Let’s be honest, even after all of your hard work getting solid grades, joining and leading student organizations, and compiling a job or internship hunt strategy – the fact remains that you are facing a tough market. While that is not to discourage you, it is important to remain realistic in your expectations. And to always continue building your resume – even as you seek a job. This can come in all kinds of forms – whether it is continued focused education courses, a consistent volunteer effort, or something as seemingly-unrelated as training for and running a marathon. This will help you balance your job or internship search, with the rest of life (there is more to it than just scouring the internet for positions!) while demonstrating to employers that you are active in finding ways to advance your knowledge and expertise – a quality all employers want! Gusties are an go-getting, high achieving group and this effort will likely come naturally for you 🙂
You also might consider delaying your job search and adding another line to your resume after graduation with the Student Conservation Association. If you’re 18 and over (and you are) they offer 3-12 month expense-paid opportunities in dozens of disciplines. This is an infinitely cool organization, I don’t know where to start in describing all the opportunities they offer (including SUMMER INTERNSHIPS for students of all ages!).
SCA came to fruition from a 1950’s Vassar student thesis advocating the need for an organization to help sustain America’s natural and cultural treasures. The student got an A and encourgement to make her vision a reality – SCA was born and over 50,000 students have served in nearly 500 national parks, forests and other public lands across the U.S.
- Free travel to and from your site (Alaska, Hawaii, California, Colorado, etc – sweet huh?)
- Weekly living allowance
- Free housing
- Free or low-cost health insurance and accident insurance
- AmeriCorps Education Award opportunity (This is major! Anywhere from $1000 to almost $5000 towards your student loans or future grad school financing!!)
- Academic credit if needed
- Valuable trainings and certifications
Talk about perks! If you think this sounds awesome, but a little too “crunchy” for you – think again. While there are tons of hands-on wilderness experiences available for those who like roughing it, there are an equal amount of positions working indoors in a visitor center. And plenty of positions in between.
Head to thesca.org to find positions and learn how to apply. Keep checking back because opportunities change and are updated weekly. For more direct information call up the Great Lakes SCA rep, Beth McCarthy. Beth was in the Career Center yesterday and she is super fun, easy to talk to, and has a wealth of knowledge! She would love to hear from you – send her an email at oncampus@thesca.org or ring her up at 603.543.1700.