Anybody in Civil Defence - is it worthwhile?

Conor84

I am thinking about joining the Civil Defence and just looking for anybody's experience of it.

I'm 32 and was previously in the Reserve Defence Forces. I miss that now and was thinking that the Civil Defence might be a good idea.

Are most people in it younger and maybe looking for experience for an emergency services career or just doing it for what it is? Do you need background checks to join etc?

civdef

Like a lot of things you tend to get out of it what you put in. There are good units and bad units, a short enough visit should let you tell them apart.

You'll see a mixture of age groups, the younger ones tend to have a higher turnover, you'll also see people with decades of service. Garda vetting is a part of the recruitment process.

Moocifer

Mixture of people in my local one. My young fella's in it and he's one of the youngest at 21. Training he's had has been fantastic and it's been one of the best things he's ever done (even if he is on standby to go with this storm).

TallGlass

Conor84 wrote: »

Are most people in it younger and maybe looking for experience for an emergency services career or just doing it for what it is? Do you need background checks to join etc?

I joined recently myself, I am in it 50% for the ES side of it but I am also doing it as a bit of volunteering and something to do one of the evenings and some events. I am going in with an open mind to it, I think if you just join something for one thing only IE the ES side of it you'll be a bit disappointed, join it for the new skills, bit of crack and meeting new people. The ES side will hopefully follow down the line.