Emergency Management Directors

Also Called:

Emergency Management Director,

Emergency Management System Director (EMS Director),

Emergency Planner,

Public Safety Director

What they do: Plan and direct disaster response or crisis management activities, provide disaster preparedness training, and prepare emergency plans and procedures for natural (e.g., hurricanes, floods, earthquakes), wartime, or technological (e.g., nuclear power plant emergencies or hazardous materials spills) disasters or hostage situations.

What do they typically do on the job?

  • Consult with officials of local and area governments, schools, hospitals, and other institutions to determine their needs and capabilities in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency.
  • Develop and maintain liaisons with municipalities, county departments, and similar entities to facilitate plan development, response effort coordination, and exchanges of personnel and equipment.
  • Coordinate disaster response or crisis management activities, such as ordering evacuations, opening public shelters, and implementing special needs plans and programs.

Personality

People interested in this work like activities that include leading, making decisions, and business.

Interests

Career interests describe the perspectives and interests of people who enjoy the type of work involved in this career.

Discover what your interests are by taking the Interest Profiler Quiz

Knowledge

People who want to pursue this career have knowledge in these areas.

Safety and Government
  • Public safety and security

  • Law and government

Business
  • Management

  • Customer service

Communications
  • Multimedia

  • Telecommunications

Arts and Humanities
  • English language

Abilities

Whether you have received formal training or not, these types of abilities are helpful in this career.

Verbal
  • Communicate by speaking

  • Listen and understand what people say

Ideas and Logic
  • Use rules to solve problems

  • Make general rules or come up with answers from lots of detailed information

Attention
  • Do two or more things at the same time

  • Pay attention to something without being distracted

Visual Understanding
  • Quickly compare groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things

Skills

People who want to pursue this career have skills in these areas.

Basic Skills
  • Talking to others

  • Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements

Problem Solving
  • Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it

Social
  • Looking for ways to help people

  • Changing what is done based on other people's actions

Work Values

Work values describe how your core beliefs align with those commonly needed for this career.

Independence

Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions. Corresponding needs are Creativity, Responsibility and Autonomy.

Relationships

Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment. Corresponding needs are Co-workers, Moral Values and Social Service.

Achievement

Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment. Corresponding needs are Ability Utilization and Achievement.

Does this sound like something you'd like to do?

1. Do some research
  • Identify how your interests, values, and strengths match this occupation
  • Talk to someone who works in this field or spend a day job shadowing
  • Use the colleges and training directory to explore programs related to this career
2. Plan your next move

Data for NSI career cards comes from the following: Idaho Department of Labor, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, O*NET, MyNextMove, and Career OneStop