Entering a public safety career isn’t aways easy. Whether you’re hoping to fight fires, defend against cyber threats, coordinate an emergency operations center, rescue disaster victims, or anything in between, there’ll be challenges and doubts to overcome – goals to set, decisions to make, tests to pass. It might seem overwhelming, especially if you’re just starting out at college.

Don’t worry: you’re not alone! Your time as a MACEM&PS student will be full of guidance, learning, and helping hands as you learn more, build your networks, and join in ours. But for the moment, we’ve gone bite-size, bringing you this regularly updated compilation of the best career advice the folks we know have ever received. We hope somewhere in the list you find something to carry along for yourself!

So without further ado, here’s the best advice we’ve heard about…

Choosing a Career

What’s right for you? What are you in for, and what might you be meant for? How can you find out?

Learning & Growth

There’s a lot of information to take in, and a world of possibilities and needs to explore. How are you supposed to process it all?

Keeping Multiple Perspectives

Public safety fields are naturally complex, and utterly human – you’ll need to calculate risks to your community, but also balance your own work, school, life, and more. How can you help keep all those aspects manageable?

Leading & Acting

Whatever rank you attain or role you find – even as a student! – being a part of public safety will call you to lead, inspire, comfort, coordinate, and work with others. That’s not a challenge offered to everyone; how can you make facing it easier?

We’ll keep adding to this list as time goes on – and if you have any great advice you’ve received yourself, talk to your instructor about passing it along to us, and it might join in!

In the meantime, remember that no matter what challenges arise for you, you’re studying (or pursuing, or working in, or caring about) a field that matters, and where you can make a difference. So summary advice: invest in yourself, love what you do, and create a better world.

Good luck on your academic journey from all of us at the MACEM&PS Team!