Has anyone here tried their hand at travel/outdoor photography or writing?

>>2800539
>>what is your job
I work in a sporting goods store
>>how soul crushing is it
It sucks, but the alternative is working at McDonald's. At least, I get good discounts
>>how to get an /out/ job out of college
You don't need to go to college for this job.

>>2800539
>what is your job
SAR, not paid. It's all volunteer.
>how soul crushing is it
It's fun if it's what you want to do. A lot of people won't or can't do it.
>how to get an /out/ job out of college
Ski patrol, lifty, mountain safety, take your pick.

>what is your job
Landscaping, I run a mow crew but help with construction every once in a while cause I did it for 3 years before getting this position

>how soul crushing is it
Not really that soul crushing, but management is retarded so thats pretty much the hardest part. Other than that, sit on mower, stripey go boingboing, stop for snacks between properties, its a good time. The social / office politics are the hard part.

>how to get an /out/ job out of college
Don't need to go to college to be a landscaper, there are apprenticeships sure but I never went for anything (well I did do a 1 month fast-track course but work paid for it) and I make $33CAD an hour.
Word of mouth is the best way to get an interview in the bluecollar world, find out if friends / family have anyone in your desired area.

>what is your job
US Antarctic Program & contract work in Greenland. I don’t want to get too specific because its a small community.
>how soul crushing is it
It can be really grueling with the bureaucracy. I only transit through McMurdo and South Pole, so its a lot better for me than others.
>how to get an /out/ job out of college
Take seasonal work and get certifications. CDL A (with ALL the endorsements) and W-EMT will make you very competitive. Prioritize jobs that will get you working in aviation & maritime. Equipment operation is a must.

>>2800572
>Take seasonal work and get certifications. CDL A (with ALL the endorsements) and W-EMT will make you very competitive. Prioritize jobs that will get you working in aviation & maritime. Equipment operation is a must.
Not from America. Not sure what all those abbreviations mean. Is getting government work very competitive and do you need to come from a prestigious school? My biggest worry is that I go to a community college type institution, and there’s a lot of academic snobbery in my city.

>what is your job
Land Surveyor
>how soul crushing is it
Not soul crushing at all, its my second career change. I used to be a carpenter and I fucking hated it. Now I get to roam around outside all day in all sorts of /out/ situations, I have also surveyed in three different continents. There are opportunities global and the work in the industry is extremely broad so if you get sick of the job you are in just chase companies to one that does something completely different.
>how to get an /out/ job out of college
for my occupation there is a national shortage in my home country (and I am betting in other countries) so I just walked straight into one (I was also a mature aged student so that helped)

I have had input in these threads before and I am happy to answer questions.

>>2800539
I had a somewhat /out/ related job working in Project Management support in a government agency that administered a number of conservation areas. While the mandate was extremely inspiring, and the projects were awesome, the work itself was soul-crushing, my boss was a boomer workaholic, and towards the end it was so toxic it was affecting my mental health. Now I work in a completely non-/out/ related organization but I'm happy, my bosses like me, and I have work-life balance.

>>2800572
looked into jobs and antarctica a while back and saw a suprising amount of them were blue collar work like framers and builders, and another huge chunk were transportation and logi roles like shipping conatiner moving cranes, buses, large forklifts, etc. I take it your doing something similar?
how long are you out there at a time? does it pay arlight?
I've heard when the weather gets really bad in those places everyone just gets hammered and has huge fuck piles, true?

>what is your job
Wildland Fire fighter, BLM
>soul crushing?
actually fantastic! 99 percent of everyone I've worked with so far in my few years has been great. there's 1 or 2 bad apples but always going to be in any job. commraderie and brotherhood is real. I've been able to travel all over the country, flown out in helicopters to pristine mountain wildernesses and spend all day working hard with the boys. Good culture amongst people in the job, all walks of life. Lots of ex military dudes, granola ultra runner girls, and cool mexicans. (bonus for no blacks)
pay is good but only for the fact that i work a fuck ton of hours, (110+ a week usually). No bills becuase i'm traveling and camping with the crew the whole time, can save good money. pulled 40k in pure savings last season.
i get the winters off to mooch unemployment.
for a young single guy its a good gig
I can tell you the long term prospects of the job are dismal and if you plan of supporting a family is bad, plus the retirement is dogshit. Gonna do 1 or 2 more season and get out.
>how to get an /out/ job out of college
dunno, never went
got out of the military and saw the feds were hiring. Got the job in like 3 phone calls.

