Working for the National Park Service was never on Heather’s radar, but after interning at a few different NPS sites after college, she got bit by the parkie bug and discovered that working in parks was the right fit for her. Today, Heather joins us virtually to talk about her work as a remote administrative support assistant, or as Ranger Jake calls it, “the grease of the Yellowstone machine!”

View definitions and links discussed in this episode at go.nps.gov/WhatWeDoPodcast

---

TRANSCRIPT:

---

Miles: You know.

Miles: From Yellowstone National Park. This is what we do. I'm Miles Barger.

Jake: And I'm Jake Frank. You know.

Miles: Hey, Jake. How's it going?

Jake: Miles, I mustache is looking super good today.

Miles: Yeah, our podcast listeners can't see my new magnificent mustache.

Jake: But, guys, it is spectacular.

Miles: To use mustache wax. That's the tip. Yeah. today we're going to be talking to Heather Basak. she's an administrative support assistant, real stones division of resource education and youth programs. We call it Rippy for short. before we get started, though, a little trivia question for you, Jake.

Jake: Bring it.

Miles: I don't know how you would know this, but you can make a good guess. How many seasonal employees does r e y p employ in the busy summer season? Rounded to the nearest ten. What do you think? 100 were pretty close. A little over.

Jake: 90.

Miles: One more.

Jake: 70.

Miles: 80.

Jake: I did that on purpose.

Miles: Nice. I think the four positions would be 83, but somewhere around 80. That's a lot. It is a lot. There's a lot that goes into, it goes into that, including hiring all those people and doing paperwork and doing budgeting and all sorts of fun things. so.

Jake: You got to pay the people.

Miles: We got to pay them. We we like to. and then one note, if you notice a difference in sound quality for this episode, there's a good reason for that that we're going to get into during this episode. Heather is a fully remote employee, so we're doing our interview via video chat. So the sound might be a little bit different and that's on purpose.

Miles: So you ready? Heather? Ready as you'll ever be. Yep. Heather, that is good to see you as always. So first question to kick it off, when and where did you get your start in the National Park Service? Or if you got started in something that led into the Park Service, you could even start with that. Sure.

Heather: so I never thought I would actually be working for the National Park Service. And I grew up like, I mean, we didn't know existed national parks. We didn't really do that. We did other types of vacations, but never the parks. So that was on never on my radar. And it wasn't until I was in college that I visited my first national park and the national park in Texas.

Heather: And wonderful trip. I had a blast. Beautiful. But again, I didn't it get. I never thought that I would work for them. And in 1820, towards the end of college and I didn't have a job. What exactly? Sure. What I wanted to do. I was thinking about going to museum studies because I was like a political figure. but I didn't have anything lined up.

Heather: And I actually saw a poster and one of the buildings in my college, and it was for the Student Conservation Association, or SCA, and it talked about internships and public lands. And I thought it could be something. To look into. I don't really have anything lined up. I'll look into it. So I went on their website.

Heather: And kind of internships like service, management service, doing a lot of that service park ranger type jobs. But then there were other internships like archeologist or, territorial intern that was really interested. I was really interested in scattered throughout the park. I was going to state, so I did her first internship with a National Park Service site in Kansas called Fort Scott starts right at the curatorial intern.

Heather: And I was working a lot with collections to prepare of that, and I really enjoyed it. Had other part of that internship was doing around the old military fort. And I got to see a little bit of living history in a fort. This is pretty cool. This is pretty fun. Maybe this is something I want to look into more.

Heather: So then I decided to do a second internship. After that, and FCA from Denali National Park and Preserve, and I got to see. I met Jake and we worked together, and I was really there. And I thought, okay, this is something I might want to do for the rest of my life. They were amazing people to work with.

Heather: there were beautiful things to see and do, and I never would have been never going to have probably visited the without first going to Fort Scott and doing other internships. Not just something I really, really want to do. And so then, just to be sure, I did one more internship with SCA, this time at Big Bend.

