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During a long-term TEOTWAWKI disaster, all of your attention and energy will be focused on surviving each day. Now is the time to prepare, not just for an SHTF event, but for what comes after. Survivors will be tasked with rebuilding their communities, and ultimately society as a whole.
After a mega-disaster, the dollar bills in your pocket will be as useless as a college degree. Unless that education is in a field that would be useful for a nineteenth-century existence.
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Bartering and precious metals will once again become the accepted currency in the post-apocalyptic world. The wise prepper will figure out how to turn his or her self-reliance hobbies and skills into a lucrative “income” during the reconstruction stage that will emerge after a long-term disaster.
So what will be the best “careers” for preppers after the collapse? Here are 25 possibilities.
25 Best Post-Disaster Prepper Career Choices
1. Medical Workers
Of course, any person with a medical degree of any type will be in high demand and handsomely rewarded by SHTF survivors. But one does not have to be a doctor or nurse to offer something of value to the community.
It would be wonderful if every doctor or nurse survived the TEOTWAWKI event; they surely would be taken in and protected by prepper families. But such an assumption would simply not be realistic, especially if you live in a rural area.
First responders (EMTs, paramedics, and firefighters) also have advanced first aid training. Most athletic coaches and school teachers are also certified in first aid and communicable diseases. Taking classes to get certified and advance your knowledge would be wise. It will give you something valuable to barter after a disaster when doctors and nurses are in short supply.
Related: 9 Most Important First Aid Skills To Learn
2. Vets
A veterinarian or assistant vet can also use his or her skills to help treat humans when no longer bound by laws preventing the giving of such care. Every farmer and homesteader I know has acted as their own vet at least a few times.
Advancing your livestock skills so you can render aid to sick or injured animals is highly advisable as well. Losing a cow is upsetting to a keeper now, but after an SHTF event, it would be a tragedy that could leave the family incredibly hungry.
Related: Protect Your Livestock From Deadly Diseases
3. Herbalists
Herbalists, whether professional or amateur, will become the post-TEOTWAWKI pharmacists. Growing and foraging for your own natural remedy ingredients, preserving them, and learning how to treat a broad range of conditions could not be recommended more highly.
The general populace doesn’t know how valuable the weeds in their backyards truly are, or how to make a fever tea, burn tincture, or elderberry cough syrup. A portion of the family’s prepping budget would be well spent investing in healing herbs and roots that cannot be grown in your area. You should also consider getting a manual capsule maker, as well as lots of capsules in various sizes.
Related: How To Make An Herbal Medicine Chest
4. Butcher
Raising your own meat will be vital to the everyday life and health of survivors. Knowing how to butcher meat will be yet another prime bartering skill or prepper career choice.
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Preppers who raise their own livestock and hunt probably already know how to butcher their own meat and have the means to do so. Gone will be the rigid government rules and health department inspections that prevented you from offering butchering services to community members before the SHTF.
5. Blacksmith
Horses, not cars, will fill the roads once it is safe to travel after a long-term disaster. The demand for tools, gates, horseshoes, fencing, wagon wheels, and weapons for members of the new society will make this rare skill popular again.
Related: Blacksmithing Basics – 7 Things You Need To Know
6. Carpenter
The ability to work with wood without the aid of power tools will make preppers with carpentry skills vital to the rebuilding efforts. Chicken coops and goat pens will dot the landscape of every home – and someone must have the skills and tools to build them.
Homes and barns will need to be repaired, foot or horse bridges will need to be constructed, and scores of other home and infrastructure projects will need to be completed.
7. HAM Radio Operators
Any HAM operators that still have a functioning radio will be able to connect with the outside world and serve as the “newsman” or woman in the developing community.
If a band of marauders is headed toward the town, a pandemic is spreading in your direction, or some semblance of government is reforming, you will definitely want to know about it and plan accordingly.
Related: Read This Before You Buy a Ham Radio
8. Masons
Skilled tradespeople of all varieties will be needed to build and repair structures, bridges, and roads. Homes without a fireplace or wood stove will need them built to keep the family warm and to give them a cooking surface.
