More than rangers - Organization and job diversity in the modern Park Service.

Not everyone has the advantage of growing up as a park brat, but that doesn't mean that a life in the Park Service is out of reach. We talk with people all the time who are convinced that it's their dream job, but there's just no way that they could do it. They don't think they could compete, they don't think they could relocate, and most of all they don't think their skills are applicable to the service.

The reality is that the NPS is a complex organization, with thousands of different jobs and duties. The Rangers that visitors see are the public face of the Park Service, but for ever Ranger you see there are 5-10 support staff working to ensure that everything goes smoothly in the background.

Many of the contributors to this blog are members of the support staff. We operate in jobs that the public is never going to see, doing things that people don't associate with the National Parks. We don't wear uniforms, or give programs to teach people about the parks, but we bleed green and grey just the same. Our talents aren't suited to interacting with visitors day after day, but we still work hard to ensure that the parks remain safe, functional, and preserved for future generations to enjoy.

If you're interested in becoming part of the Park Service, but don't want to become a "Ranger", then it might help to have a brief overview of the organization of NPS.

NPS Employment within a park, monument, region, etc. breaks down into 5 main "Divisions", each with designated duties related to the Park Service mission.

Administration: The admin staff of parks handles things like payroll, budget, human resources, Information Technology, and purchasing. Other departments, such as Concessions and OPAC (office of planning and compliance), usually also end up as a subset of this division.

Facility Maintenance (also known as "Design and Engineering"): The maintenance staff works to cover everything from building and housing maintenance to trail construction and waste management. In most NPS locations this is actually the largest portion of the staff.

Science & Resource Management (also known as "Natural\Cultural Resources"): S&RM functions as the academic side of the Park Service. Staff who work for S&RM include Biologists, Botanists, Zoologists, Archaeologists, Paleontologists, Hydrologists, Geologists, and every other kind of "ologist" you could imagine. They work in tasks as varied of their specialties, with duties ranging from active research to historic preservation.  

Interpretation: These are the Rangers that people think of when they imagine the National Park Service. Flat hats with green and grey uniforms giving programs or guiding events in the park. Interpretation staff make up half of the "Ranger" title. They offer presentations and programs, provide visitor information, and cover all kinds of other work designed to help people learn about, and enjoy their National Parks.

Visitor and Resource Protection: V&RP includes the primary other "Ranger" type. Law Enforcement Rangers. This division also includes programs like Backcountry Management, Fee Collection, Wildland and Structural firefighting, Emergency Services, and campground staff.

Once upon a time in the Park Service a "Ranger" was expected to be everything for a park. The law enforcement, the scientist, the interpreter, and the maintenance staff. These days the requirements of each job have become compartmentalized, because you can't expect every employee to be a federally credentialed law enforcement officer while also having a degree in Botany and knowledge on how to work a bulldozer. Because of this the Park Service family is incredibly varied in skill set, and just because you can't track a deer through the woods or give a Ranger Program to a crowd doesn't mean that's not a place where your skills can be put to use.

So, if you think that you'd rather have a Bison for a neighbor than an apartment building, or you feel like you'd rather be paid in sunrises than cold hard cash, consider taking a look joining the NPS family. You'll kick yourself every time you see your paycheck, and you'll wonder why you signed up for 150-mile grocery runs, but every time you get to step out and enjoy the beauty around you you'll understand that it was the best bad decision you ever made.

~CBD

Bleeding green and grey - Building a life with the National Park Service

If you work for the National Park Service for long enough you'll eventually hear a comment that someone "bleeds green and grey". The term is used either as a compliment for someone that devotes their life to the Park Service, or occasionally as a playful insult when a person's life is so integrated with the Park Service that they couldn't go back to the real world if they wanted to.

The saying comes from a book written by Gregory Moss, a career park ranger who published a collection of stories about his life in the service. (Amazon link for anyone who is interested) National Park Ranger, a.k.a. "Bleeding Green & Grey": High Adventure Tales, Humorous Stories, & Deadly Consequences! What Gregory hit on with his title is that the Park Service often attracts a certain kind of person: A person who takes the job because they love the places, the people, and the experiences that living and working in America's best idea provides. People who end up staying with the Park Service for a career are there because they deeply care about being a part of the mission to protect and preserve. So willing in fact, that many give up enormous opportunities outside of the service to stay in the places they love. We give up higher paying jobs, relationships, and whatever else is required in order to stay with the Park Service, and to become a member of the Park Service family.

This is not to say that to join the Park Service you must be willing to give up the "real world" for the rest of your life. There are thousands of jobs in the service that you can work for a single season and move on. You'll get the amazing experience, and the eye catching job on the resume, but you don't have to stay forever if you don't want to.

But, many of us do make the choice to stay in the family, to accept a career of lower pay, for harder work, in more difficult and remote locations. We do it because we love it, because we think it's the best thing we could do with our lives, and because sooner or later you realize that you bleed green and grey, even if you never thought you would.

(Waking up to sights like this every day might help)

Once you realize that you want to spend your life working for the Park Service your perspective shifts. You stop thinking about how much you'll make in your next job, and start thinking about what parks you want to embed yourself in. You stop thinking about moving to get a promotion, and start focusing on the parks that will allow you to pursue your passions. You lose focus on the short term difficulties from day to day and start daydreaming about leaving your legacy.

