How To Become A Parks Recreation Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is a parks recreation director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Doug Kennedy CPRP

If you have a passion for improving your community through beautification and recreation, you may be the right candidate for a park recreation director position.

A park recreation director is in charge of the parks and recreation department, managing parks and various recreation programs in the community. The job involves budget management, coordination with other local departments, supervision of the department, and development of strategies and policies for city parks and community programs.

To be a successful park recreation director, you have to possess outstanding leadership and management skills as the job is primarily directing and supervising people. On top of that, you may need to have at least a bachelor's degree in business, recreation management, health education, or other relevant fields. More importantly, a park recreation director position typically requires extensive leadership experience and a long residence within the community.

The responsibility that befalls a park recreation director's shoulders is no joke; making the average salary of $45,000 a year makes sense.

What general advice would you give to a parks recreation director?

Dr. Doug Kennedy CPRP

Professor, Virginia Wesleyan University

On a daily basis recreation managers must be skilled at a variety of responsibilities. Primarily these include personnel management, program planning, marketing and facility management. Recreation managers must ensure that leisure-time opportunities are available for everyone in a wide variety of locations. These include community recreation facilities, outdoor recreation areas, sporting venues, aquatic facilities and more. New professionals are key to recreation management. They tend to be a bit more focused than experienced managers who juggle a lot of balls in the workplace. Still, new professionals typically will be focused on providing programs and guaranteeing that facilities are safe and ready.

ScoreParks Recreation DirectorUS Average

Salary

3.8

Avg. Salary $48,942

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.1

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.72%

Asian 5.10%

Black or African American 12.03%

Hispanic or Latino 15.32%

Unknown 5.76%

White 61.07%

Gender

female 30.92%

male 69.08%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

9.1

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.9

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.5

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a parks recreation director

Explore parks recreation director education requirements

Most common parks recreation director degrees

Bachelor's

70.7 %

Associate

12.2 %

Master's

10.1 %

Start to develop specific parks recreation director skills

Skills	Percentages
Aquatics	16.94%
Recreation Programs	8.18%
Flag Football	5.78%
Recreational Facilities	4.76%
CPR	4.60%

Complete relevant parks recreation director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New parks recreation directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a parks recreation director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real parks recreation director resumes.

Research parks recreation director duties and responsibilities

Manage recreation staff and programming for assist living and rehabilitation and skil nursing facilities.
Perform minor first aid and CPR as needed.
Acquire MDS data for the use of the clinical reimbursement team, as well as assessed patients.
Examine injure persons and administer first aid or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, if necessary, using training and medical supplies and equipment.

Get parks recreation director experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a parks recreation director. The most common roles before becoming a parks recreation director include internship, supervisor team lead and cashier.

Prepare your parks recreation director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your parks recreation director resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a parks recreation director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable parks recreation director resume templates

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