A Genuine Review of Pali (read before you apply)
Pros
Meeting some incredible people from all walks of life, in all stages of life, who will certainly become long term friends. California nature.
Cons
Here's the no-BS review of Pali you all need. I write this without malice, I wasn't fired or have had any real wrongs done to me by Pali. I completed my one season in Spring 2026 and decided to move on. I hope this serves as an honest guide to any prospective employee hoping to be employed by Pali Institute. If I were to describe to a friend what I did, I would say that I worked at an outdoor education institute and I teach kids. But the job unfortunately goes so much further than that. You are expected to work (if in cabin), nearly 14 hours a day or 70 hours a week. If you count your time asleep in the cabin, where you are expected to be awake if any needs arise, that number jumps close to 100 hours a week. While the actual work itself is relatively simple, it is these insane hours that chew up and spit out instructors. If you look at the actual compensation, not the "$1000 a week total compensation!" on the job listing, you get roughly $500 a week as base pay, and $50 a night in cabin, which with 4 nights in cabin, is max $700 a week. If you passed any elementary math class, congrats. $700 is indeed less than 1000. And divide that by 70 hours your pay rate is roughly $10 an hour. You can also become a school lead or ropes lead for $30 extra. $30 extra a day? A school? Nope! $30 a WEEK to increase your responsibilities significantly, all for less than the price of a Big Mac each day. Now would Pali make any attempt to make that up or give bonuses? Nope! They actually find ways to screw you over with 7 day pay laws, shifting your schedule so your 7 days doesn't end on a Sunday. You can theoretically work 10 days straight and not see this mandatory 1.5x pay. They claim to be altruistic when it comes to this, saying "We gave you a little break Monday/Tuesday!" and "Take time off for yourself!" when in reality, it's directed so they don't have to pay that extra cash for working you extended periods of time. And good luck trying to get time off approved when you do. Your best bet is just calling out sick, as my time off was denied despite it being well in advance. This leads to burnout and no real motivation to take care of yourself at all. Low morale contributes to a less than twenty percent retention rate. If you want to call yourself a premier outdoor institute, maybe focus on making people want to stay first! Now moving on to the culture, I found Pali's work culture mostly fine. I generally liked almost all the OE staff, and found amazing friends and people I enjoyed being in the company of. There are great people here, and finding and hearing people's stories and life experiences is great. The social scene can be a bit cliquey, but that is nothing compared to leadership. Leadership, despite some being good, honest people, is filled with some of the most incompetent people imaginable. None of these people should really be able to manage a school bake sale, let alone other staff. Each leadership position genuinely has a downside. The Program Coordinators spend more time picking colors for the schedule than putting together something that makes sense and classroom materials are either never stocked, in horrible condition, or are not adequate for teaching. SAS coordinators don’t actually seem to do anything and they get assigned the most random tasks because they don’t have responsibilities aside from being Pali Principals. Education coordinators write a curriculum that could vastly be updated, especially since the Forest Ecology and Freshwater Biology classes don’t mention climate change at all. You’re also forced to teach the same classes to fifth graders and eighth graders for some reason. The Assistant Ropes directors are cool. But as for everyone else? They will complain when you ask them to do anything, and there’s just a general sense that leadership lets go of all responsibilities when they finally get their penthouse office in the sky. Not to mention, the leadership selection is largely based on who can either suck up to upper leadership or is dating someone who is already a leadership member. This isn’t even an open secret. It is literally just something that happens. They want someone who will be their yes-man, someone who won’t question what upper leadership does, and someone who fits nice and neat into their little gang. There’s an us and them mentality in the leadership that honestly makes it less enjoyable. They also don’t know how to project or speak up during meetings. Stand up, project, and orate in a way that can be said. Said meetings also regularly take 30 minutes and it’s clear your time isn’t respected. The upper leadership also just constantly makes decisions not in the best interest of the common employees. Again, all I ask is for them to remember when they were an instructor, and think of and listen to your staff. I’d stay away from Pali for these reasons. There’s so much more that I could go into for just how exploitative this place is. If you are in any way educated, think of your education and how you were taught to advocate for yourself. This is a trap for low-income 20-somethings who may feel lost in life or just need the money. But you have self worth. Don’t work at Pali.