9. Beekeepers
A beekeeper can obviously sell honey for eating, food preservation, and medicinal purposes, but a beekeeper can also barter for use of bees to pollinate crops and sell beeswax for making candles and salves.
10. Teachers
One-room schoolhouses or even large living rooms will become places of learning during the first generation after the collapse of society. Children won’t be sitting in desks all day while being treated like robots. Instead, they’ll quickly learn the basics of reading, math, science, and social studies before spending the rest of their days developing vocational skills as apprentices.
An education degree will no longer be required to teach children, but supplies and some type of experience in this area can help a survivor establish a marketable skill to the community in exchange for firewood, food, and medical care.
Related: 7 Survival Skills They Should Teach In School
11. Cooper
Learning how to make barrels for storing food and materials, and to make buckets for hauling water for the fire brigade, will also be a useful post-SHTF career choice.
12. Seamstress
Clothing will become exceptionally worn during a long-term disaster when manual labor is part of daily life. Children will grow and new babies will be born – they too will need a regular supply of clothing. Investing in a manual sewing machine, practicing sewing skills, and stockpiling supplies can help an avid sewer turn a hobby into a full-time job or stable bartering skill.
Search the internet for free sewing patterns and print them on sturdy cardstock paper for use after the long-term disaster. Hit yard sales and buy every cheap item of clothing you can find to stockpile for barter or use as fabric. Think outside the box and buy sheets, tablecloths, and even curtains that can be used to make clothing, outerwear, and bags.
Related: Needle & Thread – Sewing 101
13. Leathercrafters
A leather artisan will be able to barter his or her services to make or fix saddles, create gun holsters and knife sheaths, make and repair footwear, and create bags.
14. Potter
Finding a manual pottery wheel is not an easy thing to do. It took me three years to find one… and they are not cheap. Learning how to harvest your own clay from the ground and how to fire it in a homemade kiln will allow a survivor to make cookware and storage containers in the new society.
15. Gunsmith and Reloaders
Building and repairing firearms after a long-term disaster, as well as making ammo to sell to community members, could turn you into a post-apocalypse millionaire. There is a risk associated with this prepper career because the guns could fall into the wrong hands and set your home up for a deadly robbery.
Related: How To Make Old-Fashioned Gun Powder
16. Sawyer
A woodcutter will be able to barter firewood and deliver it to community members and emerging businesses in the new society. This will be a year-round business even in warm climates because wood will be the primary fuel, not just for heating homes, but also for cooking and blacksmithing.
Want to prep but not sure where to begin?
Click Here to Get Your FREE One Year Urban Survival Plan!
17. Rope Maker
Turn this bushcraft skill into a new career to help the community during the reconstruction phase. Ropes will be used to lift heavy objects since mechanical machinery will likely have ceased to function.
Rope will also be used to secure goods on wagons, keep satchels and baskets closed, and for a myriad of other tasks in the 1800s-era existence we will find ourselves in after a TEOTWAWKI disaster.
18. Tinker
The ability to make useful tools and cookware out of tin will be a valuable skill in a society that no longer has access to stores and disposable kitchen goods that were once carelessly purchased and tossed away.
19. Distilled Spirits
Moonshine will once again be brewed far more freely, along with other spirits and liquid morale boosters. You need not open a saloon to sell your great papaw’s apple pie recipe, but doing so would vastly increase your new world income opportunities.
20. Trading Post
Open a trading post or old fashioned general store and barter with other residents. This spot could also be a gathering hub for the survivors to enhance the sense of community and to get news from travelers.
21. Cobbler
A shoemaker and repair person who stockpiled the necessary materials (including boot laces) should see a steady flow of customers. If you could combine this skill with leather making, a great bartering income potential will exist.
22. Basket Weaver
Learn how to weave baskets as well as game and fish holders to trade with community members or barter for services in the post-SHTF society.
23. Wheelwright
The wagons pulled by horses will need wheels made and repaired on a regular basis. Wheels can also be used to turn water into an energy source and as part of windmills.
