I'll admit it, I'm thinking about this becuase I want to scream at another customer again and spent the afternoon chanting "be nice to the man who can buy the company and fire us all if he really wanted to" under my breath.

If I was to switch from being a professional geek and go into emergency preparedness planning as a career, where would one start to look? Not EMS, not selling gear, but actual planning. Anyone have any clue?

And on tuesday, when the guy who wrote this code is back in and can understand what his comment mean, I'll probably be happy with my job again. :P

You may want to take a look at Emergency Management as a profession.
http://www.iaem.com/
http://www.nemaweb.org/
http://www.fema.gov/

Edit...
On the second thought, this may be a bit different, since managers actually manage disasters when they already happened. But this still may be a start.

Another possibility lies with the Safety-Training Companies that exist in Texas and Louisiana for training offshore crews for the drilling rigs, production platforms, and offshore supply vessels.

FEMA, as IronRaven pointed out, would be a good place to look at, God AND the rest of us know that they need some realistic help, if you can put up with the politics.

There are geek related emergency planning fields. IT risk/security is somewhat related then you have Business Contunity planning. We have a couple certified BCP in my company who handle DR tests of applications.

I thought FEMA was renamed??

My formal position is "Emergency Preparedness Coordinator". Fancy title for the guy who writes all the plans that we hope to never use.

Let me tell you that this can be a highly frustrating job as well as highly rewarding. The frustration comes from giving the public the knowledge to make all the right decisions on preparations along with the justification for doing so only to have them give you that "deer in the headlights" look and say, "Aw shucks, nothin' like that is ever gonna happen here..."

The rewarding part is when you know someone who took your advice and through circumstances beyond their control came out okay because they had the supplies, or the know-how to get through it.

As far as monetary reward? Skip over to the private sector because us poor non-corrupt public officials don't make as much as the tax payers seem to think we do.

Have you looked into teaching preparedness classes at a local community college? You could do it in the evenings/weekends and build up a reputation for that sort of thing. From there move into consulting for companies and private individuals.

Class ideas:
1. Basic wilderness survival
2. How to secure your home
3. Survival for travellers


the list goes on and on.

-Blast

Not according to their website ...

Ah heck, I'm happy with being able to replace my 12 year old car in a year or two, keep a roof over my head, and not have to worry about the financial aid guys sending two goons with a chain saw to repo my brain. :P

I could probably manage that kind of frustration. I give people advice all the time, and they rarely follow it. What professional qualifications were they looking for when you hired?

Hi,

Just a thought and this may sound wierd, and definitely not a direct route, but have you considered getting an Amateur Radio (Ham) license? I got interested in it recently and wanted to start dabbling as a hobby. I looked on-line for local clubs and found almost all of them affiliated with our local ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services) group.

Now these are all volunteer activities - usually support for local public events - Red Cross support, etc. but in just a month of getting involved I've met several nice folks. Many of them work in public service areas and have some responsibility in emergency prep or response.

Activites they recommended are for me to complete CERT training along with ARRL Emergency communication classes (available on-line).

I realize this may not be many people's cup of tea, and again, not a direct route to change in employment, but could put you in touch with people in the field. Who knows where it could lead?


Good luck,

Michael

Ironraven;

I work for a three county Health Department. For the first couple of years the Emergency Preparedness section was run by first a grant writer/administrator (with a double bachelors degree- i. e. professional student) then by a Registered Nurse. It seems as though they were having trouble "coordinating" with Police, Fire, EMS, and other emergency service partners. It seems they couldn't "speak the language" of our partners nor were they interested in learning.

I came into the job with a background in Law Enforcement (20+ years as a cop) and communications (911 Dispatcher/Certified EMD) and I understood the concept of 'emergency operations'. Within a few months I had agreements set and fences mended. Now it is a matter of applying common sense to outrageous demands (planning around state and federal requirements). I do however love every minute of it. I was a "survivalist" in the 70's and 80's and found that Emergency Preparedness was a great way to get into the real world planning necessary to actually have an effect on other folks lives.

At first we had a strict focus on "Bioterrorism" but lately (post-Katrina) we have taken an All Hazards approach which seems to better incorporate the needs of our communities. The key is to be useful and let folks know you are there.

Good luck.

well in my country things are set up diffrently, the firedeparment is the primairy emergency service during an disaster. I'm currently employed by the regional firedepartment. I'm currently assiting the training of officers and preparing the firedepartment emergency centre for major events.

But when compairing mine job with ets, it has very little to do with each other. ALthough we do have to be equipped for those who aren't.