I know that the typical answer to "should I include hobbies/other activities on my resume" is no. However, I've also heard that many companies like to have medically trained employees, and in some non-medical fields, including CPR certification on your resume is common if not expected.
In my field (software engineering), however, the certification is at best tangentially related to my job, depending on the type of software my company writes.
Should I include my EMT certification on my resume?
Should I include my EMT certification on my resume?
Certainly.
While it's unlikely to be of much help for a software engineer, it couldn't hurt. And it might help make you more "interesting".
I agree that including hobbies on your resume isn't a great idea. (I've seen too many "I like to play games" hobbies on resumes.) But a certification is something a bit different. It demonstrates a real achievement and is unlikely to be off-putting to any interviewer.
If you do choose to include your certification, be prepared to talk about your EMT experience during an interview. Make sure that the interviewer understands that any continued EMT involvement won't take away from your primary work. Or if you need to take time away from work to maintain your certification, make sure that is understood and agreed to by the hiring manager.
Software engineering is a field where you are ten times more valuable if you know something else IN ADDITION to software engineering. Specifically, the domain you are working in.
If you have an EMT certification (and I am assuming your state is like mine, where my wife progressed from Basic to EMT to Paramedic), this tells me that you are capable of learning something else, too. I'd pull your resume off "the pile" and put you in for a phone interview on this, alone.
Of course, you're not applying to my company, and I can't speak for others...
Whether it will hurt you or help you depends a lot on how you include it.
EMT training is irrelevant to your ability to program. This should be obvious.
If you include it in such a way that it seems that you don't know that, or are confused about its relative importance—such as by putting it first in your list of qualifications—then it's a mark against you.
If you have a list of certifications you've obtained and you include "EMT training," at or near the bottom of the list, that's fine—a good thing.
Just don't be confused about its relative importance. It shows you have an ability to learn new skills and aren't "stuck in a rut." Which is good, so long as you don't appear "scattered all over the map" with no ability to focus or differentiate importance. Those are the two extremes you should avoid.
It may well be that an employer is required (or at least advised) to have a number of trained first aiders on site. However, I'd never make a decision to hire a software engineer based on whether the candidate had that training - I'll always hire the better software engineer and then if necessary train somebody as a first aider.
My take would therefore be to leave it off, and use the space to include some information which would make me more likely to hire you instead.
