One day soon the field of humanitarian assistance may become a formal profession with well-defined career paths. It may not be as exotic or out-of-the-mainstream a choice as it seems today. Because of its multi-disciplinary nature, the field is not a pure science, like quantum physics. Most people do not get into humanitarian relief to discuss theory. It is applied learning: it is doing, learning, and doing some more. The impact it has on your life will likely be profound and long-term.

When contemplating a future in humanitarian relief, disaster management and other related fields, there are several important aspects to consider. How will your decision affect family and friends, your education plans, your time and personal space? Perhaps most fundamentally you must consider why you want to get into the field in the first place.

Understanding the source of your motivation is a key to knowing how to move forward. Is this a permanent or temporary endeavor? Do you wish to work full time or part-time? Are you inspired by a current love-interest? Is it a major career move to what is now recognized as a new growth industry? Is it a desire to see or save the world? Could it be a combination of these motives?

A thorough understanding of what motivates you will help you devise a plan for learning what most closely aligns with your real interests thus ensuring that your time spent is personally rewarding and productive. Your ability to articulate your motivations will also benefit those around you – fellow responders as well as the recipients of your efforts – because your interactions will be clearly focused.

Often, people have a personal experience – it could be deliberately planned, accidental, or a by-product of performing their work – that results in a desire to pursue more of the same kind of experience. Soldiers may become interested in relief work as a result of deployment on a humanitarian mission or a doctor may feel he or she needs the stimulus of the greater challenge that an austere environment presents. It’s possible that the first seed may be planted by seeing news coverage of an overwhelming disaster and how it affects a large, vulnerable population. It could even be an introductory college course that has made a profound impression on you. Perhaps you received aid in a humanitarian crisis or gave aid to your neighbors. Being aware of these experiences is important because it will help guide you in making your selection of the educational tools that provide the greatest and most appropriate assistance.

Keep in mind that in this business both respect and knowledge most frequently come from field service. To that end, you must go into the field properly prepared. Education can mean the difference between life and death, or of being effective or a nuisance to those who are properly educated and knowledgeable. When it comes to preparing for the field you must explore what aspects of humanitarian relief appeals to you most and then focus your efforts.

Taking a realistic view of what you know now will help you seek out educational and field experiences that will be most beneficial in the long run. It will also help you to understand what you don’t know. For example, a domestic response is very different from an international response – and likewise from place to place overseas. While techniques common to emergency medicine will not vary considerably from one patient to the next, the experience assisting in a domestic response effort may lead to a false sense of security when those same skills are applied within a more challenging or threatening environment.

You must also make an honest appraisal of yourself. You bring a unique combination of skills, personality and experiences to the table. Are you a doctor, homemaker, lawyer, engineer? Do you thrive on chaos, order or making orde4r out of chaos? Do you prefer to work in your local community or are you open to participating in events that take place far away?

Family, friends and associates are important factors in your decision. You must consider the reactions and effects your desires to pursue relief work might have on them. You may be spending less time with family or your participation in relief efforts may allow you to involve the entire family. You and your family must also be aware that in some conflict areas you or your agency may be perceived as a threat to individuals or groups on power. In-country political situations can change rapidly and your association with certain relief agencies could lead to your death.

You may be asked to do things and participate in activities that are far outside your scope of knowledge and experience. You may be asked to help move and bury the dead or spoon-feed starving disease-ridden babies. Imagine this and then consider your likely responses. Be honest here. While you would like to think you would respond heroically, are you willing to forgive yourself if that doesn’t happen? If you should respond conservatively, isn’t it possible you might accomplish more, by saving yourself and others? Are you able to let go of your personal beliefs in order to fulfill an ethic of neutrality, such as giving medical treatment to a known war criminal? Can you find something positive even in the midst of the most horrific circumstances? How comfortable are you doing things differently from what you feel might be the ‘correct’ way?

How important is your personal time? Are you being realistic about how it will be spent? Like it or not, humanitarian assistance is a full-time, around-the-clock job. You will often be identified as the only person able to resolve all medical, financial, and logistical problems, no matter what your skill in these areas. Someone may knock on your door at 2:00 a.m. They are not being rude; it’s likely they will have just walked 35 miles to ask for help. Are you willing to give this amount of intense time – even for a three-month stint?

Due to conditions defined by the work and location, most of the time your job is all you can do. Count on there being no radio, television, social life or opportunity to exercise. The environment in which you work may be extremely hazardous – snipers and landmines may be a normal part of the landscape, and landmines do not discriminate.

As to personal space, you may be sharing a single room with a half-dozen strangers in less-than-luxurious accommodations.

There are many ways to participate in the humanitarian relief field. Perhaps you will decide that fieldwork is not for you, and that you would be more at ease in a headquarters ‘desk-job.’ Humanitarian organizations, particularly the larger ones, need a full complement of financial administrative and human resources support. They also need development professionals. After several years of working in an operational capacity you will have acquired many skills and may want to share that knowledge with others by functioning as a mentor or teacher.

Burnout is always a risk. The warning signs are easy to ignore when you’re caught up in the rush of fieldwork or the emotional highs that come from helping others. The toll can mount without your knowing and then a single incident may tip the balance past what you are able to handle.

While there may be some support available from the organization you work with, ultimately only you are responsible for your own health and well being. Accepting that responsibility early on, and determining along the way how well you are doing mentally and physically, will help you keep a balance that is productive and rewarding.

Humanitarian relief work can be personally and professionally rewarding, but it’s not a suitable pth for everyone. Along the way you will meet people you admire and others you may detest. People who are drawn to the humanitarian field carry within them the same range of human traits and foibles as do those drawn to any other profession. If you have high expectations for ‘making a difference,’ expect to be frustrated. You will need a high tolerance for ambiguity; some days your most heroic efforts will seem futile; other days, you will find the simplest accomplishment can deliver great personal satisfaction.

It is most important for you to examine your own nature as deeply as possible before committing yourself to this field. Compassion and the intensely meaningful interactions elicited by extreme situations in complex humanitarian emergencies may be the true motivators for your seeking this type of work. However, the effort required of an individual working for years on the operational level is exhausting. Beyond the outer, broad-based material resources that are required of an individual working for years on the operational level is exhausting. Beyond the outer, broad-based material resources that are required to sustain your work, perhaps more important, you will need deep inner resources. In your search for the training and knowledge to prepare yourself for this kind of career, include in it a way of balancing and renewing both your vision and your spirit. With these tools in hand, you can make a difference and live to tell the tale.

This article was originally included in the January – March edition of The Liaison, a publication produced by the Center of Excellence in Disaster Management & Humanitarian Assistance. It is reprinted with permission of the Center. To contact the Center’s web site for additional articles related to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, please visit http://coe-dmha.org