Becoming a Naturalist.
It has been three years since I lost my job. The lose of the job has made things more challenging financially, and postponing me moving on to a new chapter in my life. Not to say life was bad. Had many amazing things happen since I lost my job. Mostly due to my involvement in the 4-H program. Lately, I have been seeking for change. A change to move forward with my life. I knew there were two things I need to accomplish this. The first is to finish school. Graduating in June. The second step is to get a job. One of my goals for this summer was to begin the hunt for a job. It is better to start looking and home for a job before I graduate. I looked here and there, but nothing good came up. I had a concern about being hired with all my 4-H and family vacation trips going on in the summer. Right before heading off to State 4-H Leadership Conference up in Santa Cruz, I thought of looking for a job in Oak Glen. Oak Glen is a mountain community famous for the historic apple orchards. Apple seasons was right around the corner, and I know many placed have seasonal jobs. Not what I was looking for, but better than nothing. While on the job search, an idea came to my head. When going to Oak Glen, I always stop at The Wildlands Conservancy. A non-profit organization that buys land to save them from development. I took a risk, and looked at their website to see if any jobs were open at their Oak Glen Preserve. They had a full time position Naturalist position open. This position would teach outdoor education programs for school groups and the public, help manage the volunteers, help manage the part time naturalists, assist in trail/preserve maintenance, keep an eye out for the public safety from wildlife and weather, and more. It is a perfect job for me. I applied.
A week later, on Thursday, August 14, I was in a van with my fellow 4-H Tech Team members headed from San Jose to UC Santa Cruz for SLC. As we got into Santa Cruz, I received a phone call. Normally, I do not answer numbers I don't know. Since it was the day SLC was beginning, I answered expecting it to be a 4-H contact that had a question. It turned up being The Wildlands Conservancy (TWC). It became a surprise and impromptu phone interview. We were at UC Santa Cruz, we had tons of things to unpack and set up, and everything was held up until I was done with the call. As the call ended, I felt I did a terrible job since I was nowhere near focused on the job, and more focused on 4-H SLC stuff. The conference began, and I forgot about the phone call. Two days later, I receive another call from TWC. They wanted to schedule an in person interview that Monday. I was excited! Monday arrived. I was more excited for the interview compared to nervous. The interview took an hour and a half. Afterwards, I felt really good. I expected to hear from them in a few days. As a week passed, I began to lose hope in receiving any good news. A week and a half later, I got the call. They want to make sure the right person is hired for the full time position. They offered me a part time naturalist position. If things work well in that position, there is a chance they will offer me the full time position. Not 100% good news, but I accepted the part time position without even questioning anything. I started the very next day. Hopefully, I will get offered the full time position eventually. If not, my job will end in June. I started on August 28.
So far, I love this job. I have been in training, and there is a lot of things to learn. I have to play catch up. All the other part time naturalists started two days after I interviewed for the position. I try to be the first of the new naturalists to jump up to the different tasks to show my I am dedicated to the position. This job is amazing. My co-workers are great! My boss is great! The Wildlands Conservancy is great! I can see myself working for this non-profit organization for years down the road. One of the best parts about this new job will be the large amount of learning experiences I will gain. I work with some very knowledgeable people, and I will have many opportunities to learn new and exciting things while working in this position. I honestly hope this can lead towards a bigger and better position at The Wildlands Conservancy. Holding a long term career for this organization would fall under what I hope to do for a living. Hopefully, I will have an amazing year, and hopefully they will see me as a great fit to become the Lead Naturalist, and work full time at the preserve. I can probably promise you there will be more blog posts in the future about this amazing job! It is going to be a major part of my life now.
A week later, on Thursday, August 14, I was in a van with my fellow 4-H Tech Team members headed from San Jose to UC Santa Cruz for SLC. As we got into Santa Cruz, I received a phone call. Normally, I do not answer numbers I don't know. Since it was the day SLC was beginning, I answered expecting it to be a 4-H contact that had a question. It turned up being The Wildlands Conservancy (TWC). It became a surprise and impromptu phone interview. We were at UC Santa Cruz, we had tons of things to unpack and set up, and everything was held up until I was done with the call. As the call ended, I felt I did a terrible job since I was nowhere near focused on the job, and more focused on 4-H SLC stuff. The conference began, and I forgot about the phone call. Two days later, I receive another call from TWC. They wanted to schedule an in person interview that Monday. I was excited! Monday arrived. I was more excited for the interview compared to nervous. The interview took an hour and a half. Afterwards, I felt really good. I expected to hear from them in a few days. As a week passed, I began to lose hope in receiving any good news. A week and a half later, I got the call. They want to make sure the right person is hired for the full time position. They offered me a part time naturalist position. If things work well in that position, there is a chance they will offer me the full time position. Not 100% good news, but I accepted the part time position without even questioning anything. I started the very next day. Hopefully, I will get offered the full time position eventually. If not, my job will end in June. I started on August 28.
So far, I love this job. I have been in training, and there is a lot of things to learn. I have to play catch up. All the other part time naturalists started two days after I interviewed for the position. I try to be the first of the new naturalists to jump up to the different tasks to show my I am dedicated to the position. This job is amazing. My co-workers are great! My boss is great! The Wildlands Conservancy is great! I can see myself working for this non-profit organization for years down the road. One of the best parts about this new job will be the large amount of learning experiences I will gain. I work with some very knowledgeable people, and I will have many opportunities to learn new and exciting things while working in this position. I honestly hope this can lead towards a bigger and better position at The Wildlands Conservancy. Holding a long term career for this organization would fall under what I hope to do for a living. Hopefully, I will have an amazing year, and hopefully they will see me as a great fit to become the Lead Naturalist, and work full time at the preserve. I can probably promise you there will be more blog posts in the future about this amazing job! It is going to be a major part of my life now.
Comments
Post a Comment