We’ve featured jobs at a botanical garden before, but we thought it was time to reach out to those plant science and botany majors again. It’s especially appropriate because spring is in full force at One Day, One Job Headquarters. Everything has bloomed, and not only is it beautiful here, but it also smells great. As soon as we open a door or window we’re hit with a fragrant burst of springtime. Since we hear from a lot of people that we focus too much on jobs in New York and California (hey, that’s where a lot of the jobs are), the addition of the Chicago Botanic Garden to our employer profiles should be welcome.

Chicago Has Great Flora and Fauna

You may have heard that a wild cougar was recently shot by police in downtown Chicago and that another was sighted shortly afterwards. Usually big cities don’t get that much wildlife action, which is why things like botanic gardens were created – to make sure things didn’t get too urban. “The 385-acre Garden features 23 display gardens and three native habitats, uniquely situated on nine islands surrounded by lakes.” It sounds wonderful. I haven’t been there yet, but I’m in Chicago often enough that I will make a visit sooner or later. Once I go, I’ll leave a comment on this post with my observations. There are three core components to what the Chicago Botanic Garden does: collections, education, and research. There are job opportunities that touch on all three of areas, but most of the current openings are geared towards the education side.

Jobs for People Who Stop and Smell the Flowers

The good news is that the Chicago Botanic Garden has a wide variety of employment opportunities for new college grads. The bad news is that you have to look in a few different places to find them. That’s not really bad news though, because we’ve done all the hard work for you. Everything can be accessed from their Jobs page, which includes permanent, year-round positions at the Chicago Botanic Garden. There is only one job in this category that would be considered entry-level, and it’s as a Part-Time Horticultural Specialist, Plant Information Service (it’s 25 hours per week).

The next place to look for jobs is on the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Seasonal Employment page. Many of these jobs are actually perfectly suited to new grads, so they might be a great way to transition into something more permanent. Most of these jobs require or prefer a relevant college education, and they are, for the most part, only available during the summer. Current openings include: Camp CBG Instructor, College First Instructor, Plant Collections Specialist, Science First Assistant Instructor, Science First Program Assistant, Landscape Laborer, Natural Areas Land Management Assistant, Tram Tour Guide, and Visitor Services Assistant.

Finally, the Chicago Botanic Garden offers a number of different internships. That link will take you to One Day, One Internship, where we will cover the specific internships in depth. This should be of interest to new college grads because the Chicago Botanic Garden has an internship program that is specifically geared towards transitioning new college graduates into full-time employment with government agencies. That means that anyone who is looking or a full-time botany related job should not overlook internships with the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Although full-time entry-level opportunities are a bit sparse, the Chicago Botanic Garden offers quite a few interesting alternatives for a new college graduate. Their jobs website is really well done, and all of their job descriptions are well written and informative. They even put “Filled” in red text next to any job that they are no longer hiring for. That’s a really nice touch. We imagine that they’ll add more entry-level jobs periodically, so keep your eye on their website.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• ChicagoBotanic.org
• Jobs at the Chicago Botanic Garden
• About the Chicago Botanic Garden
• Explore the Chicago Botanic Garden
• The Chicago Botanic Garden’s Annual Report

How is spring coming along where you are?

We've identified Chicago Botanic Garden as having career opportunities in the following categories:

• all employers
• biology
• botany
• education
• Illinois
• manual labor
• non-profit
• program development
• research
• teaching

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