National Parks Service

Moving from Chicago to the Everglades during a pandemic, this is my personal journey of starting to work with the National Park Service.

Back in August, a friend of mine shared a job posting to me with the National Park Service (NPS). She knew I was interested in exploring working in NPS or other areas of heritage preservation and that this might be a good fit. And I jumped at the opportunity, but to be honest, having just graduated from my program I was ready to begin a career and applied for a bunch of different jobs across the whole country. In fact, I was offered a position in Alaska that ultimately fell through with COVID that I was going to take before I came to Florida.

The position was for a Cultural Resources Outreach Intern which the title alone caught my eye because anyone who knows me knows that I've been interested in a potential transition from museum work to cultural resources. I thought that this might be the perfect transition into that area since it also involved marketing which is something I have experience in already.

What most intrigued me about the description was that I would "develop social media content that engage(s) the public with the cultural resources of the parks, including the museum collections of Everglades, Dry Tortugas, and Biscayne National Parks; Big Cypress National Preserve; and De Soto National Memorial." The biggest thing that stood out to me was the opportunity to share cultural stories and histories with the public. It's like museum work but on a larger, more accessible scale where I can write about current issues both connected to the park and nationwide.

I applied to it and didn't hear anything back so I figured, meh, you win some you lose some. I dove deep into PreserveNet and Preservation Leadership Forum (both great resources for anyone looking to enter the field) and continued to apply to jobs for the next two months. It wasn't until the end of October that I heard back from them about scheduling an interview.

I had other interviews during that time and actually was in the process of applying for another NPS internship, but this one was based in Omaha and was museum-based. When we set-up an interview I was excited but then remembered how awkward interviews are and that they suck. They just suck. They're a mixture of small talk and a first date in the absolute worst way possible. How can you properly sell yourself and differentiate yourself from the rest of the field in 30 minutes and over Zoom?

Luckily the interview was great and I felt comfortable and at ease with my now supervisors from the moment we met. It felt so good that when it was over and my mom asked how it went, I told her "I'm a fucking delight." When I was offered it, I jumped on the offer. I had no hesitation about the job itself but rather was unsure about how I would like and feel living in Florida.

But that wasn't enough to deter me from the experience and I moved out here to Florida on New Years Day. I came down with the hopes to figure out a few things like if I want to work in museums or in the field, if I want to a federal career or non-profit work. It's been one week now and the role hasn't fully started yet since I've been doing orientation work, but I'm excited to see how this all pans out.

#nps #culturalresources #sharingstories