Out There: Stories from the Woods

By Christopher Miller

You might not realize it, but the winter months are usually the best times to look and apply for jobs in the Federal and State Park and State Forest system.

Do you like being outside? Are you interested in working outside with the sun on your shoulders? Do you have people skills, and like to educate others about the world around them?

Then you may be a good candidate for a job within the National or State Parks and Forests!

The winter months are prime for these types of jobs to be posted online or in your local newspaper.

So how do you find one of these highly-coveted jobs if you are interested?

PA State Employment

Start off by looking at this website: www.employment.pa.gov, click on “Open to the Public” and adjust your search terms or filter results by county. These jobs are updated daily at 12:00am (I still receive email notifications when new jobs are posted online).

Please note that this website is for all jobs that are posted online with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; everything from PennDOT, to the Department of Corrections, to Human Services.

If you aren’t looking to make a physical move to a new location, definitely filter your results by county!

Federal Government Employment

This one is a bit more tricky though very rewarding if you are able to land a job with the federal government, and a very highly-coveted (and competitive) job with the National Parks Service.

Here’s how to begin your application!

Go to www.usajobs.gov and click “sign-in” to create your account and begin your online application.

When you’ve done that, go back to the home screen, www.usajobs.gov, and begin your search. For example, type in “National Parks Service” and click search.

Now this is a valuable piece of information – click “Open to the public” on the right side.

When you find something you are interested in, be very careful to read the job description in full – sometimes they will list that the applicant must have experience similar to a certain “GS” level, which is government-talk for “years of experience which would be gained at a certain level on the government scale.”

Now I will throw a third thing at you – if you are interested in working for one of the services within a national park such as food services, gift shops, or IT then the following might be for you (and I’ve heard it is a heck of an experience)!

National Parks Concessioners

If you visited Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Glacier, or even Grand Canyon National Park you may have realized that throughout the parks there are a bit more modern conveniences than you would expect.

Each of these vendors has a workforce of hundreds, if not thousands, of workers dedicated to certain tasks. And most times because of the terrain of the area, like Yellowstone, they even have lodging available within the park in a dorm-style setting.

Hey – if I could back up about 10 or so years I would totally take advantage of living and working in a national park for a season or two!

Though there are hundreds of these concessioners available in the parks (and I will link the full list below), the most well known is most likely Xanterra Travel Collection (www.xanterra.com).

Some jobs available through Xanterra and many other reputable concessioners include things such as tour guides, cooks, janitorial, human resources, technology, customer service, wranglers, and maintenance. Though the majority of these positions are seasonal, there are also some year-round positions readily available.

For the full list of National Parks Concessioners, go to this website: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/concessions/concessioners-search.htm