Environmental Conservation Jobs in the Federal Government (DOI, USDA) / Bachelor’s degrees
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ก.ค. 2024
- The best environmental conservation jobs for environmental science bachelors degrees in the federal service.
If you are in college or recently graduated you'll be looking for work in environmental science, ecology, and conservation as finding something to make a difference. Well these jobs have it all!
There are many pathways through all sectors and even more in the feds than this but these are 3 jobs that I believe cover a wide range of my and other peoples professional interests. These are jobs that are fulfilling to people and if you learn how to find the right ones it'll make the whole experience of getting an environmental conservation job that much easier!
These jobs will be with the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife, NRCS, and many other smaller falderal conservation agencies. We're going into pay, job requirements are just a bachelors degree, and the benefits of finding these specific types of jobs!
Bureau of Labor Statistics outlook on salary and growth in the field: www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical...
Timeline:
0:00 Intro
0:30 General Tips
2:10 Natural Resource Specialist
3:11 Soil Conservationist
4:09 Rangeland Management
5:10 Outro
I hope this helped and was enjoyable, I'm excited for any feedback!!!!
Links to references always in the description below!!!!
- Natural Resources Specialist:
www.doi.gov/careers/occupatio...
- Soil Conservationist
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/...
- Range Management/ Conservationist
www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_...
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/...
Pay scale by county/ state
www.federalpay.org/gs/2021
Man I loved this video! I'm graduating with a Bachelor's in Natural Resource Tourism in 3 months and have no clue what to do! Gave me some great insight!
I appreciate everybody checking out the video, let me know where you're at in your job search!
Thank you for sharing. Loved the added humor.
Thank you for explaining these different careers
What an awesome channel!! This would have been EXTREMELY helpful to me a year ago, but I still find it very informative. 👍🏼
I really appreciate it, this channel is honestly just things I wish I knew and didn’t have to learn the hard way. Hope it helps somebody out finding options and starting a career they can love without years of ignorance and mess ups like me haha.
I know this is an old video, but thank you so much. Short, to the point, and your energy is actually enjoyable! The cowboy part was sweet 😭 I am a senior in HS and it is suddenly like I'm Regina George and college preparation was the bus. I have a short attention span with people getting to the point which is AWFUL looking into things!! I would love to do something connected to nature, more hands-on but not hardcore camping... I also can't do math to save my life or hardcore data. It seems like everything that makes decent money is so serious and boring. I want to do fashion design but wanna be independent and could run my own business while doing botany mayhaps... I just wanna live in a cottage with a garden with my cat and plants. WHY must everything be so difficult !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Graduating with my masters soon. Thank you so much for the info, it’s very motivating! Job searching is daunting but I don’t want to give up on my dream of doing impactful work for the environment.
Thank you for the wonderful video.
I just subscribed 🎉🎉🎉❤
Superb information, thanks!
Omg thank you for the insight of what it is like to be in NRM!
Thanks!!
Hi everyone... This is it , channel That I need..
I hope, i can learn more from you guys..
I really excited with forest ..
I hope I can makig friends from everyone (the foresters) around the world.. greetings from Indonesia guys...
Thanks for making this video, I’m in college still but this helped
I appreciate it! I’m 100% making this video for people that are in college to hopefully have a better time getting into the workforce than me!
This is a great video, thank you!
I appreciate the support and hope it helps get just some info out there.
Doesn't have to be for federal gov jobs , but would be super helpful to see a video on jobs can land with an environmental science Associates degree . While continuing education toward bachelors.
Cheers!
This video helped me out
Really looking into goin back to school for Range Management. Lots of jobs in my region for that. Still gonna try to apply since I do have some experience working with livestock and one of my hobbies is literally just going out and identifying plants on the shrub-steppe habitat. Either way this seems like my dream job.
Hello! This video was really helpful as I’ve been trying to dig up some information on what kind of conservation jobs are out there. I’m transferring to a 4 year from community college and am super torn between going to Berkeley for a degree in conservation and resource studies BS or going to UC Davis for environmental horticulture and urban forestry (though once I get to Davis I would have the opportunity to bounce around majors quite a bit like plant science or fish/wildlife conservation etc). I’m really unsure of my career path but am honestly just interested in working hands on and enacting some change and restoring/conserving land/animal populations/ water/soil etc. I was wondering what degree/school you think would be more useful in the long run since Berkeley is a big name but Davis primary focus is agriculture and conservation type learning. Sorry thing is a mouthful anything helps, thanks!
