How to Post a farm Job or Internship

I get a lot of e-mails these days from folks who want to post a job/internship on http://www.beginningfarmers.org. Here’s how to post a farm job or internship on the site:

Simply send the description of the job/internship opportunity in word format (no bold, underlined or italic text please) to me at beginningfarmers@gmail.com. They will be posted on the blog/homepage AND a short description and link to the blogpost will be included on the Jobs/Internships page as soon as we have a chance to get them up.

What you need to send is a detailed description of the opportunity including:

1) Location and brief description of farm or organization. What do you do, and why do you want an employee/intern. And please include your website address if you have one.

2) What is expected or desired/expected from interns/employees including: experience/skills/physical requirements/hours/type of work/who they’ll answer to/and what they can expect to be doing on a daily basis/duration of the internship or Job/, and anything else that you expect (do they need their their own transportation,

3) What the employee/intern will get in return including housing/payment or other compensation including mentorship, etc. (where applicable). Farm internships in particular should not simply be considered a source of cheap labor. An expectation of education, guidance, and access to, interaction with the individual(s) offering the internship is what makes an internship/mentorship different than hired labor.

4) Instructions on how to apply (an e-mail address, phone number, or address for sending the application must be included). Please include a list of what is expected in the application packet as well (resume, cover letter, personal statement, dates available, references, or whatever you want to see…). Also be sure to include the due date for applications, and please don’t send applications with due dates less than a couple of weeks away since it may take a couple of days for them to be posted*.

5) If you can provide a picture of the farm or project this tends to help a lot in allowing potential applicants to picture themselves working on your farm or in your program. Please send separate small .png or .jpg image (not as part of the word file).

6) Please use the third person in your description of the position (refer to yourself as “they” not “we”). The reason for this is that it helps to assure that applications are sent to you, rather than to beginningfarmers.org.

7) Please do not use bold, underline, or italics. This makes it a lot easier to format your post and get it up quickly. I will be able to recognize the headers and key info, and will use color to emphasize these things.

You can find examples of job/internship postings to use as templates on the Jobs/Internships page of the site.

*Because there are only two of us posting these things, and we currently provide the service for free, please expect that it may take a few days for us to get them posted. Also, when you no longer want to receive applications, you will need to send me stating this, with the specific beginningfarmers.org web address of the post (which will be sent to you once the job is posted) so that we can remove the post from the jobs/internships page and add a statement at the beginning of the blog post indicating that the position is no longer available. We simply don’t have the capacity to keep track of this without your help.

Also, if you successful in filling the position based on the post at www.beginningfarmers.org, please consider a providing a small donation to the site so that we can continue to provide this service.
You may do so using any major credit card or a paypal account by clicking the following link”

or by sending a check or money order to:
Beginning Farmers/Taylor Reid at:
1201 Hickory St.
Lansnig, MI 48912.