[pct-l] Jobs after the Trail

[Jennifer Zimmerman]

Additionally, depending on how much planning and pre-work you do in advance
of your hike, I would think that an undertaking like this could be brought
up in an interview as an example of project management skills - a long-term
event with tons of logistics and uncertainty that resulted (hopefully!) in
success.  Yes, there is a robust and info-filled community around the PCT
that makes thru-hiking much easier than it was even 10 years ago, but it
still takes discipline and flexibility to pull off something like this.

How did you plan your resupplys?  How did you assemble and test your gear
to make sure it would work?  What unexpected challenges did you encounter
and how did you deal with them?  How did you decide on your timing and
pace?  And how did you motivate yourself to keep that pace - to wake up and
hike a marathon day after day?

I know a lot of this might sound like it's not a big deal after
you've researched it - and everyone says that the trail will blow your
planning out of the water within the first week - but from the perspective
of someone who is not a long-distance hiker and who is looking to hire
a self-directing self-starter I would think this is gravy.  At the large
company I work for this would hit a lot of positive points.  It can easily
be translated into the "corporate-speak" of goals, motivations,
commitments, flexibility, etc.

I work in food R&D, so I plan to use my resupply strategy of homemade meals
as a selling point if I interview in the industry post-hike.  I keep
detailed documentation of my dehydrator batches and I can go on and on
about meal selection: balancing calorie load, nutrition, taste, shelf-life,
ease of preparation, cost, and timing.  If you can find an aspect of the
hike that specifically aligns with your career in parks, or even just a
personal interest, that could make you the candidate that stands out in the
mind of someone who is hiring.  How many people love their hobbies enough
to make this kind of commitment to them?

Just my two cents - sorry for the essay and all the corporate buzz-words!

JZ

On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 8:52 PM, <ned at mountaineducation.org> wrote:

> Wilderness Schools, Leadership Schools, Outdoor Adventure Guides, River
> Rafting, USFS, NPS, BLM, oil companies, Cable companies (think outdoor
> wiring, sensors, relays...), etc....
>
>
>
> Ned Tibbits, Director
> Mountain Education
> .......... <http://www.mountaineducation.org/>