As graduation looms, I seem to have had thousands of conversations recently about what to do after university. What I’ve found is that there emerges one snarling, pesky paradox: you must have experience to get experience. This poses an obvious problem for even the most investigative of job-seekers, a problem which pervades career fields both elite and comical. You can imagine my dismay when, after weeks of searching through the listings of carnivals and traveling circuses, I found out that an entry level blindfolded chainsaw juggler position required two years previous similar employment. But all jokes aside, there is one saving grace, and it comes in the form of outdoor summer seasonal employment. 

While it may be winter now, it doesn’t hurt to plan ahead. In the balmy months of summer, seasonal job opportunities abound, since certain outdoor projects and organizations cannot function in persistent inclement weather. I discovered this when I turned my own employment crosshairs away from complete and utter cluelessness and began to aim at jobs in conservation field work. What I discovered were countless cadres of project leaders in search of an able-bodied short-term work force willing to break its back and sun-burn its neck for a few months at a time. In essence, the exclusivity so common in career-driven fields melts away and the impenetrable cycle of experience-begetting-experience is, for lack of a better word, penetrated.

Obviously, you have to know where to look. The following are just some examples of seasonal work which those of us facing life after graduation should consider for a first soiree into the real world. First off, let’s consider Community Supported Agriculture. CSAs have begun to pop up everywhere, and not just in small podunk towns. There are over 90 CSA farms around Montreal, each committed to sustainable agriculture, and most either supply local farmers’ markets or organize a farm-share, in which members receive produce directly from the farmers themselves. Emphasizing these aspects of sustainable agriculture is one thing, but CSA farms also tend to hire heavily in the summer. Although the pay is usually negligible, room and board is often free, and there’s no better way to squeeze into a local community than by bringing fresh food straight from your farm to someone’s fridge (think of it as your exotic European WWOOFing trip (Willing Workers On Organic Farms), just a little closer to home). 

Another option is to be a wilderness guide. Odds are you wouldn’t want to do this in Canada during any other time than the summer anyway, and let’s face it, in ten years we won’t have the energy to trek into Banff with a 30 kg backpack, some Mueslix, and a broken compass.  So take the time now. King Pacific Lodge, Treetop Trekking, and NovaShores Adventures are just three top names which are hiring now, and new openings come out every day.  

You might be saying to yourself that my future me will have nothing to do with outdoor work, so the whole seasonal experience argument is useless. Don’t listen to yourself. For example, leadership retreats abound in the summer, and while most are premised upon outdoor skill-building, the main takeaway is an unchallengeable forte in organizational leadership and people skills. These are transferrable to any job, and for the price of a bottle of sunscreen, you could avoid a mind-numbing management training session in a florescent room at your future cubicle job.

Perhaps you have your dream job laid out in front of you, and this is all nonsense. But for the rest of us, taking the time work outside the proverbial box will, I believe, prove invaluable.  Do yourself a favour and leave McGill ready, as it says in a sea-kayaking guide position which just opened up, to “work in the world’s largest tides.”