Beginners' Guide: Getting An Internship in Outdoor Recreation

Internships provide an amazing opportunity to 'test out' a job or industry, grow your connections and stand out among your peers after graduation, but how do you find an internship in a more non-traditional industry? The outdoor recreation industry is a very passionate, competitive, and growing industry but can be hard to break into and find opportunities, especially internships. So we created this guide to help you find the perfect internship for you in the industry. This guide was put together with input and help from outdoor industry leaders and faculty and staff involved in outdoor recreation at the University of Arkansas. 

 Step 1: Finding the Right Job

Narrow Down To Your Interests: Outdoor recreation is a vast field and can range anything from conservation work to outdoor apparel to even traditional industries like biking, hiking, and tourism. Therefore, it can be helpful to narrow your search down to an industry you find exciting or are passionate about. Make sure to research as much as you can about that industry also. Find brands or companies in your targeted industry, research them and what they do, and follow them on social media.

Find A Cultural Fit: Building on your interests, understand that the outdoor industry is a value and passion-driven field, so make sure you fit culturally in your company. It will help you in both your internship search and long-term career goals. When interviewing candidates, many companies check to see if they fit into their company's culture, so make sure you align with the company's or organization's vision and values. They can typically be found on a company website and on social media. 

Know Your Qualifications: When applying to internships, it is essential to consider your qualifications. This will help you better prepare your resume and interview for the job. By considering your qualifications, we mean to look over your experience, skills, and the degree you are pursuing and tailor those to your strengths. 

• Use and Go Beyond Your Degree: Whether you are obtaining a degree in entrepreneurship, accounting, or supply chain, try to look up common job titles for people with your major at outdoor recreation companies. Use that to gauge what employers might be listing internships and other roles as. Also, take advantage of the knowledge and connections of your professors, and let them know that you are interested in looking at roles in the outdoor recreation industry. Chances are your professors can help you build connections through alumni and the rest of their network. Go beyond your degree as well and take courses from other organizations that are industry specific. The more involvement you have the more your network and resume expands. Organizations such as National Outdoor Leadership School or NOLS offer courses on adventure tourism and outdoor recreation industries. So we recommend taking as many certifications as you can work into your schedule. The University of Arkansas also has some great programs specific to the outdoor industries that we recommend taking if you are located in Northwest Arkansas. Such as:
  • MS of Product Innovation with a focus on outdoor industries
  • Outdoor Leadership minor
  • Hybrid Wilderness First Aid Course
  • And a wide assortment of other certificates and courses.
• Work Experience: Use your past employment and experience to showcase your preparedness in the field you want to intern in. There is a multitude of part-time and entry-level jobs in the outdoor recreation industry that could help boost your resume and land you an internship. Look at local climbing gyms, bike shops, or outdoor and sporting goods retailers. 
• Volunteer: Volunteering is a great resume builder when applying for an internship, and there is plenty of opportunities across the country and locally here in Northwest Arkansas. Bentonville Parks and Rec always needs volunteers; almost every bike race across NWA seeks volunteers, and even state entities like Arkansas Game & Fish look for volunteers regularly. If you are interested in biking there are also a lot of opportunities to get involved with trail cleanups and building workshops. Some of those organizations that need volunteers in bikes are Trailblazers, Women of Oz, NICA Arkansas, and many more that can be found with a quick google search. 

Step 2: Prepare Your Application Materials

Similar to other roles when it comes to applying for an internship, you need to have a resume, cover letter, and portfolio if it is a creative role like photography or graphic design. Also be sure to prepare a list of references if called upon.  

• Resume: A resume is a brief document around one page in length that highlights your experience and qualifications. It is one of the most important documents you will submit to a hiring manager and is your chance to stand out as a candidate so it is critical to have a polished one with no blaring errors.
•  Tips:
  1. A resume should highlight your relevant work experience to the job you are applying so any jobs in outdoor recreation or similarly related should be included. If you don't have relevant experience, get creative with how you present your experience and highlight how you made an impact at work. 
  2. Create an original resume template. Chances are if you use a word template, the hiring manager has seen it a dozen times so make yours personalized to you in order to stand out. Keep the template simple too. Don't add too much stylization and fluff (and no crazy colors).
  3. Impact, impact, impact. Whenever possible quantify the impact you had during your job or volunteer work. For example, say, "aided in operations of a bike race with 30 athletes and 500 spectators from around the world." Rather than "worked the ticket booth at a bike race".
  4. Highlight your meaningful achievements like awards or GPA.
  5. Go to resume building workshops. The University has many workshops for having your resume reviewed and improved through the Career Development Center. Walton College also has Career Connections that is able to help you perfect your resume right on campus. 
  6. Keep your resume regularly updated even when you aren't actively looking for an internship or job. Life can get busy so it can pay dividends to be ready to apply to your dream internship quickly and efficiently. 
• Cover Letter: For all internships and jobs it is always a good idea to write a cover letter. A cover letter is how you will persuade the hiring manager that you are the right person for the internship. Once again, the outdoor recreation industry is perhaps more passion-driven than any other industry, so your cover letter is a great way to express that you belong. Tips:
  1. Do your research. A great way to get the internship is if you look like you already know the industry and belong. So research the hiring organization and find out what they focus on, are passionate about, and are looking for in this role, then highlight why you think you would be a good fit. Hiring managers will notice if you mention values that align with their mission statement and where you align with the job description. 
  2. Don't regurgitate your resume. This is your chance to tell who you are and why you belong within that company. 
  3. A great way to highlight your passion is to talk about a time you did something related to the job. For example, if you are applying to be an intern at a kayak company, talk about how much fun you have kayaking in Northwest Arkansas and how you want to help make it more accessible and allow others to share the experiences you had.
  4. Keep it short. This isn't a college essay, and hiring managers will have a lot to process, so make your impact quick and brief! 
• References: Having good references can make or break your job application because it is a real person vouching for you, not just a piece of paper. References are those who can attest to your character and work ethic and tell a potential employer that you are right for the job and are dedicated and again passionate about the field. Bosses at previous internships or work within the field are the preferred references. However, if you don't have many references from the industry, don't fret. Bosses from work even outside of the outdoor industry can still attest to your hard work and character and make a difference in the hiring process. We also highly recommend being active and involved in your classes because professors can also serve as references for students if they know you. Professors take notice when students are involved in a class so don't be afraid to approach them and ask if you can use them as a reference at the end of a semester. Another great way to acquire references is to volunteer. Volunteering allows you to build your resume while also expanding upon your network and references. 

