<p>Around here…lifeguards can always find well paying jobs.</p>
<p>I agree. Last year my daughter found two (had to choose which one to take) lifeguarding jobs very easily. And last summer was even worse for job opportunities than this year seems. If your son or daughter is on a swim team, etc. invest in getting them their certification. It really pays off!</p>
<p>This summer my daughter will be staying at her University (halfway across the country, sigh) and doing some great research for an inspiring professor, and it even pays reasonably well. By volunteering in this professor’s lab for two semesters she has been able to really show her worth and dedication. They were thrilled that she was staying for the summer and happy to pay her.</p>
<p>My son, a freshman in computer science at a Bay Area school, put together his resume over Christmas break and made a point of shopping all the job fairs in January at his school. As a result, he had 3 paid internship offers for the summer and has landed a well-paying internship doing programming. Seems like there must be a lot of job opportunity for computer engineers, considering that they’re offering internships to underclassmen (but to his credit he had a lot of experience outside of the classroom). I feel bad for the kids in liberal arts right now - just not a lot out there. Summer camp is always a good bet because they don’t hire adults for those jobs. But the key to summer jobs is that the kids really do have to nail it down by early March; they can’t start the job search in April or later and hope to get the good stuff.</p>
<p>Around here, lifeguarding jobs pay the minimum wage - $7.25 in our state - or maybe a teensy bit more.
Which is pitiful, since getting lifeguard certification costs around $200 for the class, and needs to be retaken every 3 yrs. CPR re-certification needs to be done every year.</p>
<p>A job that requires such training should pay significantly more than minimum.</p>
<p>My daughter gets around $12/hr as a lifeguard with 3 years experience, and more than that if she is teaching swimming lessons. Like the caddy jobs mentioned above, once you get in with a certain pool, they usually rehire you every summer. It is really great that she has this skill, because it is a killer job market out there for college kids.</p>
<p>Best of all, she also got an internship that pays very little, so her ability to lifeguard is supporting her internship opportunity.</p>
<p>My daughter never had a job in high school, and only applied for one summer job - working at the library at her college. I thought she was foolish for putting all her eggs in one basket, except the joke was on me because she got the job, which is full-time and comes with summer housing on campus.</p>
<p>Seconding Alf’s post: in the past, D has earned $12-15/hr as a lifeguard and $15-20/hr as a swim instructor (WSI). As of last year, when she turned 21, she has been offered positions as waterfront/aquatics director at $25+/hr. </p>
<p>Many summer programs don’t start until the end of June (end of the public school year) and they try to keep high-paid aquatics staff hours at a minimum, so D rarely gets more than 25 hr/wk, even as director - - but that still adds up to a nice chunk of change and easily accommodates internships or travel. Also, lifeguards working at health clubs can pick up hours anytime during the year (D almost every J-terms).</p>
<p>Just this morning saw a “hiring” sign at the local Dunkin Donuts and sent a text to my younger son (likely before he even got out of bed this morning). My older son worked at that same store 4 years ago. Even at minimum wage, a job’s a job this summer.</p>
<p>Best of all, most WA state colleges are on the quarter system and don’t end until mid-June. Our daughter goes out-of-state to a semester college and gets home next week; she will be in huge demand at the pool until all the local students get back, 40+ hrs/week. In mid-June, it will drop to 20- hours/week.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it is as bad as what the reports lead us to believe or if it is just that kids are alot more picky than prior generations of highschool and first year college students. My daughter who will enter her senior year of college just walked into a nearby upscale busy restaurant and landed a job as a server working 40 hours a week. She is working late hours and on the weekends so that could explain why she was hired on the spot. I don’t think too many kids want to work weekends until 1:00 AM but this and her second job is paying her rent and all expenses. I think there are more jobs available than we think, at least in some regions of the country.</p>
<p>Our state unemployment rate is 5.2% which explains why retail is doing quite well locally.</p>
