National Park Service Employees

Aspiring National Park Service (NPS) workers should try to gain experience as interns, seasonal employees, or volunteers with the NPS or state conservation agencies. This experience will provide them with an advantage when it comes to landing a job.

National Park Service employees need to successfully combine two very different characteristics. They must have a keen appreciation for nature and also enjoy working with the public. National park employees both preserve park resources and provide for visitor use. It can be difficult to discern what level of visitor use can be accommodated without irreparably harming the environment. Decisions regarding this have to be made by NPS management, then carried out by all employees.

Because most national park employees deal extensively with the public, they need to be friendly, confident, and able to communicate clearly. Since they usually are responsible for a wide variety of tasks, they also must be exceptionally versatile. The fact that they work closely with nature, which can be unpredictable, means that these people must be creative problem solvers.

In addition to these general requirements, each of the positions within the National Park Service also involves a set of characteristics and abilities unique to that position. Superintendents, for instance, must be good administrators and have the vision to make long-term plans for a park. Rangers must be able to react quickly and effectively in crisis situations and convey authority to individuals who are violating park rules. Interpreters must have extensive knowledge about the resources in their parks and should be effective educators.