To Get a Green Job, Don't Just Look for an Office Internship

According to numerous studies, the two skills most valued by employers are teamwork and trainability. This is why internships are so popular: they provide evidence for both.

But an office internship is not the only way to demonstrate these desirable qualities. You have the opportunity to try something different by getting outdoors.

Look to the Woods

After my senior year in high school, I completed a four-week summer internship with the Student Conservation Association (SCA). Six of us lived in a remote forest in northern Vermont with one adult leader. We cleared trails and did other outdoor work.

I still have wonderful memories of this experience. But more importantly, I learned about teamwork and trainability and returned with those highly prized skills clearly demonstrated. I wasn’t in an office, but I gained the experience that office executives value.

When the nearest road is a five-mile hike from your camp, it’s an absolute necessity to find ways to get along with people who end up on your team, people you wouldn’t necessarily hang out with by choice. This experience is a great preparation for a work setting where it’s necessary to get along with boss or coworker, no matter what type of person they are. In high school and college, it’s a lot easier to ignore people you don’t like.

As a team, we had to learn new skills. They were skills I’d never thought I’d need in my life, like building irrigation ditches, identifying plants, and scaring away wolves. I had to come face-to-face with the fact that I didn’t know everything (a big revelation for an 18 year-old!).

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*This article originally appeared on SimplyHired