Employment Opportunities

Instructors work together in teams of three, drawing from each other’s individual skills and backgrounds to formulate a strong course vision. Our teams are built with a distribution of instructor responsibilities, such that there remains a balanced structure in which every instructor is able to contribute to the success of the course.

And while the essential framework and structure for the course is defined by the Dragons Administration, each team’s vision is largely supported by instructor’s personal contacts, as well as a personalized experiential curriculum. Over the 30+ years that we’ve been working with students, we’ve found that the best courses are consistently the ones where instructors’ actively direct and inform the content, breathing exceptional life into the experience.

In order to encourage our students to challenge their personal limits and to support them throughout their journeys, instructors must play a variety of roles, including:

• Leading safe, conscientious and professional programs which are sensitive to the needs and issues of students and local communities.
• Being attentive to risk and committed to the physical and emotional safety of the student group. Instructors must adhere to and maintain high standards of safety and risk management throughout the course, in many different contexts.
• Working within a team of co-instructors to facilitate successful group dynamics and to nurture growth and learning within each student.
• Offering formal and informal lessons throughout the course on subjects as wide-ranging as history and culture, geology and weather, language and indigeneity, power and politics, development, and ethical wilderness travel. Instructors must remain approachable and sensitive to students’ needs as they process their experiences and observations.

In the end, all Dragons instructors are confident in a single teaching tool: themselves! It is the power of their personalities, enthusiasm, and love of sharing adventure and inquiry which has an immeasurable impact on our students. As role models, instructors cultivate in students the necessary sensitivity to the host communities, and respect for oneself and others which results in a successful course.

Leading a Dragons program demands great flexibility, dedication and commitment, but the rewards are numerous. Many instructors consider their jobs with Dragons to be the most fulfilling career possible.

A job with WTBD is challenging, yet infinitely rewarding! Our instructors are empowered with a multitude of responsibilities, requiring a specialized skill set that many applicants possess only after spending considerable time living, working, volunteering or studying in a community within the regions where we work. Our instructors average 28 years old.

While we don’t expect that every applicant will meet all of the below criteria, the ideal candidate will:

• Demonstrate unique regional experience and fluency with strong contacts in the places where we run programs (please speak to this in your application).
• Demonstrate language skills relevant to the program area.
• Demonstrate experience leading groups and/or working with adolescents.
• Demonstrate a dedication to the field of teaching and ability to educate the whole student.
• Demonstrate an understanding of, commitment to, and skills related to teaching social and environmental justice.
• Exhibit significant experience in a relevant field (i.e. education, guiding, social justice, youth leadership development, place-based learning, non-profits, etc).
• Possess a Wilderness First Responder (WFR) or Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician (WEMT) certification.
• Demonstrate an understanding of risk management and competency navigating challenging environments.
• Demonstrate the capability to instruct a safe, educational, dynamic and engaging course for students with a diversity of identities and perspectives.
• Demonstrate the resilience, grit, stamina, and self-awareness needed to travel with and facilitate learning for groups for 4-12 weeks at a time.

These are the broadest of our instructor qualifications. As you can imagine, the specialized nature of the work means that there are also many sub-qualifications. The ideal candidate for a job with Dragons needs to demonstrate other talents, including strong interpersonal skills, technical skills, and leadership skills. There are many hats — both collective and individual — that must be worn by the members of an instructor team. The list is exhausting, and a little overwhelming, but don’t worry; we understand that few individual applicants will carry the skill set needed to wear all of them! Some may bring a wealth of local contacts; some may bring a great deal of experience working with adolescents; and some may bring a strong background in wilderness medicine and emergency response. No matter the hats that an individual wears, all are equally valued.

We seek to bring together the most qualified instructor team for every Dragons course.  We aim to contract teams of instructors whose skills, experience, and personality balance and compliment one another to provide the best experience for our students and communities. Most of our instructor teams are comprised of one Course Director and two Instructors. A Course Director is usually a veteran Dragons instructor who is a designated leader for the instructor team who facilitates the instructor team pre-course process and holds additional accountabilities during the course.

The best time to submit a new instructor application is between October and December. Our peak hiring season is from January to April, when we onboard the majority of our new instructors for summer and fall seasons. We generally begin interviews 4-6 months before course start dates. Our goal is generally to finalize instructor teams at least two months before course start dates. Our application is always open, so you can apply anytime, regardless of which season(s) you’re available to work.

When we invite someone to schedule a first interview, we will send our full pay scale document. After a second interview, we will reach out to three references. After a contract has been sent and accepted, we will conduct a background check. Contracts are issued provisionally, and may be retracted based on the findings of the background check.

Please note that we aim to form teams of instructors whose skills, experience, and personality balance and compliment one another to provide the best experience for our students, communities, and instructors themselves. This means that not being contacted for an interview or not being offered a contract does not mean we don’t value you or what you bring to Dragons, but that we may not have had the right spot for you on a given course or in a given season. We retain all of the application we receive, so you never need to reapply. You can always send along an updated CV/resume as you gain relevant experience after you’ve applied. If you applied more than 2 years ago, we encourage you to get back in touch with us if you are still interested.

Before applying to work with Dragons, you’ll want to review our Job Description & Responsibilities, so that you more clearly understand the ways in which instructor talents are brought to the forefront of both course design and course implementation.

We invest in our instructors.

Dragons offers a range of programming, including Summer, Gap Semesters, School Partnerships, Adult, and Educator experiences. We maintain consistent and fair pay rates across programs, based on three main factors: number of days in the field, relative experience, and level of responsibility on the program. Pay includes compensation for pre-program preparation work.

First-time Dragons instructors receive an entry-level salary. Instructors will be paid a higher starting salary if they have:

• An M.A. or Ph.D. in a directly relevant field
• A WFR or higher certification
• 150+ days of relative experiential education experience
• Local language fluency and 3+ years of regional experience living and working in relevant fields (cross-cultural education, development, & advocacy that can directly translate to your work in the field) related to the country in which you will work with Dragons (examples: contacts for organizations, homestays, etc)
• 4+ years prior relevant experience working in international and cross-cultural program administration with focus on curriculum development and risk management.

Each time an instructor returns to lead with Dragons, their pay level increases.

Example Pay Ranges:

• 30-day international summer course: $1,800 – $4,750 USD
• 80-day gap semester: $3,800 – $11,000 USD

We share our complete pay scale with applicants invited to a first interview.

In addition to compensation, Dragons supports instructors with a variety of professional development benefits, including:

• Access to training resources in experiential education, social justice, etc.
• Funding toward Wilderness First Aid (WFA) certification
• In-person orientations prior to programs

During programs and orientations, Dragons covers expenses for instructors, with the exception of personal items and indulgences. Dragons also covers the cost of flights to and from the location of staff training and any travel that is necessary to instruct a Dragons program.