Get a Summer Job Working Outdoors

If you enjoy being outside, have the energy and the drive to work hard in exciting, always changing environments and want to build your resume, consider a job philly in the great outdoors this summer.

Here are some of the types of jobs to consider:

-Provide great customer service for park and event visitors

-Conduct educational sessions for children on trips from schools or camps

-Be a tour guide and share information on tour points of interest

-Distribute information through brochures and educational presentations

-Do environmental research

-Maintain the environment

-Monitor visitor activities for safe behavior

Some of the personal skills needed to succeed in these seasonal summer jobs in the great outdoors are:

-strong verbal communication skills

-good interpersonal skills

-effective time management

-ability to multitask

-teamwork

Here are three great resources offering free online help to concentrate your efforts if you are looking for a job in the great outdoors this summer.

Cool Works

Where can you find information on summer jobs in national parks like Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain National Park and Everglades National Park? Check out a comprehensive, great, fun website called Cool Works. If you are interested in the environment, “green”jobs or just being outdoors, there are thousands of seasonal job opportunities to explore.

Cool Works and similar summer job search websites, lets you create a profile and subscribe to free weekly email updates or even subscribe to their RSS feeds with the latest job information you require.

National Park ServicesThe National Park Services (NPS) offers up to 10,000 seasonal or temporary jobs yearly and also need about 125, 000 volunteers per year. Some of the temporary and seasonal jobs include assistants for park visitors, guides and rangers, extra maintenance folks and even lifeguards. VIPs or Volunteers-In-Parks as they are known donate millions of man-hours every year to parks, which translates to significant value. Volunteering in a national park or even your local community park is an awesome way to learn new job skills and build your resume this summer. Learn more about summer jobs and internships in national parks at www.nps.gov.

US Department of Interior (DOI)The Department of Interior manages over 500 million acres of land in the United States. The National Park Services manages just under 20% of that land and so there are opportunities in the rest of the 80% of the territories that the US Department of Interior manages. Think about internships and seasonal summer jobs in one of the over 400 dams and over 300 reservoirs that that the DOI oversees. Look also for job opportunities this summer at regional recreation sites including parks, monuments, seashore sites, battlefields and other cultural sites.

Marcia Robinson writes and trains on career, workplace and employment related issues. She is a Principal at The RayeMartin Group, a HR consulting firm in Philadelphia, that owns BullsEyeResumes, publishes the Norristown-At-Work monthly and maintains career advice blogs. Robinson has a BS in Human Resources Management and a Masters in Business Administration.