If you’re looking for a career in the emergency medical services field, but don’t want to be an emergency medical technician or paramedic, you may want to check out emergency management jobs.
U.S. News & World Report recently named emergency management specialists to its list of the 50 best careers for this year. Emergency management specialists are the people who work behind the scenes to make it possible for firefighters and police to respond to a situation.
They can be responsible for developing disaster response plans, training other people in an organization in disaster and emergency preparedness, and coordinating with various emergency personnel to ensure that emergency contingencies are covered.
Many emergency management specialists work in the public sector with the military, law enforcement and state and local governments. However, employers also can include private-sector and nonprofit companies in sensitive lines of work, such as hospitals, colleges and universities, and community relief organizations.
Most of the time, emergency management specialists work in an office and spend the majority of their time communicating with various people. While the job is not very stressful on a day-to-day basis, it can be one of the most stressful if an emergency or disaster occurs.
Almost all employers require applicants to have a bachelor’s degree, and many, especially in the public sector, require candidates to be certified in the National Incident Management System, a disaster response system designed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The occupation has a positive outlook, with the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics predicting employment to increase by 2,800 jobs, or 22 percent, from 2008 to 2018.
Currently, the bottom 10 percent of emergency management specialists earn less than $25,000 per year, while the top 10 percent earn more than $80,000 per year. The median annual salary during 2008 was $50,460, with California, Massachusetts and Rhode Island paying the highest salaries.