Hey, do you know if legal immigrants can work for the federal government as well? I am from Germany and live in the US with a green card, I am thinking about switching fields and would like to work for the federal government as well. But I don’t know if I need to be a citizen for that. It will take about 5-10 years until I become a US citizen and also don’t want to give up my German citizenship and try for the dual citizenship . Thank you!
I’m considering going back to school for my Bachelors in Conservation and Wildlife Management. And knowledge about this degree and if it’s a good option?
I so wish to get a job as a Botanist, I’m very interested in plants
I just found your channel and your videos are very encouraging!
I'm a recent bio science grad from Nebraska and I'm looking for an ecology job. My partner has a job here, but there don't seem to be as many opportunities in ecology around here. I'm looking for seasonal work that I can do until we're in a position to move in a few years. Are there many opportunities over the winter? What would be good skills to try to obtain with seasonal stuff before I start looking for a full time position somewhere?
So if location is important and you’re looking for stuff what I’ve done in the past(not having any idea what’s around you or what you’re hoping for specifically) is just open up the search for terms into all categories. There’s probably lab jobs at schools that are more relevant, recreations works, fuels work, and honestly depending on where in the state your at field offices for state and fed agencies and they’re probably the first ones to contact unless you’re in an area with consulting work available. All field work for early career jobs can kinda transfer over to other things in jobs I’m at but I’m not sure if that’s very helpful for you. Best of luck!
@@ecologystorymode Thanks! I completely forgot that we have some fed field offices! I've seen environmental consulting work but I haven't really been considered because of my lack of CADD and GIS skills. I got 1 interview in that area and they spent most of the time talking about me having no experience with those. We don't have a lot in ecological consulting specifically as far as I can see. Do you think it's worth trying to teach myself GIS?
I'm willing to go anywhere in the continental US for seasonal/temp work. I know I've mostly missed summer field season though.
U forgotten to mention all the red government tape that comes with the higher responsibilities! Overall good benefits n time off!
love this video! i’m currently pursuing a geoscience degree but have been on the fence about whether or not i want to switch it to something like wildlife bio or forestry. do you have any advice about preferred degrees? would a geoscience degree help me get my foot in the door for a job like this?
Can I texts you in Emil or feacbook
Can you do one for people who want to be conservation biologist and want to work with animals specifically wild animals
I'm looking to go back to school to finish my bachelors in the near future. I've been working seasonal jobs for the past 1 1/2 years, part of that as an interpretive guide in Montana. I'd really love to spend my future in ecological restoration (specifically reforestation) and potentially as an interpretive ranger. My question for you is, what degree is best suited for that line of work?
Hey, that’s awesome that you’ve already got some real experience out there before deciding to get back at the degree(I’m jealous I just trudged through an unrelated field for work in college)! So I’m not sure if you have good contacts with the people you worked with in Montana that do the kind of work you might be imagining but my seasonal and americorps work supervisors really gave me a lot of good information (a lot has evolved into things I talk about here) to get my path a bit straighter than when I exited college. As for the best degree it really depends on where you want to take it. If you want to start out on a career forester track with a bachelors than honestly I’ve seen people with anything from forestry, to ecology, to more recently just plain biology degrees working in NYC for industry haha. With the bachelors degree it really is more general and about making your resume and your references and your experience all add up and state/feds/ NGO has career tracks(some foresters I know now did some time with consulting for a bit then hopped to fed visa versa). If you want to open the scope a bit a masters that’s more directed is a good idea. A lot of NGO conservancy type agencies and industry postings that work on this type of work I’ve generally seen (I really wanted to work for ducks unlimited TNC or something for a while) that as a requirement and it’ll make the amount of govy postings that are open to you a lot more broad and skip potentially falling into seasonal limbo again. A way that I think of doing restoration work though(which honestly might be my biggest passion, you can have a project and put your stamp on it, then look at it after and hopefully care for it) is that pretty much any land management kind of job inherently has it built into the work weather it’s for wilderness and preservation or resources and conservation. If you are a riparian person or a forester or a wildlife person for an agency and there’s a reforestation project you’ll have your hands in it because for most jobs reforestation, stream restoration, fighting forest encroachment are all jobs that everyone is part of and just a project on the land your in. And it really all boils down to location, specific agencies, and as intimidating as it seems it’s really pretty easy not to miss when you know where you want to work(roughly haha) and what job you want there (roughly again haha). I know I went legitimately all over the place here but I hope there’s something functional for your question. Generally a forestry degree or something close to there haha. Look at a USA jobs posting for what you want and base things off that for how liberal you can get with it, even if you don’t want a fedy job it’ll generally be a useful guide if your college doesn’t have many advisors that have non academic EXP.
