What It’s Like To Be … A Camp Director

Last spring, I was contacted by the producer of Dan Heath’s excellent podcast, “What It’s Like To Be …” Dan and his brother, Chip, are the authors of four New York Times bestselling business books: Decisive, Switch, Made to Stick and The Power of Moments. Dan is a senior fellow at Duke University’s CASE Center, which supports social entrepreneurs. His “What It’s Like To Be …” podcast explores a variety of professions through interviews with people who love what they do. Dan describes the podcast this way: “If you’ve ever met someone whose work you were curious about, and you had 100 nosy questions but were too polite to ask … well, this is the show for you.”

I was thrilled that they reached out to me when they were thinking of making an episode about being a camp director. My experience has been that very few people understand exactly what camp directors do (especially between September and May!), so this was a great chance to shed some light on that topic. And, of course, I always love talking about camp, so I knew the interview would be great fun!

After a wide-ranging phone conversation with show’s producer, I was told that they’d get back to me. Until then, I didn’t fully realize that the phone call was a pre-interview audition! But I felt good about it and, indeed, five days later I got an email indicating that they wanted to move forward with a taped interview with Dan Heath for the podcast. Other than a quick mic check and a preview of their standard “lightning round” questions that they ask at the end of every interview, there was no advanced preparation for the interview; I was just told to expect a casual conversation about my job. Again, not intimidating from my perspective – I will happily talk about camp for hours and hours to anyone who will listen!

Not a minute into the interview with Dan, I knew that I was in great hands. He was an incredibly genuine, inquisitive, kind and well-prepared host. I could tell that he had a firm grasp on the show’s steering wheel, so to speak, but that he was flexible enough to allow the conversation to meander to its natural destinations. When the show was released in August, I was quite proud of how it turned out. We touched on a variety of aspects of camp life, from the sublime to the ridiculous. Here are a few of my highlights:

• How camp becomes a place where kids can reinvent themselves, and be the best versions of themselves
• The unusual ways in which a camp director’s job differs between the summer months and the rest of the year
• How we help young people navigate the transition from home to camp … and the transition from camp to home at the end of the summer
• Why camp friendships (and, often for staff, romantic relationships) are different from those that form anywhere else in the world
• How having cool, young counselors serving as “near-peer” role models creates unique growth opportunities for kids
• Why working at camp is great preparation for any career
• Why it’s important for camps to evolve, but also how camp traditions become reliable touchstones in a quickly changing world
• How the separation from parents is part and parcel of the magic of camp … Like so much fiction and mythology for young people (books, movies, etc.), it sometimes takes the challenge of being on your own to discover what you’re truly capable of

I hope you’ll take a listen to the Summer Camp Director episode of “What It’s Like To Be …” podcast. It was released on August 13, 2024. Find it wherever you get your podcasts, or at the show’s website: https://www.whatitsliketobe.com/

– Eric