17 tasks, each one witnessed by the sources that watched the job — and behind every one, a prompt you can use tonight.
You usually split time between planning and responding. Mornings often mean updating business continuity plans in Microsoft Word or SharePoint, checking incident reports in Excel, and attending coordination meetings in Outlook or Teams.
Afternoons go to scenario exercises using Visio or Project to map recovery steps, testing call trees, and training staff with PowerPoint. If an event happens, you switch to coordinating recovery, running status reports, and directing teams until operations are reestablished.
You’ll use Excel for risk registers, impact analyses, and tracking recovery milestones. Word and SharePoint store plans, reports, and version history. Visio maps networks and recovery processes; Project schedules recovery tasks and resource assignments.
PowerPoint creates training and briefings; Outlook handles incident communications and call trees. Knowing these Microsoft tools well is expected; practice building a simple recovery schedule in Project and a risk spreadsheet in Excel.
Use AI for drafting reports, summarizing meeting notes, or generating scenario ideas, but never feed it sensitive corporate intelligence, network blueprints, or personal data. Treat AI output as a first draft—verify facts against official documents and spreadsheets.
Keep copies of all final plans in SharePoint with proper access control. For intelligence collection, use approved databases and human analysts; AI can help spot patterns, not replace legal or security review.
Start with certificates in emergency management, business continuity (e.g., BCI ISO 22301 courses), or an associate degree in public safety. Learn Excel, Word, SharePoint basics, and take a short Microsoft Project or Visio course.
Volunteer on local emergency planning committees, help create a simple continuity plan, and practice running a tabletop exercise. Two years of related admin or IT support experience helps you move into a specialist role.
A disaster management specialist focuses on the whole organization—people, processes, and minimum operational requirements—using business impact analyses and recovery scenarios. You coordinate across departments and test call trees and training.
An IT disaster recovery engineer focuses mainly on restoring servers, networks, and applications. You’ll work with those engineers and use Visio or network blueprints, but your remit covers broader continuity and stakeholder coordination.
Regular deliverables include updated business continuity plans on SharePoint, tested call trees, and exercise after-action reports in Word or PowerPoint. Expect a schedule of plan reviews—often quarterly or semiannually—and test results documented in Excel.
They’ll also want a mapped list of minimum viable functions, recovery time objectives (RTOs), and metrics for plan effectiveness, plus documented staff training completion rates. Keep everything versioned and time-stamped.