Jobs in Seattle

April 17, 2004 7:16 PM

Okay, there's just so much stuff at monster.com and jobhunter.com and classifieds, etc. What is the easiest, most painless way to go about finding a fulltime summer job for this summer that pays more than, say, 8 dollars an hour. (Me = 19 year old Seattle undergraduate without paid work experience for the last 17 months and who has forgotten how to look for jobs. Would not want to do anything too personally demeaning (minimal toilets, please)) Where should I look and is it too early/late to start?
posted by Slimemonster to Work & Money (13 answers total)

Try a temp agency. You can obviously use a computer, so you probably have enough office skills to pick up some temp work for the summer.
posted by JanetLand at 7:24 PM on April 17, 2004

Network, baby! Start asking friends/family/etc if they personally know anyone hiring, and see if they can put in a good word for you. Most of the time, employers will be much more likely to hire you if they have someone that's vouched for you (I've known people that beat out others with more qualifications because the boss could trust they'd be reliable, hard working, not crazy, etc).

If that's a deadend, put some nice clothes on and start knocking on doors. Employers will delete emails, pitch faxes and letter without a thought, but if you can at least give them a face to put with a name, it could help.
posted by dicaxpuella at 7:46 PM on April 17, 2004

If your college has a career center or a career fair do that. I gave out a hundred resumes at my school's two-day fair and ended up with my current (4+ year) job. The employers are there because they need students.

I also used the pseudospam route. When I was looking for summer jobs, I looked in the paper for companies offering positions to people with several years' experience and mass-emailed all of them, trying to make it look as much as possible like a direct email. I attached a resume and cover letter. I ended up with a job from that.

Also, if your college has a career center or a career fair do that. I gave out a hundred resumes at my school's two-day fair and ended up with my current (4+ year) job.

Networking (father's friend) got me a different summer job.
posted by callmejay at 8:36 PM on April 17, 2004

Slimemonster, I'm not sure where you go to school, but if it happens to be UW, I can verify from experience that your department can usually get you a job that is easy, looks good on a resume, builds skills for your field of study, and gets you good contacts. However, all of those sorts of jobs do pay around $8 an hour. Normally it's only part-time, but over summer they allow full time. Personally, I chose to forego slightly more lucrative jobs to do work for various professors for about $8/hr, but the other benefits have outweighed the money, in my opinion.

Other than that, pretty much the only way I know to get a good summer job is to rely on nepotism or family connections.
posted by Hildago at 8:44 PM on April 17, 2004

Other than that, pretty much the only way I know to get a good summer job is to rely on nepotism or family connections.

Or luck. I got my current supervisor job in school because the bosses had a slight oversight and forgot to assign one of the daily supervisor slots. I happened to be the only student-worker during the summer so the job went to me by default.
posted by jmd82 at 9:42 PM on April 17, 2004

The always interesting craigslist.
posted by ajr at 9:48 PM on April 17, 2004

If you like physical work, being outdoors, call construction/demo companies, landscape gardeners, etc., they'll often hire labour just for the summer, and the pay can be quite good.
posted by carter at 6:49 AM on April 18, 2004

On the temping front, data entry is fairly painless and can pay a few bucks more than minimum if you're a fast and accurate typist. Obviously fairly mindless work, but not as demeaning as office temping can be, and you can wear headphones all day. Hours are flexible, you can do later shifts if you're a late riser, and if you don't want to work on a particular day, just tell them you're not coming in. (Disclaimer: based on my experience. Maybe I just got lucky).
posted by Gortuk at 8:11 AM on April 18, 2004

I work within the "construction industry" as they say, and I will advise against doing just that. Right now construction is tight. You'll likely get turned away for the guy who has 2-3 kids and is 40 years old. Of course this is general building construction...

Might I recommend pharmacist assistant? Ok the job is hard, and you can't smoke pot (drug tests) but you'll pay will go up and it's generally easy to find work, pharmacists are always short staffed. It's great life experience as you learn how much people are dicks and should all go into a gas chamber and die. No, it did not make me bitter. You'll learn a lot about medications and such. I worked fourty hours my first weeks there.

I was in a similar situation as you last summer, and what happened was me working a shitty job and then everything coming into place. It's amazing how fast good jobs come once employers realize you're working. I can't explain it but I couldn't find shit and then within two months I kept getting offers, I guess once I was seen as not another rich kid who was a bad low-level worker.

Oh and I didn't go to any college career center, I've heard great luck with those.
posted by geoff. at 8:32 AM on April 18, 2004

While at university (admitedly this was a few years ago) I worked summers as a county park ranger. This consisted of a lot of cleaning up after visitors (emptying garbage cans and cleaning toilets), but there was also the four wheel drive truck and the job of "patrolling" the undeveloped areas. Plus, you got to be outdoors. Wouldn't want to do it as a career, but it was fun for summers.

Anyhow, check the public sector. They tend to hire extra help for parks, and replacements for vacationing full-timers.
posted by Daddio at 10:40 AM on April 18, 2004

Just a note on the public sector: not sure about state or local governments, but this year the feds have absolutely no money to give out. They're lucky if they have enough to pay their full-time employees.
posted by Ptrin at 8:09 PM on April 18, 2004

I work at a clothing store. Not a great job by any stretch, but I have learned some things. For instance, when someone comes in and fills out an application, the owner (or whoever accepts the application from the person) sizes them up and makes a note on the back of the form, "yes" or "no."
Those who get the "no" (probably 3/4) don't even get read.
This may sound condescending, but it's worth saying: When you're going around applying for jobs, get yourself really clean and well dressed. Cover up tattoos and piercings. Smile and present yourself as enthusiastically and professionally as possible. It sounds really basic, but half the people who wander in with applications to my workplace don't even meet the basic requirements of cleanliness. I've gotten several jobs by just walking into places I'd like to work, smiling, and saying "I'm looking for a job, are you hiring?"
Good luck!
posted by bonheur at 8:18 PM on April 18, 2004 [1 favorite]

May also want to check out SnagAJob.com... it's somewhat of a niche site in that it caters to students looking for part time jobs but sometimes you can find some quality stuff if you look hard enough...
posted by mhaw at 9:11 PM on April 18, 2004