>>2800577
>CDL
Truck driver's license. In america they have endorsements; hazmat, liquids, triples. Getting your "endorsement" means your qualified to haul triple trailers, carry liquids, etc.
>WEMT
Wilderness EMT. I have one. It's a gimmick, I wouldn't recommend it.
>Is getting government work very competitive
This is a really broad question. The answer can be yes, but sometimes the answer is also no. There are government positions that don't pay enough so nobody wants them, and then there are of course limited positions that everyone wants (game warden).

>>2800539
I work as a forest janny. It's not really soul sucking, generally very fulfilling actually. Except for when you come across some awful resource damage. I went to college, not intending this line of work, but the degree I got (history) did get me into parks via cultural interpretation, and i was able to quickly move to actual ranger work.

>>2800542
Impossible, every normie on earth wants to do this and many try with significant funding which out competes anyone else
>>2800569
+1 on landscaper, they’re also surprisingly lacking in a lot of countries so you can get a visa easily if you want to travel

>>2800613
landscapanon here, exactly bro depending on what you get into it can either be an easy ride or a welcomed challenge

>>2800581
I had a friend that spent a year in Antarctica as a fire fighter because, and I shit you not, one of his life goals was to have sex on every contentment.
Yes, he's achieved his goal.

>>2800613
>Impossible, every normie on earth wants to do this and many try with significant funding which out competes anyone else
What if I'm actually good at writing and have a unique angle about what I want to photograph and write about? I'm interested in social anthropology as much as pure nature, and I see what writing and photos are out there and think I could do better.
There's a lot of people writing about a few popular destinations, mostly international, bit if you are writing about a place few others are, that could be a solid niche.

>>2800644
I don’t know how good you are, maybe you’re amazing, or maybe you’re like that guy on >>>/diy/ who is building a sentient robot Adam with zero technical skills whatsoever.
But do know that finding such a niche is difficult and that there’s a lot of competition

>>2800644
Well then just give it a try for a month of so and see how it goes. Travel blogging probably has the lowest bar of entry of any profession on earth right now considering most phones and tablets nowadays comes with a decent camera and are powerful enough to run whatever office suite you like

>>2800644
i worked with people who want to do what you want to for many years. none of them make any money. small niches dont pay the bills and most people who do it have a real job or are retired and doing this is a passion project.
dont think youre built different: anyone can write and take photos so much of the job ends up being about networking for your niche
if you really want to do this, get a job as a ski instructor or rafting guide or some other /out/ job thatll give you connections to people and situations to take unique photos or youll just be one of a billion of instagram

>>2800683
I don't want to use instagram at worse I'd use wordpress I hate the idea of logging in to have to my view content and them controlling it and censoring it and ranking it against others.

>>2800685
>skips over all the other points and focuses on the bit im telling him not to do
get a real job that gives you time and opportunity to take photos so you can make a portfolio. also if you are scared of using instagram in a job which is 90% building connections then youve got lessons to learn beyond your issues with reading comprehension

>>2800687
I'm not physically able to work as a ski instructor or rafting guide. I want to write about cool outdoor stuff that can be done by people with lower mobility.

>>2800539
>get STEM degree from respected university with good grades and a SWE internship at respectable company
>do the extracurriculars, speak several languages
>graduate, impossible to find even entry level STEM/office jobs
>outdoors jobs require 1-2 years of volunteer experience, a masters in ecological science, a driver's license held for 2 years
>grad schemes for outdoor jobs have exactly the same requirements
What now

>>2800703
1. Apply to med school (might be hard since you don't have the shadowing hours yet)
2. Go to med school, survive
3. Pick EM or Rural FM when you get to Residency. Matching will be easy.
4. Go to work in a rural area with multiple consecutive days off. Go /out/ as much as you want now.

