Pros
-The places. Your office is a national park. -Interaction with visitors. Some of the most meaningful and satisfying work when you have a chance to help visitors make those connections. -Creative freedom. Essentially free to develop your programs on whatever subject strikes your interest.
Cons
-The hiring process is ridiculous. It's essentially a crapshoot. Twist your USAJOBs resume in whatever way you can to get past the automated review to get referred to a hiring manager, then hope like hell there aren't too many veterans applying for the position you're after. The best people don't get hired under this application system. Some do, but it's almost a certainty you'll have a co-worker who obtained their job via some type of special hiring consideration and not via their interpretive skills. -Pay is poor, advancement from a seasonal to a permanent position is unlikely and, again, a crapshoot. If you want a career with the NPS, it's likely you'll be working seasonally for 5 - 10 years before scoring a permanent position. -Upper level jobs are stuck at their desks all day under the yoke of bureaucratic wheels. -Organizational inertia and politicing between internal divisions. The park service, by and large, is not adaptable to the new and upcoming. Getting social media started at one of the parks I worked at was an effort, mainly due to the resistance of an old school manager. Communication between different park units is often terrible (for example, HQ not informing our park of a road closure for construction => no prior warnings => angry visitors). Upper level resource, interp, and protection don't always get along (depends on the park), politicing can get nasty. -Extremely difficult to fire inept employees.
