The notions of self-assessment and risk exposure of rescuers had been discovered in the article. Scientific papers, which reveal the notion of risk, had been reviewed. The existed approaches to this concept had been generalized and it was proposed to consider the concept of risk appetite as personal feature rescuers. The analysis of scientific literature revealed that a significant place among the factors that determine the success of professional activity of rescuers according to some scientists have self-esteem, because it reflects the human ability for self-improvement, to correct shortcomings in their activities and in the development of strengths sides of his personality. Self-esteem is a dynamic characteristic in the structure of personality and has the ability to change due to many factors. In turn, it influences the success of person’s professional activities. Self-esteem is a kind of pivot around which other elements are concentrated to ensure the effectiveness of professional activity. Self-esteem is the foundation, the quality of which depends that how a person will behave in different situations, how he/she will cope with his/her professional responsibilities, how he/she will experience failure and if he/she can make conclusions from this; on which result he/she will aim to reach and whether he/she peaks of professionalism in general. The article presents the results of study risk appetite of rescues and analysis of the correlation of this feature with self-esteem. It is concluded that the group of respondents with different levels of risk is marked roughly the same number of people with optimal average self-esteem. It is noted that the adequacy of self-esteem reflects real look of personality on itself, an objective assessment of their own abilities, qualities and properties. It is noticed that low level of self-esteem was also present in some respondents with different levels of risk exposure. However inadequately low level of self-esteem was not detected in any of the study participants. Intended prospects for further research, which are in to examine the personality characteristics of extreme specialists profile, which cause the high level of susceptibility of the personality for risk and provide a high level of efficiency of professional rescuers.