>>2800707
I'm already in my mid-twenties and living at home with parents will not be possible in the next year or two, so I don't have the luxury of spending years retraining. I am also all out of student finance and cannot finance it myself.
Mind you I am chronically and unpredictably ill so outdoors jobs might not even be suited to me anyway

>>2800707
Interested in this route, seems like a comfy life once you get there. But how does one get into med school coming from an unrelated bachelors?

>>2800738
>get into med school coming from an unrelated bachelors
This is going to be a long answer. I need to split it into multiple parts.
First you need to find a med school that you can see yourself living at and attending. If you want to move, now is the time. If you do pick an out of state school, make sure they're not biased toward state residents. My state's school technically accepts out of state residents but they actively discourage them from applying. My state's school wanted only state residents applying.
Now that you've found one you can tolerate living at, look at their credit requirements. Everyone says the credit requirements are universal but they aren't. You absolutely need to meet these credit requirements. If your degree didn't fulfill it, which it probably didn't, you can see if the attached state college will offer a "special master's" for people exactly like you who want to get into med school but don't meet the requirements. If no such thing exists, try to get one whatever state college you're currently close to. DO NOT do online stuff, don't do community college stuff. If they tell you that's acceptable, it isn't, and it's wasting your money. Don't fall for that.
Now you need shadowing and volunteering. It seems like everyone can get away with 500 hours. I've heard of people doing 2000 hours and I've heard that some med schools supposedly ask for this, but if a school really expects you to volunteer for 2000 hours then it's a waste of your time. Adcom just wants to see that you know what it's actually like inside a clinic or a hospital. If you're interested in EM or Rural FM then find one near you, tell the attending that you want to shadow. They had to shadow too so they know the drill. Alternatively get a job as a scribe or an MA.

>>2800738
>>2800743
Start studying for the MCAT yesterday. Take a practice MCAT. Take it again. And again. If you don't get a good MCAT score then you're going to have a really tough time. Adcom will try and tell you that the MCAT score doesn't matter, but coincidentally nobody with an okay score ever makes it into med school. Do not take the MCAT until you're sure you can get an acceptable score, but you also need to move quick on that because there are time requirements for taking the test and applying to a school.
For applying, talk to a counselor. Talk to a med school counselor or the state college counselor. Tell them what you want. Be direct about it. They should have the connections to help you schedule the classes you need and the tests you need. You should be applying to med school in your third year of a bachelor's, and if you're doing a special master's you should apply in the first year of it.
Now that you've done all the administrative things, you need something that makes your application stand out. I've heard adcom people say that this is supposedly the most important part but the proof is there that GPA+MCAT+credits is really what gets you in. Regardless, adcom still wants to bandy you around. Can't make it too easy, I guess. If you have any hobbies or anything you are exceptionally good at, you need to focus on that. A lot of people shoot for being a president of a club. I was a medic instructor and I used my teaching and skiing experience to teach at my local ski hill for a bit so I focused on those two things. Adcom supposedly wants to see that you're a well rounded and capable person outside of the world of healthcare. Again this is something they ask for but I took it all with a grain of salt. You aren't going to med school to become a free ride instructor at Aspen.
That's about it for entry requirements. Actually being in med school is a different beast entirely and then there's residency which is completely different from everything else.

>>2800738
>>2800743
>>2800744
And if you're serious about it then good luck. Don't let people tell you you can't do it. Don't get discouraged by the application process. After you get it all done you'll look back and realize it ain't shit.

>>2800743
>>2800744
>>2800745
Thanks, this is really helpful. Where are you on this path right now, are you already done? How do you like what you're doing currently?
Also, what should I do to make a living while doing all this to get ready to apply? I had a friend do EMT and it seemed alright, but not sure what else is out there.

>>2800675
>I posted it again
You're easily the most retarded poster to ever shit up this board. Don't pretend that anyone else but you posts your retarded meme.

