Tag Archives: summer jobs

Summer jobs spill over into fall – a second chance to land one

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As the first leaves show a little color, and school gets into swing, some of us may feel sad that summer is ending. Especially if we never landed a summer job this year.
If you feel disappointed you didn’t end up running roller coasters at Cedar Point or selling ice cream at your hometown shop, you could still land a job there this year.
Many summertime businesses grew their schedule, whether to maximize their investments, to serve customers or to make enough to stay in business.  Ice cream shops are selling soup and summer camps are running fall weekend retreats. The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island plans murder mystery and “Somewhere in Time” weekends.  From the Jersey Shore to the  Grand Canyon, organizations are planning events this fall to lure visitors – and they usher in your second chance to be selected.
Even my small social enterprise, Mity Nice, has hired three people this fall, partly for the early University of Michigan home football games. We’re hoping for beautiful Indian summer days so we can sell through October.
As I add each person, I am clear that I likely will want them on my team next year. They make a little money now – and if they do a good job, next summer they have a job. Plus my time spent recruiting and training them will pay off for us both.
This holds true at many other “summertime employers” with extended seasons. Exhibit A: Cedar Point. Once a summer theme park and beach resort, the Sandusky, Ohio amusement park will stay now open Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays through Halloween. Cedar Point hires a second crew – 800 to 1,000 strong – for fall weekends.
“We hire all the way through, almost to the last weekend,” said Leslie Bradshaw, Cedar Point’s director of general services. Grill cooks, rides people, hotel staff and others earn $7.40 to as much as $11 an hour, and in the fall, the company provides free housing to those who live more than 30 miles away. Some 500 “screamsters” are hired to work in haunted houses, scare mazes or other Halloween attractions. “We’ve hired 34 makeup artists just to dress them up,” said Bradshaw.
If you want a second chance at a summer job, here’s some advice from Bradshaw and me:
1. Show your flexibility and adaptability if you’re coming in as others are departing.  Some seasonal businesses will operate for fewer hours during the fall months. So make sure you are available to work weekends and the other key times they need help.
2. Show your smiling face. “They need to be friendly,” said Bradshaw. Customer service jobs require a clean, upbeat and helpful mindset.
3. Use volunteer work to fill in your application.  Babysitting or caring for grandma are fine. So is being team captain, committee chair or regular volunteer assignments, said Bradshaw. Highlight “contact with the public” and responsibility.
4. Help with growth. Some employers are looking for ways to expand their product line so they can thrive in cooler temperatures. If you make a great vegetable stew, maybe your boss would want it on the menu at the farm stand.
5.  Know the employer.  If you’ve visited the Jersey Shore every other weekend for 10 years, you’re qualified to answer fall tourist questions. If you know all the rides and trails at Cedar Point, maybe you could qualify as a VIP tour guide, a job that may yield some “pretty generous tips,” said Bradshaw. If not, read up on the company on their website and social media pages, and find someone who’s worked there this summer to clue you in on new initiatives and plans.
At Cedar Point, about 40 percent of the workers return the next year, and when they return “we generally tend to put those ahead of everybody else” for summer jobs, said Bradshaw.

Plus many have served as “screamsters” and ridden the roller coasters when the wind was cold and the lines less long. That’s not something you’ll find in most summer jobs.

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Internships are in bloom – start cultivating yours now

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Interns are the bellmen of Corporate America. They open doors, fetch and carry items of value and may end up knowing how to get many things done. So how do you open the door to an internship this summer? And is it even too late to find one? Not a bit, especially if you are not seeking one of those major league internships at the Smithsonian or Google.

The high prestige ones sometimes have earlier deadlines than others – some expected to hear from candidates by December. Yet the largest number of internship job postings usually show up this month, according to Indeed, the big search engine.

Either way, it could pay to introduce yourself now and apply enthusiastically, or offer to serve as a stand-by in case their first picks decide to spend the summer in India.

Look now. Don’t delay your search or you’ll end up at the summer camp for the fifth year in a row.  March is the biggest month for internship job postings, and has been regularly since 2005, according to Indeed.com. (One year, in 2006 April had a higher number, but you can’t count on that happening again.)  Use your spring break time to search, as my Glassdoor blog suggested.

