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Post your "ideal" outdoors job
- Thread starter milani74
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2010
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- 1,320
I'd like to be a life guard at the nudie beach. I can't swim well, so if someone got carried off I guess they'd have to fire me. 
Not a whole lot of people go into the water on those types of beaches anyway I'm told 
I did think about becoming a hunting and fishing guide for a while. But then I came to my senses. What was I thinking? Do all the work and let someone else have all the fun? Me thinks not!
When I was 19, I interviewed for the position of a Wildlife Management Area Managers assistant here in Oklahoma. It was in South East Oklahoma in the Quachita Mountains. My duties would have been to assist the manager in his duties such as maintain food plots, fences, select timber cutting, survey's and what ever else they do. Sadly, I made it to the final two but received the rejection notice on my bday.
I think I pretty much have the perfect job now. Affiliate marketing. Gives me plenty of time to do what I want and still get a check. Pretty much took Sept. through Jan. off for the hunting season. Time to get back after it, fishing season is just around the corner!
Not a whole lot of people go into the water on those types of beaches anyway I'm told I did think about becoming a hunting and fishing guide for a while. But then I came to my senses. What was I thinking? Do all the work and let someone else have all the fun? Me thinks not!
When I was 19, I interviewed for the position of a Wildlife Management Area Managers assistant here in Oklahoma. It was in South East Oklahoma in the Quachita Mountains. My duties would have been to assist the manager in his duties such as maintain food plots, fences, select timber cutting, survey's and what ever else they do. Sadly, I made it to the final two but received the rejection notice on my bday.
I think I pretty much have the perfect job now. Affiliate marketing. Gives me plenty of time to do what I want and still get a check. Pretty much took Sept. through Jan. off for the hunting season. Time to get back after it, fishing season is just around the corner!
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2005
- Messages
- 1,339
One word: Bear Grylls. His job rocks! Two words: Awesome!
Had a friend whose brother was a Wildlife Fisheries Biologist. His job was to monitor fish size, quanity, and stream conditions. So basicly he would backpack into an area on a Monday, fish all week, comeback on Thursday and write a report on Friday.
Poor Bastard.
Poor Bastard.
Well for me I were realy thinking about wildlife photographer for national geographic. What to explain about that.. You travel all get to watch animals meet new people. Oh yea get paid o.k. Or work on your own and sale the photos you take..
The other one is travel blog. Write about your exp, what you see the people you meet and the animals you run across. If you are good at it companies would give you EQ to test so you would write about it. Some would send you on trips.. Others would pay you to advertise on your blog. You can make an ok living off it but the best part is the places you would see and the people you would meet.
Sasha
The other one is travel blog. Write about your exp, what you see the people you meet and the animals you run across. If you are good at it companies would give you EQ to test so you would write about it. Some would send you on trips.. Others would pay you to advertise on your blog. You can make an ok living off it but the best part is the places you would see and the people you would meet.
Sasha
Codger_64
Moderator
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- 62,324
Quite a few years ago I got it in my head that being a canoe outfitter on a local river would be a good career. I spent a year writing a business plan, checking licenses and permits, talking to local landowners about river access, paddling my target river and all of it's forks from sources to confluence and beyond. In the end, I gave up on the idea for many reasons which added up to a lot of investment and work for very iffy seasonal profits. Another local took over my plan and made a go of it for barely a year. The last time I went back to the area (central Arkansas), another guy had picked up the idea and was trying to make a go of it. I don't know if he is still in business or not. But to this day I can't resist talking shop with livery owners when I have the opportunity. Some of them eek by from year to year and some of them do well. There is a fair turnover though.
In the end, I am satisfied that I didn't turn an enjoyable hobby into a vocation.
In the end, I am satisfied that I didn't turn an enjoyable hobby into a vocation.
- Joined
- May 23, 2008
- Messages
- 954
In order:
Smoke Jumper/Wild-Land Firefighter
Farmer/Rancher
Nurseryman
Not great payers but depending on where you are they can be seasonal and still allow me to pursue knife making!
Smoke Jumper/Wild-Land Firefighter
Farmer/Rancher
Nurseryman
Not great payers but depending on where you are they can be seasonal and still allow me to pursue knife making!
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2005
- Messages
- 19,385
There isn't a perfect outdoor job that I am aware of. But I would choose to be a geologist involved in mineral exploration and development. It would have a good mix of indoor and outdoor activities. If you are good and work for the right people, you go a lot of places and see a lot of interesting stuff.
I knew one forester for a mining company and I liked his job overseeing about 100,000 acres of hardwood forrest.
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a forest ranger, but learned that it probably isn't as interesting as it seems.
Other career that had a lot of appeal to me was being an outdoor photographer. Tough to make a go of this business unless you have another job or source of income.
Did I achieve my dream? ... part of it.
I knew one forester for a mining company and I liked his job overseeing about 100,000 acres of hardwood forrest.
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a forest ranger, but learned that it probably isn't as interesting as it seems.
Other career that had a lot of appeal to me was being an outdoor photographer. Tough to make a go of this business unless you have another job or source of income.
Did I achieve my dream? ... part of it.
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The outfitter that I work for just rents boats and runs trips on the side in season because his shop happens to back up on a major river[Housatonic]. His main business is wood/coal/pellet stoves and installation and hot tub/spas. All seasonal. Doin what ya gotta do to get by.--KV
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2002
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- 2,624
I did caddy on the Nike Tour for 3 years. That was a lot of fun. Not real profitable but I did get to meet a lot of characters.
