What have you done for YOU lately?

The case for personal professional development

Teaching in the field can be so time-consuming (and energy consuming) that practitioners forget to take time for themselves.  You might have a daily yoga practice and get out regularly to run, but what are you doing for your professional self? How are you paving the path to your next career move? How have you made yourself indispensable in your current position – or how are you building your skills to shift your career path?

These questions can feel overwhelming if you are already working 12-hour days, looking at an email inbox with 136 unanswered emails, and feeling guilty about not revising your incident response plan.  How could you possibly take on one more thing?  I argue: how could you not?

Professional development sometimes feels like something that you do for your employer – attending the state-mandated food handler training, keeping your Wilderness First Responder certification current, clicking through the slides for the online driver training – but I’m talking about enriching your professional skills, taking time to connect with people who are passionate about outdoor programs, and dreaming about your future. 
 
Here are seven ideas to keep your skills fresh, your professional network growing, and your next move on the horizon:

1. Attend a workshop-based professional meeting this winter. Suggestions for experiential and outdoor educators include:
   • Association for Experiential Education Conference (October 27 – 30, 2016 in Minneapolis, Minnesota)
   • Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education Conference (November 9-11, 2016 also in Minneapolis, Minnesota)
   • Association for Challenge Course Technology (February 2-5, Savannah, Georgia)
   • Wilderness Risk Management Conference (the next meeting is October 2017 in Portland, Maine but find resources from past conferences here)
2. If you can’t make it to a conference, attend an online webinar or sign up for an online course.
3. Join your local Toastmasters club to improve your public speaking skills
4. Conduct an informational interview with someone who has a job that interests you.
   • Email them or message them on LinkedIn to ask if they’d be willing to talk to you for 20 minutes about what they do.
   • Write a short list of questions to ask while you’re on the phone.
   • Keep your conversation to 20 minutes unless they say they have more time.
5. Read a few job descriptions – focusing on the responsibilities and qualifications summaries – to find positions that might interest you now or in the future. 
   • OutdoorEd.com
   • National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) job listserv
   • Chronicle Vitae (for higher education jobs)
6. Join a LinkedIn group to expand your professional network and start a discussion about a topic that has been on your mind:
   • Conservation and Environmental Education Resource Network
   • Outdoor Education Professionals
   • National Society for Experiential Education
   • Council for Adult & Experiential Learning (CAEL)
   • Outdoor Experiential Learning Forum
7. Sign up for Educate Wild! Weekly Inspiration (that was a shameless self-plug!)
8. Bonus: you can always brush up on your wilderness first aid skills…
   1. Wilderness Medical Institute
   2. Wilderness Medical Association
   3. AIRIE Backcountry Medicine
   4. SOLO

 
Dr. Angie Moline is the founder of Educate Wild! and an adjunct faculty member in the School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability at Northern Arizona University.