When I worked in US national parks, one of the most common questions visitors asked was how to become a national park ranger. People interrogated me about my background, education, childhood–all the things that they believed may have led me to being a national park ranger.
They wanted my job, or they knew someone who might, or they were simply curious, and they asked for advice. So here are the best answers I came up with–my tips for prospective park rangers.
Note: I worked in US national parks as a seasonal ranger, so these recommendations are specific to that job. For state, local, or other kinds of parks or for forests or public lands, contact them to see what they recommend.
1. Go to college
Most kinds of US national park rangers–from law enforcement to scientists to educators like me–have college degrees. Law enforcement rangers need additional training at special ranger academies on top of a four-year degree. For wildlife biologists, botanists, archaeologists, and a whole host of other sciency park professions, a university education is a must. And then there are folks like myself, the interpreters and educators, the ones who give the patio talks and stand behind the front desk telling you where to find the restroom. We all went to college, too.
There are careers at a national parks that don’t require a college degree. I’ve worked alongside maintenance workers or fee collectors or volunteer campground hosts who never saw the inside of a college classroom. These folks are just as dedicated, integral, and often as knowledgeable as any ranger with a college degree. Still, if you want to join the ranger ranks, have the title park ranger, and wear the gilded badge, most likely you will need to graduate from a four-year university.
2. Study helpful things
People often ask me if I attended some type of ranger school or earned a ranger degree. The answer is no. When I first became a park ranger, I had a degree in English literature and another in the French language. At my first national park, my supervisor told me that when hiring it didn’t matter to him what degree someone had; it only mattered that they did in fact have a degree.
This advice applies to some ranger positions, but having a specific degree or specialization can certainly help you get your foot in the door. My French language degree aided me (more about that later) in getting my first ranger job. And if you want to be a park scientist then you will obviously need to study science. If you want to become a park law enforcement ranger it doesn’t hurt to study criminal justice or natural resource management or other park-related things.
Essentially, you should focus on the field you want to work in in school, even if what you want to do may change after you graduate. If you want to be a park historian, by all means study history. After graduation, you may discover that the mountains are calling you, and attend a law enforcement academy so that you can land that dream job as a backcountry ranger. Your history degree will still help you as you apply to parks, many of which house historical sites or are even dedicated solely to the protection of historical narratives and artifacts. Unexpected combinations of specializations can be an asset, not a detriment, to your career.
You never know what direction a park career will take you. Follow your passion when choosing a course of study, and don’t be afraid to diversify.
3. Learn a second language
OK, I know I just said to follow your passions to become a park ranger, and you should. However, even if learning Spanish is not a particular passion of yours, do it.
My first national park was in Alaska and–as do many Alaskan parks–required most of its interpretive rangers to be proficient in a second language. This is how my French degree helped me sneak into the park ranger profession without a degree in science or history.
When a park puts out a call for bilingual rangers, the list of applicants is dramatically shorter than for other job listings. Competition is stiff for park jobs; you want to be on that shorter list. I earned my first two park jobs this way, by getting on a list of French speakers.
Alaskan parks are not the only ones that often require or prefer proficiency in a language other than English in job postings. Many Hawaiian parks favor applicants who can speak the Hawaiian language, and there are other parks with similar specific language needs. More and more national parks across the nation are eager to hire Spanish speakers, because their parks attract Spanish speaking visitors and/or because they oversee sites that pertain to Hispanic culture and history.
Learning a second language will help your park service career; it may even help you score a job someday, as it did for me. Even if you eventually choose a career path other than rangering, speaking a second language looks good on any resume.
(I’m assuming since you are reading this that you speak and read English, but if you already speak another language that might be desirable within national parks, like Spanish, then you’re ahead of many other park ranger applicants.)
4. Volunteer at a national park
Interning or volunteering at a national park is the most effective way to get a park job. If you are still in school or just graduating, there are internship programs that will install you into a national park for a summer or year, where you can try out the ranger life and see if it works for you. There are also volunteer programs for folks of any age or background.
Volunteer experience in parks signals to prospective employers that you are familiar with the park service and can be successful in its ranks. I have known plenty of park rangers who transitioned from intern to park ranger when they graduated college, snatched up by supervisors who wanted an employee they had already trained and knew could do the work.
Having volunteer or internship experience in any environmental field can be helpful. I spent a year with Americorps working as an environmental educator after college, and that experience combined with my French language skills is what got me that first park job. Americorps or Peace Corps programs look great on a national park resume. So does military service, which is also a popular way to get your foot in the park ranger door.
Still, my first recommendation would be to get yourself into an actual national park as a volunteer or intern. Make connections, build relationships, whether for references or to get a job at that particular park.
There are other benefits to trying out a job and its culture before you devote your life to pursuing it. Perhaps after playing at being a ranger for a summer you will discover that it is not in fact the best job for you. Or maybe you will find that a different career option you hadn’t even known about calls to you–you might discover that there are park conservationists who preserve historic or even ancient artifacts (how cool is that?), and a whole new and exciting field opens up for you. Or perhaps you will discover that being a park ranger is everything you dreamed it would be and more, and you devote yourself with renewed vigor and new knowledge to your chosen career path.
Whatever your method or reasons for volunteering or interning first at a national park, do it. You will meet like-minded people; you will have amazing experiences. And even if life swings you in a totally different direction and you never fully realize your park ranger dreams, you will still have had your time in a national park to look back on.
5. Be adventurous and persistent
I probably applied to about 60 national park jobs before I heard from that first one in Alaska. And I don’t just mean that I filled out 60 applications before I got hired; I mean I applied to that many parks before I even got a response.
Applying to national parks as a seasonal ranger is not for the easily discouraged. The hiring system has changed some since I first applied, but it is still exhausting.
In order to get a park job early in your career, you have to apply everywhere. And I mean everywhere. I had never heard of Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park or Skagway, Alaska when I sent in my application to work there. I had never heard of most of the parks I applied to back then. I wanted to be a national park ranger, and so I applied to every job I could find. I kept applying, even when family and friends doubted me, even when I began to doubt myself.
I had just given up on applying and closed my laptop when I got that first call from an unknown number on my phone, a ranger at a park far away wanting to know if I was still interested in a job. I said yes when he offered me the position, that absolutely I could be in Alaska in a month. I packed up my apartment in Knoxville, TN and drove for nine days to start a new job that would change my life.
To get a job as a national park ranger, you will most likely have to take what is offered. Perhaps you were fortunate enough to snag a job from that internship you did, but more than likely you will need to apply to every park you can and take any job offered, at least in the beginning. You will need to be willing to travel, to try new things, to move at a moment’s notice. When that call finally comes, you will need to be ready to leap into the unknown.