@@ecologystorymode This was incredibly helpful and detailed. Thank you so much for this information!
Working on my Agriculture degree right now while I’m in the navy. Hoping to become a range technician when I separate and finish up my degree.
Hey, that's awesome. If range is the way you want to go, doing a tech is an awesome place to be, usually a lot of fire, wildlife, and lots of time outdoors. But just as a heads up Range Conservationist or Manager (just depending on the agency for the name) is a position that has a lot of GS5 positions that promote up the ladder in it, so definitely keep an eye open for that if you're interested. Good luck with everything man!
Is 34 to old to get into soil conservation?
I'm in college for biology right now. I have a dilemma: I can not decide between a B.A. or B.S.
I can not decide because I am using the GI bill and I think it will "run out" before I am able to complete a B.S--and I've heard a B.A will suffice. I plan to go for my Masters, if that helps.
Thank You
So the most important thing from what I’ve seen is just meeting the requirements on the USAjobs posting above even the degree you’re getting is the courses you take to get it generally. Different ones are phrased differently but it’ll give you the right idea. I got lucky and a professor told me to base my courses on the usajobs posting of my dream even if I don’t go fed. Veterans preference is a huge advantage though. www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/603299400 my experience(though every application can be different) had me interviewing for forestry jobs and Fire jobs when I was really hungry for work with just an ecology degree. Bachelors are really generic generally and can get you into a lot of things which these jobs don’t require a masters(some can). Just some things I’ve seen and hopefully something in there gives you a starting place.
Are these jobs for foreigners??
Hi, I’m not sure if you’ll see this but I want to work as a wild-land firefighter or a Forest ranger (still deciding) I seen somewhere u can do both eat the same time ??? Not sure but I’m in high school about to graduate and I was wondering what major to take for these type of jobs and get my bachelors. If you could help me out I would appreciate it!!
Hey, it’s awesome that you’re looking into this even before heading out of high school. So the first thing I would say is somebody that works as a ranger can absolutely go out on wildfires and depending on your position even get some unique roles on the fire ground like a Resource Advisor for especially recreational resources. Depending on your role even if fires not involved usually it’s called going out on details and you can work in Maine and get deployed out to Southern California depending on what the needs are and what you’re willing to do. Now probably the biggest part about this is going to be narrowing down what kind of “ranger” you want to be. If you want to work fed or state. If you want to build stuff outside or teach people about the outdoors and many more options. Back in the day ranger was synonymous with law enforcement, but there was a ton of jobs that agencies had problems advertising and slapped the title on, so nowadays a ranger can work in an office or information station, be law enforcement, be front country or back country maintenance, and honestly many many more things. I’ve made some videos at least starting to break down the title(just generally know you’ll be more of somehow involved in recreation probably). As for the degree, due to how diverse the postings are you can honestly leave high school and find postings to apply to pretty much with minimal work experience, maybe not get a uniformed position but get something going. With degrees though find the state or fed agency you want to look at. Anything from educational, to environmental, to natural resources, to heck education can help you out if you work in a historical park or do interpretation. The bigger thing though is look at some postings you could see yourself doing. Look at the degree requirements and see if the agency has summer jobs, part time jobs during school, or some sort of pathway programs that make it easy to get a job right after college. Sorry if this is a lot, I’m going to make a “how to be a ranger video” coming up here but a lot of the terms I threw out are hopefully helpful. Feel free to ask a follow up, depending on what you want from working and life there’s honestly so many ways to do exciting things and work in Rec and Fire.
