10 things you need to know to prepare for the USDA Forest Service hiring event at the Society of American Foresters (SAF) National Convention

Ahead of the hiring event in Baltimore this September, USDA Forest Service Forester Casey Sigg shares his best practices for making it the most positive experience possible.

In the earliest days of the global pandemic, favorite social past times got traded in for hobbies and interests that involved less interpersonal contact. Casey

Sigg made the most of the challenges we all faced by tapping into a bevy of new knowledge. Casey spent hours sifting curiously through treasured back issues of the Journal of Forestry (JOF). The magazines hadn’t been touched for decades. For Casey, a forester with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, discovering the dusty stash of magazines at the Bent Creek Experimental Forest in Asheville, North Carolina, was like hitting a jackpot of untold diaries. Each magazine was packed full of hints of what life was like for foresters long before he had ever dreamed of becoming one. An English literature graduate, Casey stitched together his observations to create his own article for the JOF. Casey’s story, “Lessons from Yesterday’s Foresters,” was published the following year in December, 2021.

In his article, Casey highlighted excerpts from the JOF magazines, including this one: “Clean air, clean water, and the wood that makes up our homes are all products resulting from forest management. The work we do as foresters is too important to remain unknown to most of society.”

“I was moved by how many topics are still relevant today,” Casey said.

Casey might not have stumbled into the magazines, or the internship with the Forest Service had it not been for the hiring event at the Society of American Foresters National Convention in 2019. For years prior to that time, Casey had worked toward his goal of becoming a forester, and participating in the event had a pivotal influence on his career path.

At the time of the event, Casey was pursuing a graduate degree in forestry at the Michigan Technological University – or “MTU” – in Houghton, Michigan where he received word  about the event.

“Everyone who is in the forestry profession should attend the SAF National Convention at least once,” Casey said. “It is amazing for so many people in forestry to come together in one place from across the United States.”

At the hiring event, Casey was able to meet with recruiters, which eventually led to an interview for his internship with the Forest Service. 

“It’s great to get that face-to-face interaction,” Casey said. “A recruiter from every USDA Forest Service region was there.”

His internship provided work experience he taps into every day now in his full-time position as a forester on the Huron-Manistee National Forest. Casey is responsible for putting volume appraisals, minimum bids, maps, stipulations of timber sales and operations, and more information into contracts that go out for bid for timber sales.

Casey also gained experience with the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS); he sharpened his project management skills and gained experience in managing forest inventory and cruising on the Nantahala National Forest. There, he collected and provided data to the district silviculturist. He also helped create FVS training guides and more.

Here are 10 key things that helped Casey prepare for the Society of American Foresters hiring event:

1. Get clear about what you want to do. “I knew already then that two of my key job interests are biometrics and silviculture,” Casey said. “I like the physical adventure of being out in the woods, and then the mental adventure of science. Know your main reasons for wanting to work for the Forest Service.”
2. Study the job opportunities in advance. Understand the mission, and your passion for it. “Get really familiar with the agency and the reasons why you want to work with the agency,” Casey said. “Know how the organization is set up. I was laser-focused on where I wanted to go. I saw the posting for the internship ahead of time, and I knew that I wanted it.”   
3. Do the work. Do the work in the years leading up to the event that will help build and strengthen your resume. Before the hiring event, Casey worked for two years as a seasonal forestry technician on the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests, and another two years in forestry positions with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
4. Arrive early. This will help you feel better organized and able to interact with more recruiters with less people there. “I was there super early,” Casey said. “I was the first one in the computer lab that is there to help people navigate USAJobs.gov.”
5. Mentally rehearse. “I had such passion and interest in wanting to be a forester; mentally rehearse so you are ready to express that,” Casey said. “Get with your career counselor at school and see if you can do a mock interview. Rehearse for those topics that will definitely come up, like safety, for one example.”
6. Create an informative, attractive resume. “Be direct and to the point with your experience.” Casey said. “I keep my resume to two pages.” Layout and formatting are just as important. “More white space makes a resume more pleasing to the eye,” he said. “Reach out to Human Resources. There are people out there to help you.”
7. Plan questions in advance. “In the interview for the internship, I asked about training opportunities,” Casey said. His questions showed interest and willingness to learn while demonstrating his knowledge of the positions and the work involved.  
8. Reach out to people. Casey emailed supervisors to introduce himself, and reached out to potential mentors. “Even with all of the isolation that we felt at times in recent years, I still felt a sense of connection,” he said. The mentor he was assigned during his internship, Rachael Dickson, silviculturist on the Pisgah National Forest, was particularly helpful. “She was great at sharing what had made her successful in her career and was really committed to developing my silviculture skills,” he said. He felt that he was able to rely on the support of many co-workers when things got stressful. He was supportive of them, too. “The joy of coming to the Forest Service is that there is such great community at a district,” Casey said.
9. Stay physically active. “Try to stay physically active as much as you can,” Casey said. For him, that includes cross-country skiing, mountain biking or running. Soon, he will be headed to Copper Harbor in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
10. Stay inspired. “Remind yourself, at the end of each day, that it is a privilege to be able to get to do the work that we do. Remember, day-to-day, we might get bogged down with the details, but understand that the most important thing is that we serve the public.”