A grandmother with Alzheimer’s wanders away from home, a snowboarder is missing, a group of school children is stranded in a flood. Search and rescue is a life-saving vocation, and the ability to save a life is often dependent upon how quickly the person can be found and accessed. If the missing person is one of your loved ones, you will expect well-equipped, well-trained search and rescue professionals to bring your loved one home safely to you.

Job Description
Rescue teams generally start with a profile of the person or people they’re looking for, and follow established patterns of behavior to find them. Believe it or not, statistically 98 percent of lost people are found alive and uninjured, although they’re usually “cold, hungry, and really glad to see us,” said one captain. That’s good news for all amateur hikers. And the satisfaction of returning a lost person to his or her loved ones is unparalleled.

Median Salary
$52,000

Education Requirements
Search and rescue is a rewarding and exhilarating career path. Though rescuers are not required to have a degree, candidates with Bachelor’s Degrees in scientific or health-related fields, especially those pertaining to Emergency Management, will have a much higher chance of securing a job, as well as higher earning power as compared to just a high school degree.

Job Outlook
Search and rescue workers are not greatly affected by economic fluctuations because the facilities in which they work, like FEMA, must operate, regardless of the state of the economy.