Images of Walton College Career Fair. Photos taken by Grant Schol

Step 3: Find an Internship

Look within your school: The first place you should start looking for an internship is at your college. Most universities have a career services center whose goal and purpose is to prepare students to land internships and full-time roles. Walton Career Connections and The University of Arkansas's Career Development Center are other great resources available to all of our students. Any student can schedule an appointment with one of their career counselors, walk through options with their majors, and ensure they are in the right degree for their desired job and career field. The other great benefit of the career center is its Career Studio. The career studio is staffed by peer mentors from all types of academic disciplines to make sure you receive the help you need. They have a ton of excellent opportunities such as resume reviews, interviewing tips and mock interviews, job/internship resources, and help writing cover letters. The Career Center and Walton College also host Career fairs. Career fairs are a great way to get dressed up, bring your resume, and talk to potential employers. There are various other hiring events and ways to get involved through your school so keep on the lookout and read your student newsletters to stay up to date on events and even internship postings.

LinkedIn: Reports from Jobvite show that almost 77% of employers use social media to help find their candidates; one of the biggest is LinkedIn. When setting up your LinkedIn think of it as a first impression to potential employers, much like your resume, but better. LinkedIn allows recruiters and employers to see more about you than your resume can with the ability to showcase your network, post about work you did in real time, and even the opportunity for your peers and coworkers to "endorse" your work. Some tips for building a good profile are:

• Add a professional profile picture. It will be your first impression to those who view your profile. 
• Add all of your relevant work experience and skills.
• Connect, connect, connect. This is an integral part of using LinkedIn to help find jobs. Connect with both peers from class and coworkers or fellow volunteers. Also, connect with those who have experience or have been a part of the industry. This can be former professors, bosses, or the owner of your favorite outdoor rec company. Many of these people will share job postings within their organization or field that would've been harder to find on a job-hunting site. 
• Don't be afraid to interact. The outdoor rec industry is much more casual than other industries. So when interacting or reaching out to organizations and companies in outdoor recreation, you very well may be talking directly to the CEO. 

LinkedIn's job search feature is another excellent way to find an internship in the outdoor industry. A great tool that LinkedIn has is it will learn your career interests based on your searches and then recommend jobs that align with those interests. This can be a great way to find jobs that maybe you didn't know the exact title, so you hadn't searched for. Additionally, the search feature filters can help narrow your search to find internships mixed in amongst jobs. To do this, simply search for a job, for example "Natural Resources" then select the location you live and how far you are willing to move or travel for the internship. Then there should be a drop-down menu to select "experience level," and this is where you can select both entry-level and internship. 

 

Job Finding Sites: While LinkedIn and your school career center are great resources, be sure to check out specific websites that are dedicated to outdoor recreation roles as well like these:

• Outdoor Industries Jobs: This is a great outdoor version of Indeed where there is a wide range of everything in the outdoor industry. We recommend scrolling for a while and looking at job titles for an initial overview, then use those titles to search based on your interest. It gives you an idea of what employers are naming positions.  
• Basecamp Outdoor: Basecamp does post jobs on their website, but one of the best ways to find employment opportunities through them is through their newsletter, where they keep updated on new and unfilled positions. Their Facebook page is also useful. Community members from all across the country regularly post positions from their organizations and companies. 
• Handshake: Handshake is the job-hunting platform that most Universities recommend students use. If you visit the Walton College Career center or the University of Arkansas Career Center, they will guide and help you search for internships using Handshake. So it is an excellent platform to learn and take advantage of every free resource you can. 
• Occupation Wild and Wandered Jobs are great resources for seasonal jobs and internships on the outdoor tourism and hospitality side of the industry. On these websites, expect to see a lot of guest ranches, hotels, and other outdoor tourism companies from kayaking tours to backcountry ski guides. The outdoor tourism side still hires a wide variety of interns from all kinds of majors so don't rule that industry out while searching.
• When applying for internships make sure to always keep yourself safe. While these job boards hold credibility in the industry, ALWAYS do your research before applying to any position. If it looks too good to be true then it probably is. 

Other Ways To Find Internships: Outside of job hunting sites there are many other ways you can find an internship.

• One of these ways is to reach out to organizations and agencies. One of these agencies is the Arkansas Office of Outdoor Recreation. Don't be afraid to reach out to them or other similar agencies because their objective is to get as many people interested and promoting outdoor recreation as possible. Even if they can't align you directly with an internship, they might be able to point you in the right directi on like a job post they saw or someone they talked to who needed interns.
• Look at programs both nationally and within your community. There are a lot of programs specifically designed to get people internships and involved in the outdoor industry. One example is the National Park Service's Pathways Program. This is a great way to explore careers within the park service and stand out in a competitive field, so don't be afraid to reach out to them as well for current and future opportunities. 

Internships are a gratifying way for you to get experience in the field you are majoring in and explore the options your degree can provide while also allowing you to stand out amongst your competition. The most important thing to remember is that your credibility is often judged by how passionate and driven you are about the outdoor recreation and industries field.