This Pretty Much Equals a Career

[rantingranger]

As you may have gathered, I have much going on at the moment, and not all of it great. But I thought I should at least report - for those who hadn't already heard from the thunder-stealing

Comments

[rantingranger]

"Ranger" can mean many things, and among rangerly types in the National Park Service, that term typically applies to those with law enforcement responsibilities. Among rangerly types, they call me an "interpreter" - I present the walks and talks, answer the telephones, and help visitors arrange their ideal experiences at the visitor centers. Other rangerly types perform research, manage natural resources, maintain roads, trails and buildings, or perform administrative and technical stuff.

I started as an Interpretive Student Aide at Crab Cove in the East Bay Regional Park District, and when I moved to Arcata to finish my degree, I started volunteering at Redwood National Park right away. They hired me through a student position the next spring, and I worked in that capacity until I graduated, at which point I worked a seasonal position available to graduates. I then had to find something else to do, worked essentially two semesters at Save the Bay, and then returned to the National Park Service at Point Reyes.

Generally speaking, park careers require a remotely relevant college degree and an obscene amount of "dues-paying" through years of seasonal work. You could still consider me in that category, but I happen to have worked it into a situation that provides me year-round employment without having to relocate from job to job. It helps to get a foot in the door and make good impressions on those who can work within the system to help a brother out, or sister in, or whatever.

Around San José, Josh would have to look into United States Fish and Wildlife Service, California State Parks or Department of Fish and Game, local agencies or local NGOs; any National Park Service job would require a wicked commute. If you can describe more specifically what he'd like to do, I could possibly point him in the right direction, but I don't know as much about that area or those employers as I do about points north within the NPS or EBRPD. Good luck if you give it a shot, and let me know if I can try to help.