What are the possibilities with a Natural Resources degree?

[u/Wade_Doesnt_Burnnn]

Outside of jobs with USFS, what are the possibilities? How difficult is it to find stable, good-paying jobs?

Curious to see what people in this major are doing… I talked to an advisor and was told the NR degree essentially overlaps with Sustainability, so you can get two degrees at the same time (or double-major, whatever it is considered as)

[u/AceScout]

Graduated in 2020 and will likely be starting my 5th season with the FS this spring. Currently a "forestry technician" working in fire as a patrol. So, lots of driving (I average about 150 miles a day, all on district, but that can get up to 200+ depending on what's going on), a fair amount of interacting with the public, filling in for the lookouts semi-regularly, and occasionally doing actual fire suppression stuff. Oh, and barely seeing friends and family during the summer.

It's good and I enjoy it, but I'm kinda capped at a GS4 unless I change positions. I'm trying to get out and get into NEPA/environmental protection/planning, but that's proving difficult if you don't want to live in the middle of fuckin nowhere. BUT on the plus side, if you do well enough in your undergrad, you can qualify for a lot of federal GS7 positions through "superior academic performance."

Quick note about USFS, currently they aren't hiring non-fire seasonals this season which sucks and will hopefully change at some point, but I don't have a ton of confidence overall that it's being run well seeing as they can't budget for their core workforce.

I don't know anything about the Sustainability major, but that sounds like a great idea. I had a decent time at OSU in NR and feel it was ultimately valuable, but my wants and needs have shifted in the nearly ten years since I started my degree and I think if I were to go back I'd do some things different, possibly choosing a different major. NR is great and it's broad which was good for me because I didn't know specifically what I wanted to do, but if you have an idea of the field you want to get into, it wouldn't hurt to see if there's some major that more specifically applicable.

And just for good measure and to be explicit (since it's what I'm struggling with now), federal land management at least on the west coast is largely confined to rural areas. It's something I didn't really think of as a factor for me when I started school and is probably obvious to many people, but I've realized I'm much more fond of cities and urban environments than I am rural towns. Obviously that's not true for everyone, but it's something I wish I had known about myself before I got inside that cannon on that trajectory.

Good luck and lmk if you have any questions, I'm happy to share about my college and post-college experience.

[u/Wade_Doesnt_Burnnn → u/AceScout]

Thank you so much for all of that info! That helps so much. And yeah, that’s the thing with working in these sectors is theres not a ton of high paying, stable jobs. I also would prefer a bigger city with better food options and amenities.

[u/AceScout → u/Wade_Doesnt_Burnnn]

Yeah I'm right there with you on the city amenities. High paying has never been too important for me, but stability is. It's cool to get paid for the equivalent of 8-10 months in a 6-month span (only possible in fire btw, no other seasonals get overtime, at least in the FS), but it's less cool having to neglect relationships, interests, etc during that time. Might be different if I wasn't pushing 35, but that's the way it goes...

[u/Wade_Doesnt_Burnnn → u/AceScout]

Yeah, I get that. I hope it works out for you moving forward and you can get to a better spot!

[u/AceScout → u/Wade_Doesnt_Burnnn]

Thanks man. Hope that didn't come across as trauma dumping or whatever haha, I think the insight is good to take into account though depending on what direction you're leaning toward. Take care!

[u/Wade_Doesnt_Burnnn → u/AceScout]

No, not at all! I was looking for the reality of pursuing it and that really helped.