Great Outdoor Careers
If you love the outdoors, there's absolutely no reason you should be stuck behind a desk for 40-50 hours per week. There are many ways to earn a good living working outside the office.
By and large, outdoor jobs offer some of the most amazing benefits of any category; beautiful settings, physical activity, fresh air - and you get to work in a field that is often your passion on top of your occupation. Of course, the salaries, educational requirements and places where you'll work will depend on the type of career you choose.
Here are CareerExplorer's Outdoor Career Picks ~
This article will be covering the following careers:
| Career | Avg Salary | Satisfaction | Your Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surveyor | $70k | 2.9/5 | |
| Landscaper | $37k | 3.0/5 | |
| Archaeologist | $67k | 3.7/5 | |
| Geographer | $82k | 3.4/5 | |
| Forester | $63k | 3.5/5 | |
| Volcanologist | ?? | ?? | |
| Photojournalist | $51k | 4.0/5 | |
| Marine Biologist | $47k | 4.1/5 | |
| Tour Guide | $26k | 3.6/5 |
Are these careers suited to you? Our comprehensive career test measures your personality traits and interests and matches you to over 800 careers.
1. Surveyor
Land surveyors enjoy working outside and don't mind working in all types of weather. They sometimes climb terrain with heavy packs of instruments and are on their feet for extended periods of time.
Surveyor
A surveyor is someone who establishes official land, airspace, and water boundaries.
2. Landscaper
Landscapers love to work outside completing projects ranging from building retaining walls to starting flower gardens from scratch. They specialize in creating unique outdoor living spaces for their customers.
Landscaper
A landscaper is someone who earns a living by adjusting earth and water in order for it to become more aesthetically pleasing.
3. Archaeologist
An archaeologist's work is based in a variety of locations, including indoors in laboratories, museums and offices, and outdoors at excavations or site inspections, which can be conducted in all kinds of weather.
Archaeologist
Most people’s understanding of archaeology comes from TV shows like Indiana Jones.
4. Geographer
Geographers often travel to the region they are studying, which sometimes includes foreign countries and remote locations, to gather information and data on climate and weather, water, soils, and landforms.
Geographer
A geographer is someone who studies the earth and its land, features, and inhabitants.
5. Forester
Foresters spend most of their time in remote outdoor places. This leads them to challenging locations and sometimes having to deal with working conditions that include just about anything mother nature can dole out.
Forester
A forester is a professional who is involved in the science of managing forests.
6. Volcanologist
Work can take volcanologists hiking through mountains in all kinds of weather, going to the mouth of volcanoes and watching them erupt, and collecting samples of debris and rocks to examine in the lab.
Volcanologist
A volcanologist is a highly educated specialist in geophysics who studies active and inactive volcanoes.
7. Photojournalist
Some photojournalists travel extensively, and yet others stay closer to home, working for local newspapers. Conditions may not always be optimal, as weather could be a factor, and some situations may be dangerous.
Photojournalist
A photojournalist is someone who photographs, edits, and displays images in order to tell a visual story.
8. Marine Biologist
It would not be unusual to find a marine biologist working in a tide pool, a swamp, a mangrove forest, a coral reef, or any place on earth that supports marine life. Travel to interesting places is one of the perks for this career.
Marine Biologist
A marine biologist is someone who is interested in learning and studying marine organisms and what their lives are like in their natural habitats.
9. Tour Guide
Tour guides take people on sightseeing trips and tours of particular countries, cities, historical sites, and tourist attractions. Nature tour guides work outside and are subject to the effects of climate and weather conditions.
Tour Guide
Tour guides work in the travel industry, giving guided tours to groups of visitors.