National Park Service reviews

Must sacrifice personal relationships to move up, as promotions are rarer than diamonds and moving up generally means moving across the country. Cohesive teams are harder to come by as highly qualified rangers with years of experience are losing jobs to "preference eligibles" with no experience. This basically means that there is a gigantic failure of the hiring system at a national level. Plan on volunteering or interning, then working seasonally for years before ever getting a non-temporary position with benefit, and even those generally come with long or indefinite furloughs and no park housing/ridiculous commutes. As someone who hires seasonal rangers, it is a nightmare to sort through the system, we receive hundreds of qualified applicants in one massive alphabetical list. We have to hire veterans/preference eligibles first if the meet the most minimum qualifications. If none of them accept the job offer, we can see the list of non-veterans - 90% of which are totally over-qualified with tremendous experience and skills. If you really want a particular job, contact the boss directly to make your name stand out.

Organizational structure confused -- leadership lacking