Look widely. Some employers are creating new internships this year, according to Internships.com . Some may add more interns to their plans if business continues to be strong, so be open to the new possibilities as well as the established internships.

Among the sites I’d recommend as resources for locating internships:  Indeed, which is so easy to use, LinkedIn, Vault.com, Facebook (corporate recruiting pages) and Twitter, where you’ll find HR directors and recruiters regularly sending out information. Also look at the employer website – many spell out details on their internship and may even give you the director’s bio or email. Check with local business development organizations and yes, your college career center. (At some colleges and universities, alumni or even anyone who has taken any classes will be welcomed in.)

Look professional. This means spending a few hours on your resume, and getting someone else to proof read it. Leave your rad T shirt and your bad attitude at home. It also means watching what you say on Twitter and all social media sites – employers check those before deciding whether to interview you. So do your own checking too:   Research both the employer and the hiring manager ahead of time. “Be the consummate professional,” Internships.com suggests in tips gleaned from employers on its site. If you’re not sure what that means, ask someone who has a vice president in their title or who hires a hundred people or more a year.

Here’s some more advice from Marriott’s university relations director Stacey Veden, who I profiled in the Washington Post Capital Business:

  • Head to the careers office and find out what employers are coming to campus in the next three or four weeks. Show up at their sessions. Ask questions. Be helpful. (At some colleges and universities, alumni or even anyone who has taken any classes will be welcomed in.)
  • Take initiative. With most internships claimed by juniors or seniors, start developing your skills with other work or volunteer work. Show your interest in the sector by finding a job in it, even if it’s a part-time job setting up for conventions or cleaning rooms on weekends.
  • Be flexible on what and where your internship is. Now is not the time to insist on a major city or a certain type of hotel.
  • Stay in touch with the recruiter. Tell her about your successes. Share your plans. Express hope for an internship next year if you don’t land one this year.

It’s about a positive attitude, professionalism and persistence, though having a professor or two squarely behind you certainly will help open internship doors too.

More resources:

Read more about competitive internships and how to get one in my Washington Post piece.

My new blog post on Glassdoor.com shows how to identify and land an internship with a startup.

Watch for Vault.com’s best internship lists, including one showing the most unusual internships and those with the best perks.

Indeed’s blog offers a few tips for an internship hunt, as well as many internship postings.

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Teens: Make yourself a standout to land a starter job

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The teen job market this summer was as dreary as a week of rain when you’re vacationing at the beach. The percent of young people, ages 16 to 24, who worked was the lowest level in 62 years and millions just decided it was too tough and didn’t even attempt to search for work, new government statistics show.
Only 48.9 percent of all youth held jobs – the lowest level since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started keeping records in 1948. The jobless rate for young adults was 19.1 in July, almost double the level of 2007.
Despite all that many teens did land jobs, including a handful at our Mity Nice Italian Ice cart in Ann Arbor.  (Seven  part-time workers spent at least a few weeks hawking lemonade and Michigan-made mango and cherry ice from our shiny silver cart.)

Teens who land jobs even when the world economy is wickedly out of whack must be standouts and lucky. They have these characteristics:

-A positive attitude. More than enthusiasm and more than a million-dollar smile, this shows up as joy, energy, a can-do, willingness to tackle anything approach. Be friendly, engaged, cheerful, outgoing, curious and you will improve your chances of being hired – as well as your everyday life. Not everyone has this approach baked into their DNA, but most people can learn to muster it up and put it on like a work uniform or lipstick.

-Persistence. This may show up as determination and dedication to finding a job. It may show up as volunteering every week at a homeless shelter or a Girl Scout troupe. It may show up in finishing high school in five years after family or health troubles. But that dogged determination leads to success.  Albert Einstein once said, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

-The 4Cs – communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. These traits were identified by an American Management Association survey as increasingly important to employers. Most 17-year-olds will have developed one or two of these but may not yet have proficiency in three or four.  So be sure to highlight them in your resume and interview.

-Extras in their resume. One of my Mity Nice hires this summer was class president and ran a blood drive at school. Another had three jobs this summer to help pay for her gap year in South America.  Head cheerleader or president of the Honor Society or Key Club, these extracurricular activities demonstrate an ability to juggle multiple tasks – and leadership abilities.

