The odds of working for the National Park Service.

Editor's note: This post has received a response for being very negative. That was not the intent. This does not exist to bash the process, just to serve as an interesting tidbit for those thinking about a Park Service career.

I have also been informed that the data used to generate this post is not sound, as it is based on anecdotes does not include the innumerable possible variables that go into each individual's job search. As such, you should use this post for a general idea, not as a factual data source. 

I will also fully admit that I am not a statistician, and there are likely better ways to communicate this data than a few lines of text and a cheesy infographic. For better or worse I'm just a random person who throws words and picture out in the hopes that it might provide a look inside a lifestyle that many people daydream about. If you have a suggestion on how to better convey this information please leave a comment and I will happily work to incorporate the changes.

And now back to your regularly scheduled post.
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Generally more than 100 people apply for each job vacancy in the National Park Service. Every year, this comes out to over 800,000 applications for a very small pool of jobs.

How small you ask?

Tiny. 


How tiny?

At the height of staffing in summer, NPS only has about about 22,000 employees nationwide.

Those 22,000 employees serve 411 designated NPS units (Full list here) spread across half of the planet, plus an additional stack of Regional and National administrative offices.

Not bad on a budget of around $44,000,000 in 2015. Out of the full Federal budget of $3,688,000,000,000 it's about 1/10th of 1% when you do the math.

But, back to the tiny pool of Park Service jobs.

Every year the Park Service advertises about 8,000 jobs. The vast majority of these are seasonal positions, aka 1039s. These positions are only funded to work for 1039 hours, or just under 6 months at full time. Seasonal positions are the bulk of NPS employment, providing critical staff for parks during the busy summer season, and ramping down staff levels during the off season. They're generally the "foot in the door" to build a career in the Park Service, and many employees often spend 5-10 years bouncing from park to park in six-month stints before finally getting one of the next type of positions.

The next layer of NPS jobs are "Term" positions. Term jobs generally have a 4-year maximum duration, but are subject to renewal and funding restrictions every fiscal year. They're more stable than Seasonal positions, but it can still be a very hard life knowing that every 365 days your job can (and often does) evaporate into thin air.

Last, you have the permanent jobs.  Of the 8,000 jobs hired per year, these make up less than 500, or about 6% of total hires. These are the grail of Park Service careers, allowing an employee to occupy a position for as long as they wish. These positions generally make a livable wage and provide the most stable employment NPS offers. Once you get into a permanent job, you can work at it for the rest of your life if you chose to do so (assuming you perform well, don't piss off your boss too badly, and the duties of the job is are still needed).

As you can probably guess, these jobs are all highly competitive. But just how competitive you ask? Take a look at the graphic below.