Can being a pyrotechnician for fireworks displays be a career?
For most people, no. Even though fireworks displays are conducted year round for all different types of events, they are still very seasonal, and too few and far inbetween to make into a bill paying career. Most pyrotechnician's do fireworks (very) part time, or as a hobby job. This is on top of the fact that most shows are volunteer. Because of this, over 95% of licensed pyrotechnicians have other non-fireworks related careers or jobs, and only work fireworks displays when they come up.
The only real full-time positions in the fireworks industry are for show producers, sales reps, among other administrative positions. These positions are few and hard to obtain.
If I work as part of your crew, will I get paid?
As part of the crew, you are a volunteer. As an unlicensed member of our fireworks crew, you will be fed during setup of a display, and be provided the training neccessary to obtain a pyrotechnics license (if desired). There are larger shows such as those which fall on the 4th of July that are big enough to enable a small stipend provided by the operator, but this is not expected or garunteed. If you are looking for a 9-5 job to pay the bills, this is NOT the place for you. Working as part of a professional fireworks display crew is a rewarding experience that only a few get to do. It is something you will either love or hate, being that you have to be passionate about fireworks to tollerate the manual labor involved.
Fireworks and professional pyrotechnics is not a job, it is a passion.
What college classes can I take to better prepare myself for a future in pyrotechnics?
Considering pyrotechnics is a trade, like plumbing, carpentry, etc; in general, there are typically no college classes that are specifically geared towards fireworks and/or pyrotechnics. Occassionally some pop up at colleges that are relevant to display pyrotechnics, such as these courses from Missouri S&T, but usually they are rare, and ultimately unccessarry being that you will get, and ultimately have to repeat all of that training as an apprentice for a display company. Since most display companies do things a bit differently, in addition to laws being different in every state, courses that are not provided by the fireworks display company you wish to work for can sometimes give you information and/or teach you techniques that you then have to un-learn. Instead, any courses related to science, such as physics, chemistry, and engineering can certainly give you an edge and help you better understand everything you learn on the job. Ultimately, the best resource is the enormous amount of free fireworks training material on our website, which can prepare you for working your first show and beginning your hands on training.
If you are intersted in joining our crew, see our become a pyrotechnician page.
|
|