When Diana Smillie, 34, became an aesthetician in 2007, she heard a colleague discussing another type of clientele: the deceased.
“It sounded so interesting, so I always kept it in the back of my mind,” said the New Rochelle, NY, resident.
She later discovered that licensing was required. So, in 2010, Smillie pursued an associate degree at the American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Service in Times Square. She did a required residency and passed a national board exam as well as state licensing for New York — and hasn’t looked back since.
Smillie was hired at Sisto & Paino funeral home in New Rochelle, where she met her husband, a funeral director. As spouses and co-workers, they find that having a supportive partner who understands the role is helpful.
“You have to work holidays,” said Smillie. “People die 24/7.”
For a recession and future-proofed career, consider the funeral trade
I considered it myself but damn the nepotism of a family owned funeral home makes it hard to even get your foot in the door.....Even if you do it's hard to get ahead because you're always behind some owner's pecker-head kid or a no account relative.
I helped out a funeral home owner (dad's hunting buddy) a few times toting dead bodies from point A to B (the funeral home was also the county morgue) and I'll be darned if the owner's bitch of a wife did not jump in his shit saying that her sorry-ass nephew should be doing it. Hell, I only got, on average, about $50.00 a trip.....That's the shit you deal with.
You almost have to go to a city where most of the funeral homes are a corporate "chain" of several homes.
“It sounded so interesting, so I always kept it in the back of my mind,” said the New Rochelle, NY, resident.
She later discovered that licensing was required. So, in 2010, Smillie pursued an associate degree at the American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Service in Times Square. She did a required residency and passed a national board exam as well as state licensing for New York — and hasn’t looked back since.
Smillie was hired at Sisto & Paino funeral home in New Rochelle, where she met her husband, a funeral director. As spouses and co-workers, they find that having a supportive partner who understands the role is helpful.
“You have to work holidays,” said Smillie. “People die 24/7.”
For a recession and future-proofed career, consider the funeral trade
I considered it myself but damn the nepotism of a family owned funeral home makes it hard to even get your foot in the door.....Even if you do it's hard to get ahead because you're always behind some owner's pecker-head kid or a no account relative.
I helped out a funeral home owner (dad's hunting buddy) a few times toting dead bodies from point A to B (the funeral home was also the county morgue) and I'll be darned if the owner's bitch of a wife did not jump in his shit saying that her sorry-ass nephew should be doing it. Hell, I only got, on average, about $50.00 a trip.....That's the shit you deal with.
You almost have to go to a city where most of the funeral homes are a corporate "chain" of several homes.
