WRITERS ON THE RANGE: The pleasures, perils of seasonal jobs

WRITERS ON THE RANGE: The pleasures, perils of seasonal jobs

Published 9:40 am Tuesday, November 18, 2025

I used to be a pupil at Western Colorado University in Gunnison, Colorado, when my professor informed our class he had a message for anybody eager to work as a seasonal within the out of doors trade after graduating.

His message was easy: “Get out of my classroom.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t need us working as out of doors guides, path crew leaders or ski bums. He wished us to work as a seasonal, then come again to school after we have been able to worth the financial stability of a level.

“You don’t need a degree to be a guide,” he stated. “A degree is so you can move into management after you burn out.”

Most out of doors guides he knew burned out after 5 to seven years within the discipline, he stated.

I took his recommendation and dropped out. It took me solely three years to burn out.

It began after I took a sabbatical between my junior and senior years. I discovered work for a season on a schooner, then at an natural farm, and at last with AmeriCorps in Denver. After ending my bachelor’s diploma, extra seasonal jobs adopted: a stint at a museum, a tall ship on the Hudson River, working as a out of doors educator. For 4 years, I moved each two to eight months.

I used to be fortunate. I used to be nonetheless on my dad and mom’ medical health insurance. My automobile by no means broke down. I had no pupil loans, so I may construct up a monetary cushion.

Seasonal work supplied journey, flexibility, fixed studying and generally enjoyable. But should you requested me now if I’d advocate it, I’d should say “no”— until you propose forward. I discovered that the arduous method.

After one seasonal job fell by means of, I discovered myself over a thousand miles from house and a month away from being homeless. Luckily, I discovered work as a library assistant and quickly moved in with my household again in Colorado. I certified for the library place solely due to my bachelor’s diploma in Spanish, which I had lastly completed because of my out of doors schooling professor.

Here are among the arduous questions I needed to reply whereas working as a seasonal: Where would I reside between contracts and what was the gap between jobs? Where would I retailer all my stuff? When I labored on the East Coast, I used to be a four-day drive away from my household in Denver, which made shifting and swapping out gear further troublesome, particularly in winter climate.

As a seasonal, you additionally should preserve begin and finish dates of seasonal jobs in thoughts, as not all run on the identical schedule. If you reside in worker housing, you danger changing into homeless between contracts. Always ask about relocation and journey stipends to fund the in-between.

If you take pleasure in a job and really feel like you possibly can be taught extra, attempt to return for a number of seasons. You’re extra more likely to be provided a everlasting or administration place, and it reveals consistency to future employers. You’re additionally possible to make more cash should you ask for a elevate each season.

Seasonal work helps you to strive on professions till you discover a good match, or not. But no matter how cool a job sounds, or how certified you’re to do it, you at all times want a backup plan.

Apply for a number of positions and be open to studying new abilities on the job. If you may have the possibility to cross-train or pivot to doing one thing new on the similar office, do it. And should you get a job with the U.S. Forest Service or some other federal land administration company, know that lately you possibly can be fired with out discover.

My professor was proper. My diploma saved me when seasonal work turned too traumatic to maintain pursuing it anymore. But working seasonally within the “real world” and out of a classroom was invaluable. I needed to be resilient and adept at choosing up technical abilities whereas connecting with folks I might by no means have met whereas attending lessons. I turned somebody who was at all times able to be taught new issues.

When I end my grasp’s diploma, I wish to train, holding onto summers for out of doors jobs. This time, I’ll be doing it proper.

Kira Cordova is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an unbiased nonprofit devoted to spurring vigorous dialog concerning the West. She is at the moment working a seasonal job for Outward Bound whereas additionally finishing a grasp’s diploma in nature writing on-line.