I was a student at Western Colorado University in Gunnison when my professor told our class he had a message for anyone wanting to work as a seasonal in the outdoor industry after graduating.
His message was simple: “Get out of my classroom.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t want us working as outdoor guides, trail crew leaders or ski bums. He wanted us to work as a seasonal, then come back to college when we were ready to value the economic stability of a degree.
“You don’t need a degree to be a guide,” he said. “A degree is so you can move into management after you burn out.” Most outdoor guides he knew burned out after five to seven years in the field, he said.
I took his advice and dropped out. It took me only three years to burn out.
It all started when I took a sabbatical between my junior and senior years. I found work for a season on a schooner, then at an organic farm, and finally with AmeriCorps in Denver. After finishing my bachelor’s degree, more seasonal jobs followed: a stint at a museum, a tall ship on the Hudson River, working as a outdoor educator. For four years, I moved every two to eight months.
I was lucky. I was still on my parents’ health insurance. My car never broke down. I had no student loans, so I could build up a financial cushion.
Seasonal work provided travel, flexibility, constant learning and sometimes fun. But if you asked me now if I’d recommend it, I’d say “no — unless you plan ahead.” I learned that the hard way.
After one seasonal job fell through, I found myself over a thousand miles from home and a month away from being homeless. Luckily, I found work as a library assistant and temporarily moved in with my family back in Colorado. I qualified for the library position only because of my bachelor’s degree in Spanish, which I had finally finished thanks to my outdoor education professor.
Here are some of the hard questions I had to answer while working as a seasonal: Where would I live between contracts, and what was the distance between jobs? Where would I store all my stuff? When I worked on the East Coast, I was a four-day drive away from my family in Denver, which made moving and swapping out gear extra difficult, especially in winter weather.
As a seasonal, you also have to keep start and end dates of seasonal jobs in mind, as not all run on the same schedule. If you live in employee housing, you risk becoming homeless between contracts. Always ask about relocation and travel stipends to fund the in-between.
If you enjoy a job and feel like you could learn more, try to return for multiple seasons. You’re more likely to be offered a permanent or management position, and it shows consistency to future employers. You’re also likely to make more money if you ask for a raise every season.
Seasonal work lets you try on professions until you find a good fit, or not. But regardless of how cool a job sounds, or how qualified you are to do it, you always need a backup plan.
Apply for multiple positions and be open to learning new skills on the job. If you have the chance to cross-train or pivot to doing something new at the same workplace, do it. And if you get a job with the U.S. Forest Service or any other federal land management agency, know that these days you could be fired without notice.
My professor was right. My degree saved me when seasonal work became too stressful to keep pursuing it anymore. But working seasonally in the “real world” and out of a classroom was invaluable. I had to be resilient and adept at picking up technical skills while connecting with people I would never have met while attending classes. I became someone who was always ready to learn new things.
When I finish my master’s degree, I want to teach, holding onto summers for outdoor jobs. This time, I’ll be doing it right.
Kira Cordova is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. She is currently working a seasonal job for Outward Bound while also completing a master’s degree in nature writing online.
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