@@ecologystorymode thank you so much for replying I appreciate this allot sense I have a lot of trouble with this, I don’t understand many things but I’m trying my best because this is important to me and the fact that u responded right away make me happy and I truly appreciate it, thank u!!
What do you think about applying to direct hire authority jobs and/or open continuous announcements on USAJOBS?
I actually got my first hire through a continuous opening. It’s usually better to be open to where you land with those because it’s more a list of a common positions that aren’t necessarily open at a given office but I think it’s worth putting in. Direct hire I’m only really familiar with the BLM dha program but my current job direct hired without the status even posted in the title and made the whole process very non stressful, no OPM to deal with.
@@ecologystorymode thanks for the reply!
So I'm going back to school for an Environmental Science/Environmental Management undergrad/masters program. I really want to work in the upper midwest, ideally oriented on forestry. What sorts of jobs would you reccomened? I'm just getting started.
If you’re looking in that area there are forester spots pretty regularly opening up with the forest service (this was on one of my saved searches on usajobs) if you’re looking federal. Also fire and fuels jobs I’ve seen if thats something you’re interested in. If you keep tabs on this page: www.fs.usda.gov/working-with-us/jobs/events they have hiring events around winter for summer jobs you can do while in college. If you’re at a land trust college look into the feds at school and you can either get a student position or maybe funding to be an adjunct.
@@ecologystorymode What kind of jobs should I look at, though? I'm doing a whole life change thing, going back to college (start in September). I'm not really sure what kinds of jobs those programs will prepare me for, or what I should try and focus on at school.
I’m not sure if you’re just looking for federal work, if you are you can look at the description for jobs on USAJOBS or through an agency website and they’ll tell you specifically what requirements are needed for jobs. Sometimes postings will do it on the type of major but usually they’ll tell you specifically what amount of what credits they want and you can structure your program off of the requirements which is what I got told to do in my undergrad. www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0400/forestry-series-0460/ is the actual requirements for a forester but there are a ton of land management jobs that involve working with forests. A good rule of thumb is if there’s water where you work you’ll work on restoration, if there’s fire you’ll do fire ecology, if there’s forest you’ll be involved in management on some aspect of the resource as part of an interdisciplinary team. Those requirements can also help you set up for a private or state job generally which will allow you more options if you have a specific city you want to work near. If forestry is your passion most states have a specific department of forestry as well as there are usually commercial or private jobs. Hope this helps!
@@ecologystorymode It does, thank you!
I’m so torn with what degree to pick. I want to be able to do these jobs, work as a forester, and work as a wildlife biologist 🙈 any suggestions on what degree to choose?
Soo, there’s a ton of different ways to approach this. Maybe instead of focusing on a degree to get maybe just focus on what sector and what area you might want to live. If you are working for a land management agency, honestly, you’ll get to do a lot of work with everybody in the office, so if you do forest, you also do wildlife, everyone works on the same assessments and plans together in their own specialty so just finding one to really does the trick (and honestly general degrees can get you in the door on a lot of postings). Other than that I’d think that maybe if you really don’t know which way to go maybe try doing a summer job or some internship to get a feel for the type of office you want to work in(feds, state, private). Something that is a real sleeper tool also is call and ask if you can just check out an office on a day you have free time, most government places in these jobs can’t really do ride alongside but you can definitely meet people out in the field a lot of the time the company is welcome (especially if you’re like me and terrified of cougars haha). But yeah, I hope some of this helps, and people (especially if they start off doing seasonal work) bounce around all the jobs a lot when you first get it started. If you want help with specific non job board links LMK, it’s one of the videos I’m currently putting together but I can help whenever! The fact that you’re curious before you get a degree can go a long way!
@@ecologystorymode thanks so much for the speedy reply! I appreciate it. I will try to get some calls/visits in before school starts
@@shannagarroutte7829 Of course, feel free to comment again whenever in the future and I'll do the best I can to help out. Good luck!
Do you meet a lot of veterans in federal environmental science jobs? I'm currently active duty and pursuing my bachelor's in Environmental Science.
