Help me find cool stuff to do post-graduation
August 13, 2007 2:21 PM   Subscribe

Help me find interesting, exotic, out-of-the-ordinary work/volunteer experience.

I'm planning on finishing an MS in geology this coming academic year, and I'm not sure what I want to do once I'm done. I may do something traditional (start a PhD, get a job) but I'd like to explore other options, as well. I'm looking for info on interesting things to do after graduation. Here are some criteria I'd like for the activity to fulfill:

*Travel-I'd love to visit some interesting places on someone else's dime.
*They should be brief committments, time-wise. Anything between 1-6 months is ideal. Longer is less ideal.
*Positions should be paid or have some support. The pay doesn't need to be good, but I'd rather not go into debt to do this.
*Something about the work should be a bit off the beaten path.
*It would be a bonus if the activity involves earth or environmental sciences somehow.

Any suggestions?
posted by HighTechUnderpants to Work & Money (8 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Response by poster: I couldn't figure out how to put a link in the question, so here are two examples of the sort of thing I'm looking for:

Polar Services work in Antarctica, and Volunteering at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
posted by HighTechUnderpants at 2:24 PM on August 13, 2007


Oil industry. They'll send you to Africa and Asia, pay your way, and even top it off with danger pay in some places. Canadian companies are always looking for suckers to go to Kazakhstan, Sulawesi, Nigeria.
posted by Mrs Hilksom at 2:29 PM on August 13, 2007


You could sign up for my dream alternative career and be a smokejumper. Man. Just looking at those photos made me second-guess my post-grad career choice.

It involves earth/environmental science, is outdoorsy, adventurous, travel included, and you will be the envy of every guy in the bar for the rest of your life. A firefighter who jumps out of airplanes.
posted by Brian James at 3:14 PM on August 13, 2007


Best answer: Check this out. If you have a degree and speak fluent English, the world is your oyster.
posted by Meatbomb at 4:09 PM on August 13, 2007


Best answer: Volunteering--especially internationally--is pretty expensive, most of the time. ACDI/VOCA is one of the few volunteer organizations I've seen that pays for pretty much everything. They have some, uh, 'off the beaten path' opportunities right now... develop dips and sauces in Lebanon? Improve meat production in Armenia?
Volunteer Latin America has some conservation projects where you'll be paid, or at least receive free/supercheap room and board. Here's a list of free volunteer programs in South America.

Also, check out Help Exchange for farming, homestays, and other random jobs... not much support or pay, but an interesting, cheap way to gets lots of traveling done.
posted by logic vs love at 5:16 PM on August 13, 2007




Yellowstone
posted by anaelith at 6:41 PM on August 13, 2007


WWOOFing?

As has already been pointed out above, volunteering can get expensive, if only because most of the places that want free/cheap international staff don't have the money to be paying to get them there in the first place. From the time I was looking, it seems an awful lot of the places offering short-term posts are more about the gimmickry and getting money out of potential volunteers than about doing anything really worthwhile. Good luck. (In the end I went sailing with the JST - they're a UK-based charity but their tall ship Tenacious operates in the Caribbean in the winter. Not cheap at all, but I got a discount through their Youth Leadership at Sea program, had a fantastic time and a seriously life-changing experience. A++ will hopefully sail with again!)
posted by Lebannen at 5:37 AM on August 14, 2007


« Older Does anyone know where I can find the Matchstick...   |   Did Jesus invent Grace? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.