Miles: National Park and right back to where you started.

Heather: So it kind of feels like it came full circle, like it was the first national park I visited. Then it is National Park. That kind of really was like, yeah, this is definitely what I want to do is unique experience. I got to do it as visit as a visitor and then also be an employee or an intern there.

Heather: And so I thought this it this is what I want to do. And then from there I made the jump to like this and Wildlife Service and then National Park Service worked a couple of seasonal positions at different national parks and then eventually made that right into a permanent. Position in Yellowstone. And now as an administrative support assistant.

Jake: So I have a few. That was that was a a varied background. So couple things you mentioned, living history. Did you get to wear like period appropriate? like, I don't know, is it costumes is the right word or clothes? That was a while ago.

Heather: Some everything that happens. But it was just very special service. I know time Fort Scott by candlelight and it was close to Christmas time. And they had like different vignettes and all these different military buildings where we would act out scenes of what would have happened, in these different buildings. And I got to be a military long dress.

Heather: And so I got to be where kind of more in our 19th century garb and, pretend to be out doing the, the soldiers laundry. So that was pretty unique. It was really it was really great.

Jake: Yeah. And then the other thing she mentioned that the people she worked with and and they were really great. I just want to like, concur that I am very grateful.

Miles: That I got to.

Jake: Get that on the record.

Miles: I think. When were you guys there? I was there 2008 and 910.

Jake: 2012 is when you were there, right? Heather. Yes.

Miles: That okay. So I missed you. I was a little earlier.

Jake: Yeah. There there is.

Miles: Like all the best people.

Jake: Our listeners there is like a legit like if you've worked in Alaska, you have like a camaraderie with the people in Alaska because it gets into your own, like such a cool place. Like, yeah, you can tell from Heather, she's like, I went to Alaska. And then I realized this is what I wanted to do. Like, it's just really cool.

Miles: Yeah, I resemble that remark.

Jake: So out of those, out of all those jobs that you did to get you to Yellowstone, all the seasonal jobs was there. Did you have any repeat jobs or where did you move, like every season? Was it a different job?

Heather: So good question. And so I well I worked at the. Fish and Wildlife pageant very similar to I was a park ranger, interpretive park ranger for them. And I worked with, preschool kids and did a preschool program for them, and then kind of translated that into the National Park Service. I did interpretive park ranger job. so a lot of the kind of hikes, the guided parks in walks, that's the thing working in the visitor center, helping people around.

Heather: but then I worked, also as a campground greeter, ranger, in great shape along with National Park. got to help people check in campsites, go to a campground, meals, walk around, talk to them, educate them about the park. and then I work with the Yellowstone and worked as a reminder. So I worked in the what's called the classroom and, and all the money that came in from the entrance stations and the visitor centers reconciled all that money, and then got it ready for deposit and then also worked in the visitor services office in Yellowstone.

Heather: helping people plan their trips and then work on some special use permit. so I didn't move around a little bit, but I was kind of I might have been in a little bit different, but seasonally, because I had I was with my husband and he had a permanent job at some of these places. Yeah. So I, I stuck around in some of these parks probably a little bit longer than others, seasonal soup.

Heather: And then I can then move around a little bit and follow their job. Or I was and more in one area for a longer time.

Jake: Yeah, I was, I was asking because my until I got my first permanent job, I moved 12 times in six years. So it was every six months. I was on to something else though, like that's that is part of the lifestyle. And then your permanent okay.

Miles: So where are you joining us from right now.

Heather: So I work I believe in my from Boise Idaho.

Miles: and how long have you been working fully remote. Is it been two years?

Heather: Oh, that's a that's a great question. And then and probably about a year and a half.

Miles: Okay. Okay. so what does, do you have a typical day? What does your typical day look like? You have a typical day. So I don't think there ever really is a typical week.

Heather: for an administrative support assistant. because