How true!!
Not that they would know what they are cooking up. Despite the fact that firemen are often required to collect snakes, they have very little knowledge about them. They often have trouble identifying the most common species. Bloody fools! Because they are sacred shitless of snakes - even harmless ones - they use great big tongs to collect them and their rough handling injures the critters. You know, typical Taiwanese incompetence.
What part of the U.S. are they paying 47k for entry level in? I’m sure it’s got to be one of the bigger cities where cost of living is high (L.A., San Fran, NY, D.C. etc?). The other thing is that even for people who have all the proper training, there’s a lot of competition for jobs in any of the big cities. If you’re white, you may also be disadvantaged in hiring compared to minority candidates. Having said that, if you want to be a fireman, go for it. Most of the firemen I know are good people and get a lot of satisfaction out of the job.
just an update…
turns out that this is a moo question…(moo not moot, as in
asking a cow to moo or answer questions, which is pointless)
I struck out when I failed the residency requirement for the job.
The house that I live in is actually not within the jurisdiction of
the county. Apparently my town became its own tax district
and therefore no longer considered part of county. (although
the entire town is completely within this county and all the public
services, such as trash/fire/police/school is still part of the county)
Oh well… 
I agree. It sounds great. Good pay, good exercise, good respectable work. If it’s something that has always appealed to you go for it. The worst that can happen is you discover it wasn’t all that you figured and then you can try something else.[/quote]
Good point.
[quote]9 Firefighters Die in South Carolina Blaze
. . . Excluding the Sept. 11 attacks, the structure fire was the nation’s deadliest episode for firefighters in three decades. It occurred in a city that claims one of the country’s oldest professional fire departments, a city where the fire chief, Rusty Thomas, joined the department when he was 18. “To lose nine is just a tragedy of immense proportions,” Mr. Riley said. “To lose nine is just unbelievable.” . . . [/quote]
link
tuff job, firefighters everywhere deserve their relatively high pay and respect. They may be called to risk their lives no matter how incompetent they are.
Supposedly that makes it even riskier, or is that the pragmatic voice of someone that has been here too long? 
HG
[quote=“creamypanda”]A crazy idea has been stuck in my mind for the last few weeks.
The fire dept in my county is recruiting new firefighters.
I admit that I only became interested when I noticed that
the starting salary was USD47900.(before taxes, of course)
Am I being stupid here? I always wanted to be a firefighter,
but what am I getting myself into?
Need some comparison here… how much does a firefighter
make in Taiwan?
Thanks![/quote]
The key words there are “before taxes”. I’m thinking you’d probably run at about 35% in La Belle Province on a salary like that.