A Career in Emergency Management

Forty years ago, if you’d told someone you wanted to pursue a career in emergency management, they probably would have given you a blank look. If the someone were your mom, she probably would have followed it up with, “But honey, why don’t you get a real job?”

These days, emergency management is a rapidly developing and changing industry at all levels, from government to education to business. The proverbial man on the street may still not know exactly what emergency management entails, but he knows it sounds cool. And if you decide to pursue a career in this exciting field, you’ll have dozens of prestigious educational programs to choose from. “When I graduated, I didn’t even know there was a name for what I wanted to do,” says the Director of Emergency Response for a township in Nebraska. “Now I co-author a newsletter about the latest trends in emergency management pedagogy.”

In a nutshell, emergency management is the discipline of preventing, preparing for, responding to and recovering from emergencies, whether they are natural or created by humans. Emergency management often serves as an umbrella term for a number of related fields, such as public safety, security management, fire services, homeland security, fire science, disaster management or emergency preparedness. “What one school calls disaster management might be very different from a program with the same name at another school,” cautions Dr. Aaron, student counselor at Greensburg High School. “Always do your homework before sending in an application.”

As the discipline of emergency management becomes more unified, collective agreement about the differences and similarities between the various sub-disciplines will probably emerge, making it much easier to plan your education and career. For now, it’s best to assess each program on its own terms. Be sure to ask plenty of questions about the specific training and curriculum.

Most emergency management programs include courses on risk communication, using technology appropriately, and identifying hazards. Depending on the focus of the program, you might study geology, climatology or ecology. Some programs offer help finding internships and jobs. Because successful emergency management is such a collaborative effort in real-life practice, you can expect to work cooperatively with your classmates and engage in lively discussions and debates about theoretical scenarios.

After graduation from an emergency management program, you’ll reap the benefits of an education in a highly popular field. Skilled emergency management workers are needed at all levels, which gives you the opportunity to serve where you feel it’s needed most. Some graduates go on to work for businesses or corporations, some join first response teams, others choose to work for hospitals or health care centers, and others climb the ladder to become managers or administrators at the county or state level. Job titles within emergency management include emergency management specialists, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, environmental science and protection technicians, fire fighters, occupational health and safety specialists, patrol officers, ambulance dispatchers and private sector contingency planners.

Now that emergency management has become visible in the public eye, new jobs are being created all the time. Emergency management sub-disciplines even warrant their own career fairs, such as the one held by Industrial Fire, Safety and Security (IFSS) in early 2009. Attendees were able to speak one-on-one with potential employers and gather information about diverse jobs in the industrial emergency response field. If a career fair is available in your area, this is a great way to learn more about emergency management and connect with future employers. Because of the high demand for educated graduates of emergency management programs, salaries in this field tend to be competitive.

Regardless of which level of emergency management you’re interested in, there’s never been a better time to enter this field. The demand for workers is expected to continue rising through 2014. As emergency management continues to adapt to the pressures of society and nature, you can become an active participant in its future and enjoy a successful career at the same time.

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