Outdoor jobs that also stimulate the intellect.

I was wondering about jobs that involve being outdoors and active yet still combine an element of intellect.

Ive done legal exams and could go on to be a lawyer but Ive worked in the legal area for a few years and I’ve realised that being a suburban lawyer is 90% routine paperwork and can get a little boring.

So I was wondering what the best jobs were for being active and yet still make you have to think.

I reckon the best ones are either a Marine Biologist or a Field Archaeologist.

~ Wetland delineation… It can be hard work though…

The equipment is heavy… I haven’t done this as a job, only
as a class…

A strange bunch, it’s like a cult…

Ornithologist. But you gotta like getting up early. And dealing with permits and poop.

But the rewards are great (bird in the hand, and all that).

Well, I can tell you that research in forest ecology will certainly do that for you. I’d say the same thing about many other fields of evolution, ecology, and behavioral ecology research. But you’d have to go back to school for any of those, I think. Besides, you probably wouldn’t be outside all the time. Most ecology people have “field seasons”–i.e., times of the year when they’re outside doing their work. My field season is from late spring through early fall. After that, I’m often indoors, sorting through all the specimens I collected while the field season was running. I’ll spend a lot of this winter indoors, bent over my desk space, picking through the insect specimens sitting in the freezer from this summer.

When you say you want to work outside, keep in mind that you should be careful what you wish for. An anthropologist friend of mine has spent many hours working outside as an expert during excavations. She doesn’t like the outside work she has to do at all. She says it’s grueling, achingly slow, and almost completely thankless. When she started her career, she was eager to be out in the sun. Now she’d be thrilled if she could find good technicians to take over the outdoors grunt work for her.

You could be a naturalist for a park. But that pays almost nothing. Of course, foresters, rangers, and wildlife management people do a lot of their jobs outside, and they have to be both creative and intelligent to do their work well.

IPM (Integrated Pest Management) people spend a lot of time outside. Their job is to come up with ways to control pest species, using a maximum of bio-friendly techniques and a minimum of chemical pesticides. First, they go into the areas where they work to catch pest insects and other critters. They estimate how many of the pest thingies are out there. (That, by itself, can be pretty tough. Sampling in such a way that your results are accurate, and then interpereting them in a way that is even a little useful in predicting pest population events–like, say, epidemics of locusts–is definitely not for the simple-minded.) Then they come up with programs for controlling pest species. IPM people often have pretty intellectually challenging jobs. Ma Nature is pretty sharp, and even coming to a draw in a game against natural selection demands that you keep coming up with new ways (or new combinations of ways) to stave off pest species damage to crops or other plants you want to save.

Many cultural anthropologists end up spending a lot of their time outdoors while they’re living with the people they study.

Many epidemiologists–at least those who collect data, rather than those who design and run massive computer programs to help make sense of data someone else collects–do a lot of running around from place to place. They don’t necessarily work in rustically scenic places, but they’re often not deskbound.

If I think of any others, I’ll post them here.

–Scribble.

Field archaeologist is all well and good, but you can’t really just go out and “be” one. Most field archaeologists (well, any that are making a living at it) have their masters at the least, most likely a PhD.

So get yer ass in school and go for it!

I used to pitch people off waterfalls. The intellectual part came in learning how to talk them into it, and of course pulling it all off safely (read technique, analysis, training etc.). Pretty good work if you can get it. If this sort of thing is of interest, pick up a few instructor’s certifications in whatever activities turn your crank – kayaking, skiing, whatever. On a similar bent, quite a few of my friends have developed their own outdoor adventure businesses – some are scraping by, but others are doing very well. They don’t get out as much as they like, but compared to most people, the get out a tremendous amount, and have a lot of fun in the process.

Contrary to your choice, I decided to come indooors and become a lawyer, for I didn’t want to have to depend on my body in later years.

but leading infantry in the field is an extremely cerebral activity.

As for the first requirement: You’ll be seriously outdoors. For extended periods of time. Perhaps even more than you’d like.

As for the mental stimulation, you’re expected to juggle a lot of data all the friggin’ time.

Before you even meet the Bad Guy:

The basics: Where are we, what’s the condition of my unit, what are we trying to achieve, what can I do to improve the chances of success, what are the other guys on my side doing, what support can I get, what support am I expected to give ?

Then there’s the other dude out there: What will the enemy try to do, when, where, what can I do to foil him, what do I do if he manages to surprise me ?

Then start worrying about the big picture: What are the other units doing, what’s my company/battalion/brigade commander doing, what’ll his success or failure do to my plans ?

When you come in contact with the enemy you have to piece together a coherent picture with insufficient bits & pieces of info, react to your understanding of the situation and issue orders that make sense. Oh, and you have to do that very fast and look and sound confident. This is relatively easy when the enemy reacts according to your plans, something enemies are not known for doing.

All of the above while your superiors scream for information and your own troops plead for orders. It’s hard. I hold good field officers in the highest respect.

S. Norman