<p>Has anyone else run into this problem? My DS just finished his freshman year in college and got home last week. He began submitting resumes a month ago, just for retail, etc. work (typical summer job). He’s had no luck - the interview he had went great - they were talking about which day he’d start, etc., then the interviewer noticed he went to school out of state. She shut the interview down and said they weren’t looking for anyone that was going back to school in September! His sister, who’s finishing up her junior year in high school has already found a summer job. And they said the same thing - were looking for someone who could keep working in the fall. What happened to the “summer” job?</p>
<p>newtothismom, other than seasonl work, I think the “summer” job disappeared about the same time as VHS tapes.</p>
<p>With my daughter, I’m advising her to say that she can work part-time in the fall. She only had classes three days a week this past semester so working part-time should be possible. I can understand businesses not wanting to train someone only to lose them a few months later.</p>
<p>I understand that, BCEagle. But my son attends school a 3 hour plane flight away - it’s obvious to all employers that he can’t work for them in the fall!!</p>
<p>And you’re right, DougBetsy - I guess I’m showing my age with this “summer” job expectation!!</p>
<p>D1, back home after freshman year away at college, is lifeguarding and teaching swim classes and private swim lessons at the private facility where she worked through her last 2 years of HS. It’s not full-time but she’ll get probably 20-25 hours/week on the lifeguarding and swim class schedule, plus whatever private lessons she picks up, plus whatever extra hours she picks up when others can’t make their lifeguarding or swim class shifts. Conveniently, we live 3 blocks from the pool, and she’s a reliable fill-in so she tends to be the first one they call when the need arises. She’s rounding that out with a few hours of paid tutoring, some babysitting/substitute nannying, and some yardwork/gardening gigs.</p>
<p>It seems that there are good part time jobs using specific skills (swimming, computer, etc.)</p>
<p>Newtothismom, is your son enterpreneurial? Does he has some specific talents/abilities that he might market?</p>
<p>My son, finishing his junior year in HS, has worked part time since age 13 as a violinist in string quartet; work is sporatic. At age 14, he began teaching violin twice a week in an elementary school. He got the job through his symphony. He’s paid $25 an hour. At age 15, he began teaching private lessons in our home and also makes $25 an hour. At 16, he began working part time as a math tutor at $12 an hour for a local math tutoring company. He got this job through a man at church by asking and asking and asking. </p>
<p>Last summer, through agressively selling himself to a friend of a friend, he played in a pit orchestra and earned a small stipend ($625) for working 20-25 hours a week for about 7-8 weeks-not much pay but loads of fun and experience. He’s hoping to do it again this summer but hasn’t gotten a call yet.</p>
<p>This summer, he’ll do unpaid physics research and probably expand his math tutoring hours as well as his private violin teaching hours.</p>
<p>Oh, and he goes busking for a few hours a week and makes decent money. We have a great park with lots of tourists and I’m sure he’ll busk more frequently in the summer and his quartet will hopefully market itself and get more gigs.</p>
<p>So, for the enterpreneur, manufacturing a job might make sense.</p>
<p>Last summer he “nannied” for a family for about 20 hours a week. And he does cut a couple of yards in the neighborhood. He will also be a camp counselor (unpaid) for 2 weeks. I guess what I’m most concerned about (besides the fact that he wants to earn some money) is the lack of a “real” job on his resume, working for a corporation, etc.</p>
<p>Last night my daughter accepted a summer position working for a local pharmachem lab in research & development. She was originally hired to do who knows what 7 days a week, 8 hours a day all summer - orientation is on Saturday and job placement/schedules are provided at that time. The R&D lab position isn’t usually offered to a Freshman but the person originally hired backed out and my daughter was what the supervisor was looking for in a replacement - work experience (3 years at the same place) and her major (Biochemistry). 8:30am - 5pm, Monday - Friday and more money. My daughter is thrilled!</p>
<p>And believe me, if I had it to do over again, I’d have insisted that he take even a 5 hour/week job in high school, that he could have kept year round!</p>