Part of the amazing experience of working for the Park Service is that the organization has been around for less than 100 years. In fact our centennial isn't even until 2016! While the Park Service is a place of strong tradition and a commitment to stewardship of our national treasures, it is also an organization still in the formation phase. Every year we gain new sites, new people, and new mission goals. And with only 98 years in operation, there simply hasn't been time to do everything that needs to be done. Therein comes the idea of a person's Park Service legacy. For different people it means different things. To some it's a personal mark they can leave behind when they move on. For others it's a new way NPS can serve the visitors who come to see our landscapes and places. It all depends on your passion and what you think the Park Service needs to become a better place.

One example that comes to mind is the work of a dedicated group of interpretive employees. Together with hard work, sweat, tears, and enormous amounts of effort they built the first distance learning program in the Park Service. In the past students would have to come to a National Park location to meet a ranger, to ask questions about the park, and to start to appreciate the work that we do to protect it. With the distance learning setup Park Rangers from Grand Canyon now give programs for kids all over the country, giving students who don't have access to our National Parks the opportunity to see a condor flying overhead, or look at fossils embedded in the red sandstone. Technology like this introduces people to a world they might never have been able to experience before.

Image source: http://arizonahighways.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/grand-canyon-goes-high-tech-to-reach-students-nationwide/

On its own Grand Canyon's distance learning program would have been a "legacy" item. A change made by a group of dedicated people that will continue to serve the Park Service long after they retire. But the program at Grand Canyon was only the beginning! As other parks saw the new technology, and the new opportunities that it can provide to visitors the idea spread. The single distance learning studio has turned into programs at parks across the country, each unique to the park that hosts it, but based on the ideas pioneered by a few dedicated individuals in a single branch, in a single division, at a single park.

The National Park Service now hosts an entire suite of distance learning programs. Information is available at http://www.nps.gov/teachers/distancelearning.htm if anyone who comes across this is interested. How's that for a legacy? Serving thousands or tens of thousands of students per year from all over the U.S. and all over the world.

A legacy doesn't have to be public facing either. For some, the scientific pursuits outweigh the desire to interact with visitors. For a person motivated by the invisible bits of the park service, a legacy might be out of the public eye, but still critical to the mission, such as preservation of an ecosystem, plant, animal, or even mineral that otherwise might be lost without protection.

Leaving a legacy may not be always be glamorous, but each legacy still provides a permanent place in the halls of nearly a century of NPS staff who have given their careers, and occasionally their lives, to protecting the places that America treasures.

~CBD

My First Permanent Job with the Park Service

Editor's Note: This post is part #1 of a series on becoming part of the National Park Service. New posts in the series should be added in the coming weeks.

I’m a park brat, the same way that some people are military brats.  One of my parents worked for the Park Service my entire life, so it was always a part of my life.  It wasn’t until I was in college that I even considered it as a career possibility.

We rarely visited other Park Service locations when I was growing up.  Indeed, we only really traveled once a year and there was only one NPS location near where I grew up.  However, I did see almost every inch of the park my parent worked for.

Photo credit: SaintLost

Photo credit: NPS

I think being a park brat heavily influenced my eventual decision to pursue a career with NPS.  Initially, I wanted nothing to do with it, still being in that “rebellious” mindset of not wanting anything to do with my mother in the workplace.  Eventually, I fell in love with it all and set myself on the path to getting a job.  Hint: Start looking at USAJobs.gov!

The cert, the list of the top 10 or so people that qualified, for any given position is going to be heavily populated with either people with perfect qualifications (some are liars) or those with veteran’s preference (not a bad thing).  You might not think it, but a lot of people want the entry level positions working for the Park Service, even working at an entrance station.

My story is more about luck than anything else.  I had a lot of drive-thru cashier experience, so it ended up that I was perfect for working at an entrance station.  However, I think the only reason I made the cert is because of my stint as a seasonal Park Ranger.  How they came to my name above whoever else they had interviewed I’ll never know.

What I do know is that interviewing with enthusiasm was a huge part of why I was chosen. While I didn't know everything about the job I was pursuing, I did know that I wanted it. As a friend of mine always tells me, the worst thing that can happen from applying for a job is that they offer it to you. I realize there are arguments against that saying, but the meaning behind it really is that applying for a job doesn't actually hurt. IF you get the job, then you have to decide whether or not you want it and are willing to uproot your life for it. Working for an organization with remote sites like the National Park Service, upheaval really is a big possibility and commitment. Your new job is likely to be hours away from the nearest major city, and things like going out to dinner at a restaurant or catching a movie after work may no longer be possible. It's up to you to determine what is important to you.

Photo credit: SaintLost

For me, taking this job involved moving cross-country and being over an hour away from the nearest grocery store. My brother made that move easier, but it was also expensive. Only in certain circumstances will NPS be able to help pay for the cost of moving. Mine was not one of them.

Working at an entrance station isn't glamorous. It isn't usually exciting, can be stressful, and doesn't pay as much as other government jobs. Yet, I wouldn't trade the experiences, friends, and career path I made for anything in the world.

Photo credit: SaintLost

One of the main things I recommend if you want to pursue a career with the Park Service is have some notable experience at one.  Try to volunteer at the closest location, get a seasonal position, or work as a student hire (much easier to get than a seasonal position, if you lack experience.)

My tips for building your resume on USAJobs:

• Be extremely thorough in your description of duties at past jobs. Even the smallest thing can be seen as a game changer from the perspective of the person doing the hiring.
• Write a succinct list of the skills you gained and the duties you had in your various positions. Be very thorough.
• Read through the questionnaires that you have to fill out when applying for a job ahead of time. Include anything you have experience with, but had not previously included, on your resume. Without this, you’ll be automatically disqualified from consideration.

If you have questions about specific types of positions, feel free to leave a comment on this blog.