25 yo boomer college student here. I’m in an environmental program in school. My classes mostly cover water/soil sampling, surveying, and GIS/AutoCAD. Is there a way to maximize /out/ exposure in these fields? Thanks to the anons who have already posted gives me some hope about this stuff.

>>2800539
Fence crew was probably my favorite job I've ever had. Great coworkers, away from other people, just hard enough to feel good but didn't kill your body. Really good job for people with zero experience. Right now I'm working in salmon hatcheries, alright but tedious. You do get to see some cool things that make it worth it. Haven't gone permanent yet, all seasonal. Hopefully soon.

>>2800776
>[angry maladaptive daydreamers sounds]
lol, if that pic hurts you this much, it's time to actually go outside son.

Does anyone have experience in forestry? Seems like it gets you outside often and has some career progression, but maybe I have the wrong impression?

>>2800916
I don’t but I know people who do. It’s a fantastic profession, you’re basically middle management for logging companies but most of them are sustainably run these days. Quite a bit of /out/door time and working with upper and lower positions in the company.

>>2800539
>what is your job
in school for land surveying
>how soul crushing is it
not much at all for me, but if you don't like numbers and interpreting decades-old property descriptions it will suck
>how to get an /out/ job out of college
College isn't necessary though if your end goal is being professionally licensed it will speed up the process greatly. Surveyors are in ridiculous demand rn, at least here in America. Most firms are backed up for months. The average age for a licensed one is like 53, they're all boomers so the "walk in with a paper resume and give the boss a firm handshake" advice can and will actually work

>>2801530
Does it pay a livable wage?

>>2801530
other surveyor here from aus, if you don't have a degree you will vaguely understand the fundamentals and properly understanding the data will be difficult. Also where I am from a degree = loads more money, no degree = button pusher.

He is right though you can do it without a degree and make an okay wage.

aus is also desperately searching for surveyors. I have considered coming to the USA to work desu to try something new.

>>2800794
Yeah, just be a tech and never seek promotion. Only the techs get to do out stuff for 17 bucks an hour. Once you get promoted it's cubicle life for you.

>>2800539
Ecologist
Depends on the schedule, largely positive though.
Have a degree in something you can conceivably apply to ecology/not be retarded in the field

>>2800539
>what is your job
"Communications Technician" ... own a couple businesses providing services for wireless, utility, and gov (state/local) radio and microwave systems.
Things like public safety radios (police/fire/med), dispatch consoles, walkie-talkies and base station radios for power plants and schools. I've worked on broadcast systems (AM, FM, and TV).
>how soul crushing is it
Not bad, actually. I like riding snowmobiles and motorcycles, I like going to the tops of mountains, and climbing on things is kind of fun. I get paid to do all of the above, and fix electronics/computery things.
>how to get an /out/ job out of college
Electrical Engineering degree, heavy on RF. 20 years in adjacent industries prior to going out on my own.

>>2800638
>have sex on every continent
it's sad how pathetic and worthless modern men's aspirations are. like with the mile high club. how does having sex at 40,000 feet give you meaning in life? no wonder everything is going to shit

>>2801626
>One man did it therefore all men are vile
You got issues lady. He was 22 and an EMT and I met him after he got back and was studying to be a hard hat diver. He was a very good rock climber, which is how I met him in the first place. He was also a solid 10/10 brick shit house and had to beat the ladies off with a stick.

If you want to cry about the destruction of modern society than thank modern feminists for no fault divorce and subsidized single mother hood. Atleast dude was smart enough to wear a rubber so he didn't get child support raped.

>>2801629
I'll smash yours and your faggot friends faces in. shut the fuck up and don't ever dare speak again

>>2801539
Honestly starting out with no degree or experience you're not likely to make any more than you would working fast food or manual labor, I think that's primarily the reason young people aren't entering the industry. From the people I've talked to though if you stick around long enough and you're not a fucking retard it can be very good money.

In the state I'm in you have to work under a professional surveyor for a certain amount of time before you're allowed to take the test. My goal is to get my license and potentially take over the firm when the guy I worked under eventually retires. If that doesn't work out I'd really like to work in the Bureau of Land Management government positions tend to have insane benefits even if the pay is a bit lower.