Mary Jeanne Vincent, Career Talk: Job opportunities in the national parks

Last week I traveled to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons. It was my first visit, and boy was I wowed by the scenery. I was also impressed with the extraordinary customer service we received from every member of the park service and park concessionaire’s staff. It was obvious that a great deal of time and effort went into the selection and training of personnel.

Clearly the human resources team took their jobs seriously. They screened for attitude and suitability and then armed employees with the tools and information necessary to do an exceptional job. From registration staff to room cleaners and wait staff to tour leaders every person was friendly, knowledgeable and helpful.

One of the things that surprised me the most were the number of people who chose to work at Yellowstone after they retired from other careers. Each had a story about their experiences visiting Yellowstone as children and in adulthood and how that compelled them to return to work there during retirement. We met a former school principal who retired 18 years ago and soon after went to work as a park ranger.  At 76, he is still enthusiastically sharing his knowledge and love for Yellowstone and its history.

The next day when we assembled for our all-day park tour, we met our sight-seeing leader Cindy, formerly the global head of human resources for a major pharmaceutical company. Upon retirement, she and her husband sold their home and began volunteering at national parks around the country. Discovering how much they loved being part of the U.S. park system, they both went to work as tours guides for Xanterra Travel, the United States Parks Service’s largest concessions management company.  She and her husband have worked in other national parks including California’s Redwood National Park.

I shouldn’t have been surprised to discover that our next tour was led by another recent retiree who was happily embracing his second career. In his previous profession he was an award-winning photographer for a national newspaper. Now he is imparting his love of Yellowstone Park and the great outdoors with visitors from around the world. While we took in the scenery, he generously shared tips on how to get the most from our iPhone cameras. I was curious about the training employees received and learned that he arrived in the park in mid-April for two weeks of driver’s training since tour guides have to drive a variety of vehicles. That was followed by another two weeks of education on the history of the park and its unusual flora and fauna.

However, you don’t need to retire to work in the National Parks. Xanterra Travel, the Park Service’s concessioner offers culinary, hospitality, and reservation sales internship programs for teens and young adults as well as many seasonal jobs. To explore positions with Xanterra visit https://www.xanterrajobs.com/main/xanterra/home.

The U.S. Parks Service offers a variety of career opportunities for park rangers, public affairs specialists, archeological technicians, data analysts, educators, engineers, museum curators, and more. To learn more about these opportunities and visit USAJOBS.gov, search “National Park Service” for a list of open positions. If you love people and the great outdoors working in Yellowstone or any of the other 62 national parks might be just the career for you.

Mary Jeanne Vincent, career expert and strategist, has a coaching practice in Monterey. She may be reached at (831) 657-9151, mjv@careercoachmjv.com, or www.careercoachmonterey.com