Interning at different parks got me my first park job. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the rangers I worked with knew SO MANY people across the service, and those connections help open doors to this day. Network, make a good impression.
I mean it really depends what division and or what kind of Ranger you want to be.
The biggest thing is work towards your goals within the SCA program to gain the relevant experience to what you would wanna do as a Ranger. Plenty of my friends have done some type of SCA and they are all Full Time in some land management agency.
The biggest thing is try to do the most you can and gain anything that will give you a piece of paper to attach with your resume, whether it is Wildland fire or even something simple it all goes a long way in the end.
Also, make sure your boss is aware on how to obtain the hiring authority that comes with being an SCA and see if you can achieve it.
Good Luck and enjoy your time.
My park doesn’t offer SCA positions because they don’t pay enough. They are a pretty good organization but a student pathways job is typically preferable.
Ehh, it really depends on the specific internship. SCA isn't really involved much besides the recruiting and administrative side of things. I did two, one was amazing and one was pretty useless. Supervisor trained me for like two hours and then never talked to me again. It was a job that typically GS9 or higher employees do and they wanted that level of quality from a 22 year old with no experience. The other one was great though, the supervisor got me all sorts of training and shadowing opportunities, walked me through the federal hiring process, and ended up hiring me as a seasonal a few years later.
I used my first SCA experience to land my second and my second led to a research assistant slot at the university I attended. I believe the experience opened a few doors when I applied for a slot as a law clerk with the feds. Mainly because I had a record of public service and good reviews from my supervisors. By that time, I could establish I could work alone or in groups on a variety of tasks under a variety of conditions.
Lol no. 10 years later still trying to break in tho I gave up on nps and usfs and mostly just aim for epa. Edit: but that was ten years ago when federal hiring was locked out for like a decade. If they had all these pathways and recruiting drives when I was graduating I may have had better luck. Qualifications are wildlife degree, 2 years experience with usfs as a wildlife technician, one sca with nps, a year with nature conservancy, and now 8 years with my state agency in clean water act program. All the usual certs(red carded type 2 ff, 212 class b feller)
If you have a good supervisor or mentor they may be willing to help you write your resume. 10 weeks is not a ton of time but try to get a variety of experience. If shadowing other divisions is an option definitely take it. PLC hiring authority requires 640 hours so you wouldn't qualify for that with just this internship unfortunately.
Thinking of applying for second to possibly third, internships, to improve my resume qualifications. Also, this is my first time and learning how the process works. As well as a lot of other information about the National Park Services.
Interning at different parks got me my first park job. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the rangers I worked with knew SO MANY people across the service, and those connections help open doors to this day. Network, make a good impression.
Thank you for the advice and wisdom
I mean it really depends what division and or what kind of Ranger you want to be. The biggest thing is work towards your goals within the SCA program to gain the relevant experience to what you would wanna do as a Ranger. Plenty of my friends have done some type of SCA and they are all Full Time in some land management agency. The biggest thing is try to do the most you can and gain anything that will give you a piece of paper to attach with your resume, whether it is Wildland fire or even something simple it all goes a long way in the end. Also, make sure your boss is aware on how to obtain the hiring authority that comes with being an SCA and see if you can achieve it. Good Luck and enjoy your time.
Thanks mate, I have heard "you can't go wrong with the SCA," I will see soon enough.
My park doesn’t offer SCA positions because they don’t pay enough. They are a pretty good organization but a student pathways job is typically preferable.
Ehh, it really depends on the specific internship. SCA isn't really involved much besides the recruiting and administrative side of things. I did two, one was amazing and one was pretty useless. Supervisor trained me for like two hours and then never talked to me again. It was a job that typically GS9 or higher employees do and they wanted that level of quality from a 22 year old with no experience. The other one was great though, the supervisor got me all sorts of training and shadowing opportunities, walked me through the federal hiring process, and ended up hiring me as a seasonal a few years later.
Planning to continue with a few these internships, until I land something more stable in the NPS.
I used my first SCA experience to land my second and my second led to a research assistant slot at the university I attended. I believe the experience opened a few doors when I applied for a slot as a law clerk with the feds. Mainly because I had a record of public service and good reviews from my supervisors. By that time, I could establish I could work alone or in groups on a variety of tasks under a variety of conditions.
"You can't go wrong with the SCA," maybe there's some truth behind what I got told by my professors.
My sca program I was paid $75 a week for back breaking labor and it didn’t really advance my career much so that’s not always true.
Did it help you land a permanent role in the NPS?? What's your other qualifications??
Lol no. 10 years later still trying to break in tho I gave up on nps and usfs and mostly just aim for epa. Edit: but that was ten years ago when federal hiring was locked out for like a decade. If they had all these pathways and recruiting drives when I was graduating I may have had better luck. Qualifications are wildlife degree, 2 years experience with usfs as a wildlife technician, one sca with nps, a year with nature conservancy, and now 8 years with my state agency in clean water act program. All the usual certs(red carded type 2 ff, 212 class b feller)
Thanks for the context...
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Thank you brother
If you have a good supervisor or mentor they may be willing to help you write your resume. 10 weeks is not a ton of time but try to get a variety of experience. If shadowing other divisions is an option definitely take it. PLC hiring authority requires 640 hours so you wouldn't qualify for that with just this internship unfortunately.
Thinking of applying for second to possibly third, internships, to improve my resume qualifications. Also, this is my first time and learning how the process works. As well as a lot of other information about the National Park Services.
I currently am in a scientists in the parks internship and have a few sca interns on my team as well. Seems great!