Whether you’re a recent bride or groom, it’s important to be aligned with your other half about what they expect in the partnership that you now share. Ideally, the time before a proposal and eventual marriage was a perfect one to share who you are as a person, what excites you for a career, and where you wish to be in the future. Nevertheless, sometimes you may feel that a transition onto a different path where you feel a real calling is necessary.
One such possible vocation is emergency management. But how can you know if it will be right for you? In this article, we aim to find out.
Are You Dissatisfied with Your Present Job/Career?
While it’s not always necessary, the reality is that if you’re perfectly happy with what you’re doing right now, there might be little reason to change. Being unhappy in your current job might just require you to change employers while staying in the same profession.
However, if your displeasure goes way beyond your current job to the overall profession itself, then you might be onto something. If you feel enough unhappiness with your work now, it may be worth it to put in the effort to retrain for a different profession.
There are some excellent emergency management courses available to receive the training necessary to work in this fascination field, but you’ll have to be sufficiently motivated to learn in your spare time. No one can supply that motivation for you!
What About Emergency Management Interests You?
If you’re thinking that emergency management means running into a fire and saving a child, well that might be a little too Hollywood-esq.
It depends what your job role will be. For instance, you may work as a:
- Certified First Responder
- Emergency Response Coordinator
- Regional Director of Relief Efforts
- Interagency Liaison Officer
The first responders are often the people who help save others from flooding streets, evacuate buildings, put fires out and work to save people from a disaster.
Then there’s the administrative and managerial staff that help to organise, plan and coordinate relief efforts to ensure the right resources are sent to the places and people that most need them. Without this group of people, first responders won’t have a big picture overview of what’s going on and where to go.
Did You Plan Your Wedding? How Well Did You Do?
While planning a wedding isn’t the same as planning for an emergency, it’s not a bad comparison. We say this because planning a wedding – usually your first – is a kind of trial by fire! It’s a situation where few things can go wrong (or get forgotten because most items cannot be booked at the last minute).
When you think about the level of stress involved in planning a wedding, doing almost everything right and to keep a smile on your face, it’s a minor miracle that anyone makes it to the alter! And yes, if you made it through, colour us impressed.
If you did well, stayed organised and kept your cool, then you may have a career in emergency management ahead of you. However, if you ran around like a headless chicken, forgot to do half the items on your wedding planning list (or didn’t have a list), made critical mistakes, neglected to book a large enough venue or to invite key family members, then perhaps you’re better off choosing to do something else. If that’s you, it’s best to be honest with yourself.
Volunteered Before?
Are you an active volunteer for charities or foundations that help people in need? Or did you do so in the past?
If you’ve been a volunteer in some capacity, then that shows an unusual level of compassion for helping people less fortunate than yourself. While we all care about other people, volunteering your time is giving away your most precious, non-replaceable resource completely free just because you wanted to help.
Indeed, if you’re going to work in emergency management, it’s often a good idea to have been a volunteer previously. There are specific organisations that focus on emergency and disaster recovery where volunteers are most appreciated. Also, a history of volunteering demonstrates a willingness to do what’s needed and be selfless. It’s not essential, but it is most likely to be looked upon favorably in a future job application in the field.
Do You Handle Pressure Especially Well?
While you may work in the planning team to decide how resources like personnel and equipment should be deployed in an emergency scenario, there’s often a call to send coordinators out to the affected area. By being present in person, it’s possible to make decisions in real-time about where limited resources should be deployed for best results.
Could you handle the pressure of planning things right when people might rely on these plans later should an emergency happen? Would you handle going to an emergency or disaster situation, keep yourself together emotionally, and get to work? It’s not for everyone, and it’s okay to admit that. It’s better to do it now rather than at the time when people really need you.
However, if you have some of the following qualities, you might be just right for emergency management:
- Eerily calm under pressure
- Logical, clear-minded thinker
- Excellent communicator
- Deal effectively with people from different walks of life
- Ability to problem solve and make decisions quickly
- A desire to help people in need
If some of these qualities match your personality and abilities, then it’s worth considering a change to a career in emergency management.
While you may just have gotten settled as a married couple and you’re not wanting to disrupt the home life, if you are dissatisfied with your current career and want a change, that is not something to ignore. Consider whether you’re suitable for a driven career in emergency management and studying to qualify to work within this interesting field. After all, it’s never too late to change your vocation.
Leave a Reply