Expect to hate your life shortly.  AMR only cares about the money and doesn't care about the employees.  It's the only company I've ever seen regularly take brand new employees (most of whom it was their first EMS job) and burn them out in less than a month.  Most EMTs around here last less than a year.  Look for employment elsewhere.  I worked for AMR for a year, and left first opportunity I had.

My experience is more than 20 years old...but I have no love for AMR, and they drove my wife out of EMS as a new EMT.

AMR bought out our previous EMS provider (Rural Metro) a few years ago.  They have gotten several new ambulances since then, but the employee turnover rate is ASTOUNDING.  It seems like I hardly ever see the same EMT/Medic twice anymore.  Most of their employees look like they're 25 and under and this is their first EMS job.

Throw your resume as far and wide as you can and pray for a call back.

Otherwise, look for a job that will be more fun, like venomous snake wrangler.

Most private EMS sucks. They exist by hiring people with no experience that can’t get jobs elsewhere. Around here, experience with a private company like that hurts your hiring chances elsewhere more than it helps.

Other option is to deal with the job, kiss ass, follow rules to the letter, report other employees for everything you can think of, then apply for a management/supply position.

Edit: as a dispatcher they may just fire you. Most privates due that in house through call centers.
Go apply to the local PD

Sorry to hear.

You don't hear many good things about AMR, and it's probably for a reason. Most of the other posters hit the highlights but I will add that they shut down there dispatch center in my City. I believe most of their dispatching is done from around St. Louis and by smart phone.

When I was 19 AMR hired me

I thought it was so fun working with this one medic... his brother in law dispatched. He would put us out of service so we could pick up hamburger station and deliver it to him, of course we got to eat too!

OP, sorry. It's a cutthroat business model that doesn't translate well to something like EMS.

they didn't pay CA EMT for working through their breaks, and then when they sued to get money legally owed to them, AMR passed a bill 11 here in CA making it legal for them to not pay the EMT who work through their brakes making the lawsuit vaporize. get ready to quit.

Even running paramedics they are still only bls in our area. They have the monopoly for sure and I’ve seen some pretty... uh... not great medics and emts who work for them. I’ve done a few 12 hour shifts and they get the job done but the organization as a whole I’m not terribly impressed with

I did 4 years with them.

I would live in a cardboard box under an overpass before I worked for them again.

They took out Rural Metro in my area....( also fired their dispatchers as the #1 priority).

Used to be Rural Metro, and AMR, on a rotation for our BLS transports.

We didn't renew their contract after AMR took over.

We took the new guy ( Northwest Ambulance) who blew AMR out of the water, and we wont be looking back.. Northwest is an awesome outfit.

They hit my patrol car while running code.  

Bro, if you are EMD certified and want to move to Florida, I will give you a job.   AMR is no Bueno

Know anyone hiring?

We do lovingly refer to them as "Another Moron Responding"

I worked with AMR as an EMT on my days off for extra cash. I got a ton of experience but man they burned me out. Needless to say, I don't do it anymore.

Our fire department has an unofficial policy of "We don't hire former AMR people." for reasons unknown to me.

AMR here is just EMTs that do non-emergency rides to the hospital, emergencies go in a fire department ambulance. For whatever reason the fire paramedics here really dislike AMR EMTs.

Is this a local thing or other FDs do the same shit?

I wont hire a local AMR Dispatcher.  Made that mistake twice.  Fired them both in the first week.

I understand the sentiment, but that is a real asinine policy stance to take. AMR is so large and so intrusive into every part of the country that you would be hard pressed to find anyone in EMS who hasn't worked for them at all. In a lot of areas they are the only company to work for, period.

I've been in EMS 15 years now, and am currently a PM working on my CCT certs with my own FF1. Spent my first 4 years at AMR when I was young and dumb and didn't know any better, and what you're telling me is that because of that I'm ineligible to work for your dept? Good to know. You'd be doing me a square if you PM'd me the district so I know who not to bother applying for.

I don't work for the FD, I'm a cop, I was asking because it seemed odd to me and I wanted to ask medics if there was some reason for it. We have a fair amount of cops who started as AMR EMTs as their entry level emergency services job.

For the most part, because AMR will hire anyone with a National Registry certification and a body temp above ambient. They have no (or very little) quality control with the people who work for them and do not discriminate new hires, if you're an idiot who will kill someone? They don't care. Just as long there's a body on their ambulance making them money. That lack of standards paints anyone who is patched AMR as a tard, regardless of whether or not they can actually perform at a quality level. Plain and simple, it's guilt by association.

They are a revolving door of employees because they abuse the absolute fuck out of them. Long hours, over worked, and for very little pay. They prey on the new people coming out of school who don't know any better. All the EMT's who think "I'll do 6 months at AMR to put on a resume for fire" because lets face it, that's the only reason to get into EMS in the first place is to get onto a fire dept.

A handful do make it to fire, most find out it's not what they thought it would be and drop out and find a new line of work (your co workers). Paramedics as a whole are a rare commodity because the profession is shit and pays shit. VERY few make a career out of it outside of fire. Most use it as a stepping stone to other professions like Nursing or PA. The favorable thing for AMR is that there is no shortage of fresh out of high school teens who got their EMT with ambitions of fire to abuse. There are literally hundreds a year in every major metro area, and they market directly to them.

If you look into your county run medic programs or other privates, you'll find that they actually have standards for hiring. You have to test into my company, and I would say that at least 1/3rd of our applicants flunk out before they even get an interview. You'll find those places are the better ones to work at, and have MUCH better standards of care and employee satisfaction scores.

In less than a decade, our company has started from a 4 truck transfer company to taking almost half of AMR's coverage area and business in southern Nevada. It would have been more if AMR didn't play fuck fuck games with the city counsel. We sniped their best people who didn't go fire, and run circles around them in compliance times and patient scores.

It's different now that I have a family, but when I was single and had no one other than myself depending on me, I would have rather lived as a Crusty McShitpants under an overpass than go back to work for AMR.

The only way I would do that now is if I had absolutely no other choice, and from my date of hire it would only be a place holder until I could find a job quickly somewhere else, or just completely switch career fields. Either way, you could measure my tenure in weeks, months at most.

AMR has a history of firing people, and then re hiring them when they really need it badly.

Recently, AMR fired all of the dispatchers around here and relocated their dispatch to somewhere far away.

Just to save a dime.

Good luck.

Good luck.  You'll be glad to be away from them soon enough?

Maybe in done parts, but from 1991-2010 I lived in three different NC towns and I never heard of ANY private for profit EMS anywhere near where I lived (besides two very small non-emergency van companies).  Most of the non-emergency transports were done by volunteer rescue squads or county EMS (often a dedicated unit).

Moving to DFW has shown a little more private EMS services, thank goodness my city has firefighter-paramedics staffing full time ambulances.

Any decent size cities nearby?  Look into a larger utility and their dispatch operations.  My pay is less than 911, but they did get a HUGE jump in pay a year ago because they couldn't get anyone to apply.

I've had 12hr shifts where the phone rang one time and it was 911 with a question

That doesn't shock me, AMR is all about the IFT's. 911 doesn't pay, so unless they are forced to have 911 coverage as a stipulation to having a IFT contract, they will drop it like a sac of crap. The local elected officials will learn the hard way and they will be stuck for at least a full contract cycle. Hope they have volleys or a fire dept willing to take it on, cause without an IFT contract to pad the profit losses no private that wants to stay in business is going to touch a full 911 only contract.

Congrats!!