It's the time of year when states' departments of fish and wildlife begin recruiting for their wildlife positions that include wildlife management, law enforcement and community outreach and education. These positions are called various names depending upon the state. In Colorado, the positions are District Wildlife Managers. In Wyoming, they are Game Wardens. Other states, they are Conservation Officers.

Are these positions for you? If the following description appeals to you, you may want to do more research to check it out.

• Most of your time will be spent working outdoors and the work you do helps protect wildlife.
• You apply your biology and science knowledge everyday to your work.
• You present information on wildlife to a variety of audiences – the community, local non-profits, government officials, and school groups.
• There is no such thing as a typical day in your job, but the hours may be long.
• You get to explore the wilderness and have opportunities to see wildlife in their natural habitat.
• A large part of the job is interacting with the general public (especially wildlife recreationists) on a daily basis.
• You first year salary is competitive; you get great benefits and job stability.
• You will use your conflict management skills and enforce the laws of the state including checking licenses and enforcing hunting regulations.

Colorado, Wyoming, Washington, and New Mexico have all posted their positions with the Career Center. Log into CareerRAM and enter the following job ID numbers to find the positions:

• Colorado – 58420 – District Wildlife Manager
• New Mexico – 58583 – Conservation Officers
• Washington – 58398 – Fish & Wildlife Enforcement Officer I
• Wyoming – 54829 – Game Warden

Interested in another state? Go directly to the state web page and do some exploring to find the wildlife opportunities in that state.

Posted by Barbara Diehl, Career Center Liaison to the Warner College of Natural Resources

Building a good resume is easier than you think. Even volunteer positions can count as experience, particularly if you do something that involves organizing an event, recruiting volunteers, languages, tutoring, or program development. I know, school just started and your schedule is really full. But volunteer positions are easier to fit into your schedule. The Student Involvement Fair , hosted by the SLICE office, is September 3rd in the LSC open area and there is a great website for Fort Collins where you can search for positions as well: http://www.firstcall211.org/

You can also get experience in an internship and still be helping a nonprofit. The Colorado Nonprofit Association has an internship board at http://www.coloradononprofits.org/internships.cfm.  Also, we post internships on CareerRam in nonprofits. To search, select nonprofit/philanthropy as the industry (and/or) human services and then select internships from the position type. Denver Rescue Mission, Community Foundation of Northern Colorado, First Nations Development Institute, and Global Explorers are just a few organizations that come up with internships right now on CareerRam. Plus, it gives you an opportunity to see if you would want to work for a nonprofit. I was just visiting a local nonprofit called Project Self-Sufficiency yesterday. Their mission is to help single parents, the group most likely to fall below the poverty line, to get all the resources they need to succeed. What sort of mission do you have? How can you do work you love?

Posted by: Wendy Rose, Liberal Arts Career Center Liaison

Making the Difference is a great resource for researching opportunities in the Federal Government. Check out their website at: http://www.makingthedifference.org/index.shtml

Posted by Mary Christensen, Career Liaison-College of Agricultural Sciences

It's well known that the current generation of college students and graduates is service oriented. As you approach graduation, you may want to consider taking some time to make a difference in the world through organizations like Teach for America, Peace Corps, and Americorps. Check out this Wall Street Journal article about doing just that: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121503662915324339.html?mod=2_1559_leftbox.

Build your skills, add experience, make a difference . . . sounds like a plan!

Posted by Barbara Diehl, WCNR Career Center Liaison