Summertime (job) blues...

April 19, 2007 3:01 PM

Suggestions for summer jobs (with a few caveats)?

Even though it seems like I say this in every question but: I'm a 3rd year college student. Anyways, I got rejected from the internships I applied for and I didn't have too luck finding any jobs at the career fair at school (I'm a liberal arts major at a technical school primarily focused on engineering and the like).

So I need a summer job. While it's been previously discussed here, I have a few caveats:

1) I don't want to go home. I hate being home and I don't want to go home and temp like I did two years ago.

2) I don't want to work at Cedar Point again. It was hell and I don't want to go back. If you can suggest an another amusement park, that's fine though.

3) I want somewhere where they'll either provide me housing (free or cheap), find me housing, or subsidize me for housing.

4) I want something legit. Most of the summer jobs I've looked for while searching online i) require you to pay (like this internship program in DC), ii) are scams (ex. NYPIRG, Cutco), iii) want a high GPA of 3.2+ (mine is only 2.6 GPA).

5) I don't have a driver's license and I won't have time to get one by summer (this is a requirement for a lot of jobs, apparently)

6) While I have nothing against volunteering, I'd rather not be spending money to work for free (as in paying for food, shelter, etc.)

Other than that, I'm not fussy. I'd dig ditches if it came down to that. I don't mean to sound desperate or picky but I really need something to do over the summer so I can get money and not have to deal with my mom belittling me everyday for being a bum and not having a summer job.

posted by champthom to work & money (14 comments total)

Wait tables. Seriously. Try to get in with a local or regional chain restaurant as they are less likely to have annoying policies (like timing your performance and making you recite robotic scripts).

It's not exciting or glamorous, granted, but the pay is more than enough to support yourself and sock a little away. Many restaurants bulk up on wait staff during the summer months so finding an opening shouldn't be a problem. Plus, your coworkers will tend to be in your age group and attractive, if that's important to you.

Be sure to show up with a resumé between 10am-11am or 2pm-4pm so you don't interrupt lunch/dinner.
posted by OpinioNate at 3:16 PM on April 19, 2007

When I was in college, apparently good money could be had in working on fishing boats in Alaska. Random googling brings me here, but I'm not sure how legit that is. Now granted, this was in the early 90s before everybody made jillions of dollars writing basic HTML code for morons, and I have no idea how many fish are left in Alaska, but it would get you at least far far away from home.
posted by the dief at 3:17 PM on April 19, 2007

I had some great summer jobs through the my college's housing program. Some of it was maintanence, but they also had a big remodeling job that was going on too where we did a lot of demolition work. You might be able to score housing out of it too. Most schools don't completely shut down over summer, and they need cheap labor to keep the place up.
posted by Big_B at 3:21 PM on April 19, 2007

You could try getting a gig as a research assistant at school. In my experience these positions hire late, and it should be easy to get housing. I don't know if the professors in your liberal art hire research assistants, but you should ask around.
posted by grobstein at 3:38 PM on April 19, 2007

Work for the parks, maybe? You'd probably end up with a desk job (answering the phone, checking in campers, that kind of thing) but you might be able to score cheap housing in the park, which could be interesting. Here's an example.
posted by anaelith at 3:50 PM on April 19, 2007

When I was in college at Oklahoma State, they would rent out the dorms to kids' stay-away camps in during the long breaks. For example, there would be like a three-week science camp over the summer, or sports training camps, and the kids would stay in the dorms.

I got a job two summers in a row working as an RA for those camps, which means I was just kind of a go-to person on the floor (just like a regular RA for college students during the normal school year) and I also would work the dorms' front desks, helping students and coaches do everything from order pizza to find their way to the library.

I got free housing in the dorm I was watching over, and I also got paid pretty good money for the hours I worked at the desk — like $8 an hour, and all I did was mostly read. The job was flexible enough that I was also able to take some summer classes AND hold down a second jobs a receptionist at a hair salon. Maybe your school offers something like this?
posted by Brittanie at 3:56 PM on April 19, 2007

Be a camp counselor at a sleepaway summer camp.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 3:57 PM on April 19, 2007 [1 favorite]

Plant trees in Canada. It pays a ton, and some companies have a deal with summer camps so you can be a counselor for a while in the summer too. Of course, it's horrible, back-breaking work from what I've heard. But you'll get away from home!
posted by fermezporte at 4:23 PM on April 19, 2007

Some random ideas:

If you can afford the airfare, you can go through bunac to get a job in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand. CCUSA also offers international work opportunities.

work on a yacht

Jobs in the south pacific

Kennolyn Camps in Santa Cruz, or computer camp, or one of a million other residential camps if you wanna work with kids.

palmer gulch campground

the island house

Lake Powel

Catalina Island

outer banks

Many national and state parks offer summer jobs with housing/meals included too. It just depends where you wanna go.
posted by logic vs love at 4:31 PM on April 19, 2007

Disneyland and DisneyWorld hire summer help and puts them up in dorm-style settings.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 5:24 PM on April 19, 2007

Go to Alaska.
posted by airguitar at 6:53 PM on April 19, 2007

Mackinac Island

18-25 year olds converge from all parts for summer work. Beats the hell out of cedar point. If you can wait tables you can makes some serious money.
posted by dzot at 7:58 PM on April 19, 2007

Cool Papa Bell
I actually did try DisneyWorld when they came to campus, but they were only hiring "fall", "fall advantage", and some other tiny bit of summer and fall program.

Also, in response to the summer housing: I think the deadline for the summer housing employment has passed already, but there is a chance it's still on, so I could try that.

Otherwise, good suggestions so far. A lot of obvious stuff I actually didn't think of. Thanks, people!
posted by champthom at 9:27 PM on April 19, 2007

I went to Alaska once and it was a grand adventure. Look up Inlet Salmon in Naknek, AK. Last I heard, the fishing was getting a little slim.
posted by toastchee at 5:43 AM on April 20, 2007