The application process for the National Parks Business Plan Internship (BPI) is comprised of three stages – the written application, which includes two short answer questions and resume submission, a one-way video interview, and a live case interview. This post offers advice and insight on how to excel in the short answer portion of stage one, with do’s and don’ts for each component.
Question 1: Why are you interested in spending your summer working for the National Park Service? How does this internship fit into your short and long-term career plans?
DO: Show us that you’ve read the NPS mission statement and how that mission aligns with your own sense of purpose or career goals. Specific examples will help you here!
Notice that this is a two-part question and be sure to answer both parts.
DON’T: Indulge in general nostalgia about the NPS, or tell us how many parks you’ve visited. While these are lovely anecdotes that we’d love to hear over a bonfire someday, they don’t get to the heart of the question. Such answers are focused on the past, while we are most interested in how the NPS fits into your future, specifically, how this internship will launch you into the next phase of your career or the skill sets or experience you hope to build in the internship toward that envisioned future.
Question 2: Describe how you have employed quantitative and qualitative analysis to inform an important decision.
DO: Give equal weight to quantitative and qualitative analysis – you need both to succeed in this internship and for this short answer question.
Be as specific as you can within the space allowed. We love to see the outcomes of your analysis, i.e., impact on decision-making, % increase in revenue or cost savings, etc.
DON’T: Use simplistic examples, i.e. how you decided which grad school to attend. While you likely employed analysis for such a decision, it’s important to remember that NPS is comparable in some ways to a major corporation ($3B annual revenue and over 20,000 employees), so your answer should demonstrate a capacity for high-level decision-making and recommendation development. While some exceptions apply, it’s generally best to use professional examples, preferably in the contexts relevant to the BPI, i.e., business, policy, environmental management, planning, etc.
Overall Rating: Written Communication
The BPI experience will require exceptional communication skills, both written and presentation. While subsequent stages of the application process will assess your presentation skills, the short answer questions represent the best opportunity to demonstrate your skills as a writer.
DO: Be structured, specific, and concise. You’re working with a maximum of 6 sentences, so use them wisely.
DON’T: Shoehorn irrelevant information into your answers in a way that limits your ability to answer the questions directly.
Use AI – we’ll know!
Good luck and happy writing!