24. Water Hauler
Not every community member will live near a creek or pond or have a well and manual pump. The ability to haul water and build rainwater catchment systems will be yet another valuable skill after a long-term disaster.
25. Hunter or Angler
Barter your hunting and fishing skills with members of the community who make goods or provide other services. Combining this service with the ability to butcher meat would provide you with an even more lucrative post-disaster business.
Conclusion
Devote some time to determining which society rebuilding service or business best suits your existing skill set and the region where you live. Once you have decided on one or two post-SHTF careers, set aside part of the family prepping budget to stockpile tools and supplies for the endeavor. And in the meantime, work on your skill set as much as possible.
Surviving the disaster remains every prepper’s primary focus, but planning for what comes next will be essential to the longevity of your family.
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Collect pencils. Not pens. Pencil marks last. Ink fades or smears.
Re: copying clothing patterns onto sturdy cardstock
Even if cardstock survived some kind of disaster like a flood, the material you used to tape them together would not.
There is pattern tracing fabric you can easily draw on with soft pencil (#2 is too hard). Pellon makes it, or you might find other brands, too. You can roll out this material just like any fabric in a craft or fabric store, and you can lay your pattern underneath it. It is mostly seethrough, and you can easily copy your pattern size on it and even label it. Be sure to draw and properly cut the diamonds and triangles to match up seams. Don’t forget to save the instructions on how to put it together. This is no time to not read the instructions.
I have always said that sewing that people should know include
Sewing on a button
Hemming pants with a blind hem stitch
Several forms of sewing, like running stitch (used for basting), blanket stitch (looks kind of like a serged stitch), and (I don’t know the name of this) the one where you make a stitch then go back a few millimeters or 1/8″ to secure the last stitch and the stitch you are going to make.
Learning embroidery is a good idea
I’ve seen survivalist videos show you how you can braid a belt out of 550 paracord, something very useful for survivalism. But braiding is counterproductive if you want to be able to rip it out to use it quickly. I recommend learning to crochet and crochet the cord with maybe a J or K sized hook. You could make a belt to hang things on, too. The beauty of crocheting and knitting is that if you need the fiber you have knit or crochet, just pull out the end that you finished up on and it unravels in seconds.
Learn to darn woven clothing. Weaving is a good skill to learn, too. Darning woven clothes will make them last longer, and it isn’t quite the same as sewing by hand. Learn to patch clothing, too.
If you can’t carry around a rip saw or bow saw, get a keyhole saw that folds. This is the kind of saw that cuts drywall for repair. The teeth should slightly curve in both directions like a bow saw so you can easily and quickly cut wood. Another good one is a compass saw. The meaner the teeth, the more effective, IMO.
Hacksaws and fretsaws are useless.
Do not confuse a hacksaw with a Hackzall or Sawzall which are both power tools.
Learn how to sew with a sewing awl like in leatherwork. the stitching works similarly to the sewing machine stitch with a topstitch and bottomstitch and is very secure. You can use a sewing awl to sew sinew or leather thong into leather materials, but they can be used on fabric-backed vinyl, sails, and canvas as well as a lot of thick fabrics.
I forgot to say that the Pellon tracing fabric is lightweight, strong, and readily storable in a narrow space or in a small space with other patterns.
Be sure to label the pattern well: the pieces, the piece of clothing, who the pattern fits, and other identifying information like 1 of 3, 2 of 3, 3 of 3. Use a soft pencil, NOT a pen. Pen will fade in time, and if it gets wet, pen will smear. Pencil lasts a long time, and it will weather the weather. If it gets wet, the pencil won’t run.
open a bathhouse. teahouse. etc.
Leaders, organizers, and a plethora of logistical soft skilled unseen nobodies that are an essential, if unappreciated element of what allows society or any community to function successfully. Regards
Nobodies? Really? Where have you been the last 5 years? Everybody is a somebody and all lives matter.
Best Prepper Jobs To Help Rebuild Society After SHTF? This list is totally Victorian. Coopers? Really? Try plastic recycling technicians. Wasted my time.
Plastic recycling technology requires electricity.
