firefighting, rescue, fire prevention, hazardous-materials response, and advanced medical services.
The behind the curtain operations of this dept are shameful. Have you ever heard of a Chiefs interview with not one Chief on it? That’s what San Jose does. The panel for a final fire dept Chiefs interview depends on what a fake Chief from dispatch thinks along with a cubicle based director of hiring. Neither person has any fire experience nor are they a sworn employee. How pathetic. If you talk to anyone that teaches in the academies the people that have been getting jobs completely makes sense now. This dept doesn’t hire the people they need and refuses to staff more than 2 days out for vacant positions. I wish there was a rate my union page, this union is gutless and are the laughing stock of the Bay Area and beyond. Everyone minus maybe 2 people are on the board for self serving reasons. The union president talks aggressively to employees and makes it known if you aren’t left leaning in politics they basically will hang you out to dry with minimal effort. Culture is terrible, union and admin Pitt employees against each other instead of fixing their own disasters. With leadership and a union like this, San Jose will always be a bridesmaid and never a bride.
Listen up, anyone thinking about pinning on this badge: Stay the hell away from this department.
We’ve got the spineless “No Nut Sack Union” crowd—the same clowns who spent COVID screeching that unvaxxed brothers deserved to get canned and lose everything, all while preaching “solidarity” from their safe Zoom calls. Now look at us.
The admin? Completely detached from reality, allergic to competence. They’d rather chase shiny DEI checkboxes than hire actual skilled medics who can handle the heat. Then they have the gall to rage when those exhausted medics finally start saying NO to endless mandatory overtime after years of non-stop grind since the pandemic hit.
Our fire chief can’t even be bothered to show up for final chief interviews—sends his civilian assistant and a secretary to play pretend chief instead of real, sworn officers who’ve bled for this job. Pathetic.
City manager? Zero support. We’re hemorrhaging people—down from ~750 sworn to barely 650, when we should be pushing 1,200 just to keep up. Over 30 stations sitting cold or skeleton-crewed. Anyone with the stones to call out the admin or the union gets fed to the rats running rampant in the ranks—snitches, backstabbers, and career assassins.
Bottom line: Don’t come here. If I could rewind the clock and pick any other house in the country, I’d be gone in a heartbeat. But I’m vested, time’s short, and the pension’s the only chain still holding me.
You want brotherhood, and a department that actually has your back? Look elsewhere. This place is a slow-motion burnout, and the flames are getting too close.
Im a straight white male (strike one), over 15 years of fire experience at a large metro department, I have friends who work at San Jose and hate it. I still applied despite them telling me not to. I wanted to work with my friends. After crushing the test, and interviews(even told in my first interview I “was a breath of fresh air” and “congrats we want someone like you and look forward to working with you”), I wasn’t moved on in the process. Instead they hired female EMTs who didn’t make it past the academy and other DEIs. According to friends, the DEIs are allergic to fire much like the admin in previous reviews are allergic to competency. Union has zero back bone throwing a man under the bus on the news. Glad to not be apart of them. Those few old salty firemen and captains still left are the only reason the city doesn’t burn down. They care more about bums than public safety in that city.
Rating Breakdown
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4 Reviews on “San Jose Fire Department”
Can’t do anything right. Union president sucks and doesn’t support their members. Hiring there is a joke. Physical standards are an all time low
The behind the curtain operations of this dept are shameful. Have you ever heard of a Chiefs interview with not one Chief on it? That’s what San Jose does. The panel for a final fire dept Chiefs interview depends on what a fake Chief from dispatch thinks along with a cubicle based director of hiring. Neither person has any fire experience nor are they a sworn employee. How pathetic. If you talk to anyone that teaches in the academies the people that have been getting jobs completely makes sense now. This dept doesn’t hire the people they need and refuses to staff more than 2 days out for vacant positions. I wish there was a rate my union page, this union is gutless and are the laughing stock of the Bay Area and beyond. Everyone minus maybe 2 people are on the board for self serving reasons. The union president talks aggressively to employees and makes it known if you aren’t left leaning in politics they basically will hang you out to dry with minimal effort. Culture is terrible, union and admin Pitt employees against each other instead of fixing their own disasters. With leadership and a union like this, San Jose will always be a bridesmaid and never a bride.
Listen up, anyone thinking about pinning on this badge: Stay the hell away from this department.
We’ve got the spineless “No Nut Sack Union” crowd—the same clowns who spent COVID screeching that unvaxxed brothers deserved to get canned and lose everything, all while preaching “solidarity” from their safe Zoom calls. Now look at us.
The admin? Completely detached from reality, allergic to competence. They’d rather chase shiny DEI checkboxes than hire actual skilled medics who can handle the heat. Then they have the gall to rage when those exhausted medics finally start saying NO to endless mandatory overtime after years of non-stop grind since the pandemic hit.
Our fire chief can’t even be bothered to show up for final chief interviews—sends his civilian assistant and a secretary to play pretend chief instead of real, sworn officers who’ve bled for this job. Pathetic.
City manager? Zero support. We’re hemorrhaging people—down from ~750 sworn to barely 650, when we should be pushing 1,200 just to keep up. Over 30 stations sitting cold or skeleton-crewed. Anyone with the stones to call out the admin or the union gets fed to the rats running rampant in the ranks—snitches, backstabbers, and career assassins.
Bottom line: Don’t come here. If I could rewind the clock and pick any other house in the country, I’d be gone in a heartbeat. But I’m vested, time’s short, and the pension’s the only chain still holding me.
You want brotherhood, and a department that actually has your back? Look elsewhere. This place is a slow-motion burnout, and the flames are getting too close.
Im a straight white male (strike one), over 15 years of fire experience at a large metro department, I have friends who work at San Jose and hate it. I still applied despite them telling me not to. I wanted to work with my friends. After crushing the test, and interviews(even told in my first interview I “was a breath of fresh air” and “congrats we want someone like you and look forward to working with you”), I wasn’t moved on in the process. Instead they hired female EMTs who didn’t make it past the academy and other DEIs. According to friends, the DEIs are allergic to fire much like the admin in previous reviews are allergic to competency. Union has zero back bone throwing a man under the bus on the news. Glad to not be apart of them. Those few old salty firemen and captains still left are the only reason the city doesn’t burn down. They care more about bums than public safety in that city.