This is to BEAR, the Paramedic. Bear, I am sorry to tell you that if you can't spell "experience", I am sure that you will have a problem finding any job. Check your spelling on anything that you submit on-line.
With all the idiologies about this field is just read, I am very certain another disaster will happen without warning(or maybe some) and nothing will happen just like Katrina. I have plenty of military experience is crisis situations, with lives at stake etc. I took this knowledge to the class room after getting out and earned a BS in HLS. I feel I might have payed a bit more attention than the younger students. If there is one thing I have learned you need multi-educated individuals (or what have you) in Emergency Managemetn positions, we do not. This was one of the key findings in a terrible reponse to Katrina. We have people who only specialize in fire in charge or in another place a person who only specializes in EMS on so on. We have failed to fix this because of the good ol boy system. If we do not then we are doomed to repeat ourselves!!
Join the military to get your 3-5 years of experience in Emergency Management.
Unfortunately Eric is right. You are only going to find people with one foot in the grave that have some way in another participated in an USA disaster, whether that be delivering subway to responders or sending "guys" to the site to be delivering the FEMA courses. They have big egos, hardly a day of higher education and are part of the good ole boy's club..so ladies, if you are thinking of applying to FEMA, forget it, they discriminate
I had not seen this article but it made me rethink going for a degree. I have many years experience in emergency operations and I agree with the other posters that it is not what you know all the time that will get you a job. Doing all the other things, teaching, taking courses and being in the field all add up but if you are who a particular agency is looking for you don't get the job. I think the less expensive way will be to volunteer more and then get a job based on that experience. The things learned in a degree program are great but with no real world experience I wouldn't trust a person to be making decisions where lives are on the line.
Well, I didn't get the job I was after. It was given to someone within that agency, they went internal. I'm still looking, but it's tough out there, especially in a state where emergency management opportunities are pretty rare. Not a lot happens in Arizona, but I am confident that I will find a position in emergency management or homeland security within the next year. Until then, I am working on additional FEMA courses and training through ADEM to expand my knowledge.
I have been involved with emergency response and management in some fashion for over 30 years. I have found that what hiring agencies think they want and what they want are two different things. I have been involved in major disasters (Katrina, Columbia Recovery, Blizzards and wildfires), I teach ICS and several other emergency management courses. Yet there are agencies (Fed) that have no place for pratcial experience and most local governments have told me Iam over qualified. Catch 22
It's not easy getting into the EM field (nothing worthwhile ever is). However, there are some things you can do to make yourself more marketable. We've posted them here at the UW Emergency Management's website: https://www.washington.edu/emergency/suggested-career-tips-emergency-management.
3-5 years of experience is needed? Guess I should start looking at other EM jobs...I've got 19 years of experience and also working on a BA/Emergency & Disaster Management with AMU. I agree there's too many 'I just wanna help' individuals who falsely think the EM world is stock-full of jobs. This line of work can be quite nasty when it comes to bucking for choice positions. I also work within the FEMA ranks but also hail from wildland fire/Incident Management Team's. A lot of FEMA positions are boring, administrative, 'cubicle' positions. The only way to access real action is being a FEMA Disaster Assistance Employee/Reservist. However, a DAE position has no benefits, no retirement or medical. But for most DAE's, we see incredible field action and gain extensive experience from long term field assignments. A FEMA PFT will not get this sort of access. Some PFT's don't even get out on an incident, let alone have field experience. Two of our top political appointee's have no emergency management experience at ALL. Not even from other cross-agency (fire, ems, police) jobs. Just like how Brown was appointed with no experience, this practice continues within FEMA.
It seems that the real world has reared its ugly head. They are not your jobs. Job offers will not just fall into your lap because you have a degree. You have to go out there like Georgie and get other types of experience. Network for what you want. If there aren't any jobs in your area, consider moving. Someone just like you contacted me a year ago wanting to get some experience to go with the degree she was pursuing. I let her design an exercise for my hospital. She did an excellent job and now I am an enthusiastic reference for her job search. I'm sorry if I seem a bit harsh but it's a tough world out there.
Education is a consumer driven enterprise. The same thing happened to Criminal Forensics a few years back. The number of schools offering Forensic Degrees sykrocketed but law enforcement agencies preferred hard science degrees. Also, the statement about "who you know" couldn't be more true. More accurately, if you look at OPM's web site you will see many different Hiring Authorities. This means that an agency can restrict hiring to inter-agency, intra-agency, Veteran or other hiring programs. Moreover, most FEMA jobs start at GS-12 which requires a Msters Degree with 3-5 years of direct experience.
Excellent article! From someone who previously worked for FEMA, you have accurately captured and summarized a realistic view of emergency management work and the challenges of obtaining employment in this field even with a degree. FEMA is such a small, tight knit agency and it’s hard to get hired on and promoted unless you know someone. Having the veterans preference certainly helps and jobs within the agency are anything but glamorous. Not that FEMA is the only place to find emergency management jobs but I’d caution prospective students to do an extensive job search within their community and talk to emergency management personnel about what work life is Really like before spending the money on a degree program.
With a Homeland Security Degree and myself heading into the emergency management field, I can tell you what seems to be working for me. The only way to gain this experience is to volunteer for everything and network. I have been invited several times by fire departments and some critical infrastructure companies, to attend exercises and events, including Palo Verde Nuclear Generation Stations upcoming exercises. I went to state fire school and networked after the classes. I became a community CERT and a TLO, and try to attend as much emergency preparedness events and take as many NIMS and FEMA classes as possible. I volunteered to write the COOP for my agency and brought us into NIMS compliance, which got me noticed by ADEM. Just waiting for a certain job to post. So, I do believe it's a cross between who you do know and what you work for, because I had to do a lot of things on my own time and take on additional responsibilities, just to get into a position where I'll be credible enough to be hired without the major experience. You really do need to demonstrate your motivation in this field, and I really do believe that volunteering for things demonstrates that competence.
I anticipate many of these college programs that have popped up in last few years will go away as people begin to realize there simply aren't enough emergency management jobs to go around - especially in the public sector. And you're right - in this field it usually is who you know. For an emergency manager position, the people doing the hiring want someone with demonstrable skills (i.e. experience) in managing an emergency / disaster. You can all the degrees and book learning in the world - but none of that means a thing if you can't hold it together in the face of a crisis, and few people want to take a chance on an "unknown" hire when the consequences of making the wrong choice are so substantial. That said - I do think there's a probably a much brighter future for the business continuity sector - if for no other reasons than private companies are more likely to logically understand the financial cost/benefits of having a well developed BCP (vs. a politician who will cross their fingers and hope their neglect of the emergency management budget doesn't come home to roost during their term).
Tiffany, I'm right there with you. Seems that all the Gen Xer's are holding our jobs until the baby boomers start retiring. Its incredibly depressing.
I hear you. I am a paramedic with 17 yrs experiance and I graduated this year in Emergency Management with high honors.I have been sending out resumes every week but like you said, every one wants 5 plus years experiance. The college told me I would be working in Emergency Management by the end of the course but they were wrong. I think the colleges need to do some homework on the courses they are teaching as to wether or not the students will be hired. To me, it still looks like it's who you know not what you know. Good luck on your search.
I graduated from undergrad in December of 2007. I have been looking for a job ever since. It seems that all the emergency management jobs are looking for 3-5 years experience. Coming out of college you don't have that experience and if they won't hire you, then you will never have it. It's a dead end. I'm already looking to go back to school for another degree with easier access. It seems that having a passion for a career and your field is just not enough. I had 7 months experience with my internship and even that company turned me down saying I didn't have the experience necessary.