Outdoor Rec. Got Wrecked

March 20, 2020 2:29 AM

Haven't lost my job, but the value of my industry is plummeting. What can I start doing to prepare?

I work for a large college running outdoor recreation programming under the department of recreational sports. I'm new to my position, and I might be panicking, but I think there's a possibility that a lot of positions including mine could be under threat from the impact of Coronavirus on group activities.

If we open back up in the fall, I'll probably be able to keep my job, but otherwise we will be under scrutiny at my college.

Skills I have are pretty specific to outdoor education, although I now also have about five months of administrative experience. I enjoy education, the college student population, academics in general, all outdoor activities, and positions where I can be a part of a community focused on service and character development.

I don't have children, I am fairly adaptable, and I can pick up computer skills fairly well. I have family that depends to some degree on my income stability, due to some health conditions. I make around 47k now, I could live on less temporarily but I'd like to be able to make more

Any suggestions for trainings, research or other steps I could start taking now to increase my ability to get a job should the outdoor industry tank? Any steps I could be doing within my university system to make my program more valuable?

Thanks!

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (3 answers total)

Is there any way you can apply your knowledge to community support? If you know about outdoor recreation, you would know about food and shelter, you'd know first aid, you might be able to put yourself in service to deliver food and supplies to people who simply cannot go outside – the elderly, people with existing medical conditions.

Locally there must be people organizing mutual aid. Find them on Facebook or other online community platforms. Get in touch with them. Make yourself useful.

Thinking in terms of economics, you never know what connections you will make, while volunteering, that will be valuable to you later.
posted by zadcat at 8:15 AM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

FEMA might be hiring - they are certainly ramping up - and your skills could be appropriate and useful to them.
posted by citygirl at 9:15 AM on March 20, 2020

After this has calmed down, I think people are going to be more enthusiastic than ever to get out and celebrate the human experience
. I wouldn't at all write off your current profession. I would worry a little about colleges' eagerness to do remote teaching, but the shortcomings of that approach might become more evident now too.
posted by amtho at 10:32 AM on March 20, 2020 [2 favorites]