The list works out of the premise that all powerplants are finished.
Which throws us back a century or so.
Considering that the fitness rating of the power structure in the USA is D- that is, in all probability what will happen. I was born in the early 60’s and even with the advent of buried optic fiber telephone cables, I have not seen any technological upgrades in the power structure. The same outdated technology of above-ground power lines that brought us our electricity back then is still in use today…with no upgrades. Replacements as needed but no upgrades. That is why they call it SHFT. We will be thrown back a hundred years. Sorry.
Plastic recycling technology doesn’t require high-tech. It can be melted, molded, and set into usable objects. No electricity: just fire and a pot or tin to melt it in. A whole lot easier than smithing metals, although that can be used, too.
Knowing what burns hot is important, too. Alcohols burn hot.
Crochet fiber to make carrying cases. I made a cross-body carry caddy for my water bottle. An apron with lots of pockets is useful. Crochet a non-stretching fiber into slings to carry firewood, bags for supplies, and regular yarn to make blankets for keeping warm, scarves, and even sweaters or gowns. Or hoodies. Or hats. Or even a cowl like Katniss had in the movie _Brave_ .
Sewing is so underrated.
Medical Personnel:
Physicians and nurses who have never given a moment’s thought to a grid-down scenario will likely be as useless as everyone else who has never prepped for such events! Earning certificates in first aid is equally as useless. The first thing that is taught in such courses is that first aid is the immediate and temporary care given to the sick and injured until qualified help arrives. Learn how to control bleeding, splint fractures, treat common illnesses and such with the idea in mind that maybe no one else is coming! You may be the expert, so make plans and train for that possibility. Sterile dressings are important but when they are not available, the cleanest thing you have that can do the job will have to do. When labor starts, that baby is going to appear regardless of whether you are ready! Having people who are willing to assess a situation and act on its behalf may save lives. Learning how pioneers and frontiersmen managed wounds, childbirth, and sickness may be more valuable than all of the info on the internet related to those subjects. There are some excellent publications available for those who want to be able to step in when everything has failed. The ability to control infection may be the next step on that list, so give some time to that knowledge as well. Dr. Bones has books that cover all of these things. There are some others, so start your library and become familiar with its contents.
Keep notes on what has happened, what has been done, and what the results are. Medical terminology is not essential but create a word picture and note changes. If a clinician shows up, they may be able to interpret your descriptions, if they are complete enough. Not having X-ray machines, EKG machines, blood analyzer machines may not be the worst thing that could happen!
Rule number 1: check your own pulse before you dive into a situation!
Going just off how pioneers did it isn’t probably the best idea. Simply because some treatements used in that era were not just ineffective, but downright harmful. But at the time, they were thought like the best method of curing the patient. What you need is somebody from “Doctors without Borders” or something like this. I.e. medical proffessional, who is able to be of use even without electricity.
As far as first help goes..you can learn to stop bleeding, Hell, you can probably attempt to close the wound. Or fix bone that had been broken in imporvised cast. But you are going to butcher it. Cause, there is no way anybody let’s you do it without medical degree before the SHTF happens, and you will have only the theory to back you up after. Kinda same thing with common illness. If you have no modern medicine, and/or don’t know what are you suffering from, your best bet is rest and lot of liquids. That being said, I wouldn’t call first aid courses useless. They do teach you how to stop bleeding, what to check for, etc. Yes, they count on help comming, but they are still better then being completely self-tought.
Charles, as a nurse, I disagree with your statement quite a bit. We still have greater knowledge than someone without a degree esp if the nurse in question has been working for longer then a year or two. I personally can triage a patient with injuries, which need taken care of first and which can wait. It’s true that having modern tech makes our job a whole lot more precise but we quickly learn to tell whats wrong before you wait for the blood test, x-rays, MRIs, etc, come back. Of course some things will be much harder than others, for example internal injuries or head injuries with brain swelling but again there are symptoms to look for to indicate these problems. Unfortunately, there are limited treatments for those conditions in a SHTF situation. My list could go on but I think my point has been made. I also have training in several other of these jobs to add to my nursing.