If I had it all to do over again, I probably would've wanted to be a marine fisheries biologist out of Hawaii. I got a marine biology degree and when I graduated and was choosing where to go, I ended up back closer to family in the midwest. I love my family dearly, but I still imagine what it would be like to do open water or island work instead of the stream/lake/wetland work I do now.
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- Sep 16, 2010
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- 484
i like my outdoors job, im an arborist, its fun and a hell of a workout
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- Aug 24, 2003
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Not to many jobs where you can be your own boss that puts you in the backcountry other than a trapper, and I don't know of anyone who is making it as such for their sole livihood.
Since it came up repeatedly, my degree is in Forestry and I worked for both the state (in college) and the timber industry. I managed 100K acres across two states for a number of years and was silviculturalist over a 1M acres at one point. There are many displines within the forestry profession across both private and government employers including utilities (managing transmission line right-of-ways).
Some foresters work with non-industrial private forest landowners such as county foresters and forestry consultants in the management of their land and timber. Many work in the timber industry as procurement foresters where they buy or sell timber to supply the mills. Others work for the federal government which in the case of national forests includes managing timber as a resource. And there are many other avenues than I am mentioning here...
I was a dirt forester, i.e., I did land management. Primarily reforestation, but also administered over hunting leases, bee leases, tower leases, etc. I spent 50% of my time in the field and 50% in the office. Much was planted pine but there were also a lot of natural areas I got to play too... In the south, natural or planted, pine is an even-aged species and diversity was quite present, especially in the presence of fire or where herbicides were used which in someways mimicked fire. As far as wildlife, have you not heard the saying... deer follow the axe. Lots of edge effect and transitional zones. What I felt was the most deterimental thing to the environment was the landbase being fragmented by development. Private property adjacent to timberland being turned into a subdivision. Funny how in a third-world country it is deforestation, but in this country it is "development." Anyway, that always hurt wildlife cooridors, riparian zones, negated prescribe burning most times, etc...
To give you an idea of the education you recieve, half of my graduating class were engineering students that couldn't cut the higher maths and the only thing all thier pre-reqs would transfer to was a B.S. in Forestry. It's tough to raise a family on a forester's pay. With two kids and a hot wife, I now work for a fortune 100 company. The company I work for has some of the best engineers in the world. However, the smartest folks I ever met are foresters. Not to many jobs where you have know micro and macro economics, finance, management, agronomy, forest mensuration, pathology, forest ecology, dendrology, forest health, wildlife, GIS, silviculture, hydrology, fire science, and much more...
If you want a family, my advice woud be find a way to generate enough of an income to do exactly what you want to do outdoors. Because even if you do get that forestry or wildlife degree, you will probably end up not doing exactly what you want in that field. Just to find a job, you will likely have to move and it is probable you will be in a very rural area.
Or, if you want to stay single or have a spouse that is a nature lover too, become an apprentice to be a guide and/or survival/primitive skills instructor.
There are always those niche jobs out there too in academia, etc., but those are few and far between.
Good luck, peace, Chris
Since it came up repeatedly, my degree is in Forestry and I worked for both the state (in college) and the timber industry. I managed 100K acres across two states for a number of years and was silviculturalist over a 1M acres at one point. There are many displines within the forestry profession across both private and government employers including utilities (managing transmission line right-of-ways).
Some foresters work with non-industrial private forest landowners such as county foresters and forestry consultants in the management of their land and timber. Many work in the timber industry as procurement foresters where they buy or sell timber to supply the mills. Others work for the federal government which in the case of national forests includes managing timber as a resource. And there are many other avenues than I am mentioning here...
I was a dirt forester, i.e., I did land management. Primarily reforestation, but also administered over hunting leases, bee leases, tower leases, etc. I spent 50% of my time in the field and 50% in the office. Much was planted pine but there were also a lot of natural areas I got to play too... In the south, natural or planted, pine is an even-aged species and diversity was quite present, especially in the presence of fire or where herbicides were used which in someways mimicked fire. As far as wildlife, have you not heard the saying... deer follow the axe. Lots of edge effect and transitional zones. What I felt was the most deterimental thing to the environment was the landbase being fragmented by development. Private property adjacent to timberland being turned into a subdivision. Funny how in a third-world country it is deforestation, but in this country it is "development." Anyway, that always hurt wildlife cooridors, riparian zones, negated prescribe burning most times, etc...
To give you an idea of the education you recieve, half of my graduating class were engineering students that couldn't cut the higher maths and the only thing all thier pre-reqs would transfer to was a B.S. in Forestry. It's tough to raise a family on a forester's pay. With two kids and a hot wife, I now work for a fortune 100 company. The company I work for has some of the best engineers in the world. However, the smartest folks I ever met are foresters. Not to many jobs where you have know micro and macro economics, finance, management, agronomy, forest mensuration, pathology, forest ecology, dendrology, forest health, wildlife, GIS, silviculture, hydrology, fire science, and much more...
If you want a family, my advice woud be find a way to generate enough of an income to do exactly what you want to do outdoors. Because even if you do get that forestry or wildlife degree, you will probably end up not doing exactly what you want in that field. Just to find a job, you will likely have to move and it is probable you will be in a very rural area.
Or, if you want to stay single or have a spouse that is a nature lover too, become an apprentice to be a guide and/or survival/primitive skills instructor.
There are always those niche jobs out there too in academia, etc., but those are few and far between.
Good luck, peace, Chris