Yeah, definitely, one of my last seasonal gigs one of the field managers was a vet as well as I’ve seen a lot of vets as range cons(working out west) but for sure the status helps. I’m not myself but everyone I’ve talked to said it made the process much easier. Good luck with your search.
@@ecologystorymode oh my goodness, thank you. I'm really hoping to score a job regarding compliance but I have no idea where to start. Thanks so much and you got yourself a new subscriber!
Hey, I'm a Navy vet going for a biology degree right now. I think they have a veteran preference in federal jobs, but I could be wrong.
@@joshuasatto4238 There 100% is. I don't fully understand it (Not a vet) but one the self assessment pages of applications you'll fill in that you're a veteran and I BELIEVE that it works on a points added system to however you self assess(people generally are gracious to themselves and give themselves a lot of points and your veteran status will add to your total even more.) I'd double check though, if you haven't applied to feds yet I would HIGHLY recommend reaching out to any USDA or DOI field office near you (usually a google maps search is a lot of help) and somebody in the office can sit you down during their work day, talk through applying, look at the resume(very different) and help you optimize the parts of your experience on the resume that work with the job. My experience is that people are really open to it if you just reach out but every office can be different. NRCS offices are plentiful, small, and might be the easiest search.
Hello
Still a student studying environmental biology
How can I get knowledge about this course… running it presently in HND level
Hello
Dr Ahmed Adam Ali Agronomist Burao SomaliLand plant pathology
Can a veterinary degree apply to getting a job in the forest service?
hmmm, I’m not sure exactly about spots that would meet this criteria. My understanding on VetMed though is if you live around with and want to work with wild critters, there’s absolutely opportunities. Just my opinion, but if you’re a vet, the forest services mission is just different than what your work is. More relevant though, why would you want to be the FS as a vet? haha. There’s so much good that you can offer either people who lease and have ag going on or something like a sanctuary. I think most people who go to the heights of wildlife in FS who want to actually interact with critters would be very jealous of a Vets work. That being said, there’s spots related to bears and small critter disease and all sorts of things, this is unfortunately just out of my wheelhouse. Hope this helps!
I have a vet degree from europe that doesnt work in the US but have been working in Eu as a vet. Problem is unless I take some tests that are very expensive and time consuming that's why I was thinking biology on some level because vets core study is biology and science first. Plus I the vet degree is a masters so I was hoping that would be something as well. @@ecologystorymode
Any opportunities for someone pursuing a degree in History Education with a minor in Geography Education?
So, I'm personally not the best person to give an in depth answer for this one but I'd say that depending on where you want to live there's a few opportunities I'm aware of as well as some ideas that might be helpful for getting a job. For living in a city there are museums funded by the feds/state/or sometimes private that are a mixture of front facing museum work and doing actual research related to the museum that you're working at anywhere from a tech to a researcher level. If you're on a campus that has something like this(a science/ natural history type museum), it might help to reach out and see about working there. Also, a really entry level position that college students hold is being a guide, which is like the tech level of interpretive jobs. If you want to live in a more rural setting or work for a state/federal park I would say really look into interpretive ranger job postings. This can also be done at historical sites and not include doing park work necessarily so it's common in a lot of places. If you want to get a leg up with experience and job hunting and are in or recently out of school and struggling I'd say pick up some tech level work. That can be anywhere from doing conservation corps work (I did a corps and did preservation work and cultural surveys) or going the guide path, before you have a degree there's some goldilocks jobs in school maybe, but don't be to anxious. Showing that you can get your hands dirty working on historical/cultural pieces or handling being front facing and creating/ implementing interp plans will go a long way in making you confident and qualified when it comes to applications for career gigs. I'm basing this on your major/minor and hope the answer feels relevant haha.
@@ecologystorymode This actually helped me out a lot! Thank you! 🙌
Does it matter what type of bachelors degree I get? Im getting a degree in criminal justice but I think I want a federal job related to conservation of nature resources or something related. What path do you think is best for my degree?
Do you have somewhere where I can pm you?
I have an email link associated with my profile. I’m not able to share links in comments I’m pretty sure but it’s in my information.
Can an applicant just bring in their chainsaw instead of a resume? It demonstrates the applicant's work experience and how well they maintain a chainsaw. The core of the forestry service is using chainsaws.