Trained inspectors are rarely employed for less than $1,200, and salaries run up to $2,400 for field men. Chief engineers of organizations, engineers in agencies, and company executives obtain much more.
The following excerpts from letters received from prominent men in the fire insurance and engineering field show the opportunities in this profession:
“The opportunities in the field of fire protection engineering were never greater that at the present time, as the public now seems to be in a receptive mood as regards conservation of all resources.”
“There is a constant demand among fire insurance companies for practical fire protection engineers. The number employed by any one company is not great but the number is growing now that insurance companies as a whole are getting to appreciate the constant dangers of conflagration areas, poor water supply, poor fire equipment, and other kindred effects.”
“There is a splendid opportunity in what is called the inspection or rating bureau service, as even prior to our country entering the war there was always a shortage of competent help.”
“In the inspection and engineering branch of fire insurance a wide field can be readily opened to disabled soldiers and sailors as well as to other discharged service men.”
“Several months ago one inspection bureau formulated tentatively its own employment plan, which in brief was, ‘first, to re-employ its former men now with the colors, and to thereafter give preference to disabled soldiers and sailors.’”
“In the field of fire protection there are comparatively so few trained men in this vocation to-day that the opportunity is unlimited. Where yesterday the idea was the protection of property by fire departments, water supply, etc., to-day it is one of fire prevention, i. e., checking the cause of fire before it may have an opportunity to do any damage. Fire prevention to-day is confined mainly to organizations covering wide fields. There is no question but what in the future each industrial plant of any size will have their own fire protection or fire prevention engineer, and probably the same will be extended to each city of any considerable size.”
“Graduates of the Armour Institute of Technology and former students who have not graduated have been in demand. In most cases the employment entered into immediately after graduation has been moderately remunerative, but advancement has been much more rapid than in the case of untrained men. A few graduates have been employed by companies manufacturing and installing automatic sprinkler equipments. The typical case is that of a man who enters an inspection bureau, and after three or four years assumes work of responsibility with a fire insurance company. Recently several companies have shown a tendency to depart from the traditional plan of looking to the bureaus as training schools, and have engaged men with the Institute’s degree, but without field experience. A large proportion of the classes of 1917 and 1918, who entered military or naval service upon leaving school, will probably be employed by insurance companies immediately after discharge from the service. There are now, as at all times, in the history of the department, applications for more graduates than are available.”