-People who believe in them. We hire people based largely on recommendations and referrals at Mity Nice.  We want to hear that the youth is hard-working and smart from neighbors, teachers, members of their church or synagogue and coaches or mentors. Teens who have believers are going to be more confident and more capable. They’re also going to have contacts who will advise them and help open doors to opportunities.

So what if you’re among the one-fifth of teens who did not land a summer job but desperately wants one this winter or spring?  Now is the time to start developing yourself and your skills and your network of believers.  Now also may be the time to start thinking about a small business you could establish over the next year.  (More on that soon.)

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MORE INFORMATION:

For more on the teen employment picture, read the BLS report here.
For my blog post on creating a first resume (for teens), check out WorkingKind.com archive  and also my Washington Post piece .

What can you learn from summer interns? Read my Glassdoor.com blog post on the traits interns have that are coveted by employers.

Need help with your tone and approach to hiring managers? Read my Washington Post piece on striking the right tone.

I hope to add more resources for young job hunters in coming weeks and months. Feel free to recommend websites, books, articles for teens and work. – VLE

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Savor summer and use it to motivate yourself on the job hunt

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The long lazy days of summer always tempt me to slow down, work less and savor the fruits and outdoor concerts.  Now that I run an Italian ice cart in downtown Ann Arbor, my summer’s are far busier and brimming with projects and work.
So when I wrote about summer job search for the Washington Post and ways to network at summer picnics for Glassdoor.com, I felt the heat rising on summer as a work-able season. Businesses move full speed ahead in the summer months (and some are in overdrive). Many people land jobs in July and August, and many more get interviews that lead to jobs in September.
Yet sometimes the summer slowdown still beckons. So lately, I’ve been using summer to swing my motivation into super-speed, and you could too. Consider these :
* August is a great time for temping. It’s also a great time to sign on for contracts for projects that must be finished in the fall. August ranks as one of the biggest months for vacations, and yet projects and products still need to launch in the coming months. So polish up your resume and approach three temporary agencies this month. (For more on picking a temping agency see my AARP Bulletin article . )
* Reward yourself with a picnic or watermelon. Set a couple of goals for the week — whether it’s writing, promotion, outreach or developing relationships or LinkedIn profile. Make sure it’s a goal you can achieve – like contacting five human resources or hiring managers or finishing two chapters in a book  you are writing. Then when you achieve them, help yourself to a luscious serving of summer.
* Use summer’s beauty to inspire you. Take a small note pad along for your morning walk to capture ideas. When you’re on a garden tour, introduce yourself to the organizers – or better yet volunteer to be a docent. Saunter through a farmer’s market and make note of those that are thriving – they may need a part-time social media manager or marketer. As you kayak or hike, use the tranquility to restore your balance and build your confidence.
* Plan for summer bliss. Even if you’re jobless, you have friends who are going on vacation. Maybe you could stay at their house for a week as a “get away time.” Or plan a couple of pool parties at your neighbor’s pool and offer to bring along lemonade and plenty of fresh vegetables and dip as a summer snack. Take a long weekend to see friends – and don’t plan any networking or job search during mini vacation. If it happens anyway, that’s organic growth.

And as my articles pointed out, people are sometimes more open to conversation and networking at summer social events. Kate Wendelton of the Five O’Clock Club and Tom Dezell, author of “Networking for the Novice, Nervous or Naive Job Seeker” gave other advice that was refreshing too.  Just don’t spend too much time in conversation about your career strategies at the picnic or garden tour. Save that for indoors on a work day when success — not sunshine and summer games – is the focal point.

Article links:

Washington Post summer search heats up and sidebar / tips:

AARP Bulletin temping can be tempting but requires research.

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Seven ways to stir up an “instant internship” this summer

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You graduated two weeks ago and you don’t know what you’re going to do with your life, much less the rest of the summer. Or you lost your job a year ago and you haven’t gone to a job interview in three months. Or the company you signed onto for the summer just filed for bankruptcy.
Quick – let’s heat up a summer job. It’s time to create an instant internship. That’s my term for an internship that is almost as easy to cook up as a barbecue for five friends.
This quick-made internship may not spring forth from the top tier law firms or at old-fashioned manufacturing companies struggling to keep its current workers in paychecks. And they may not pay as much as you think you’re worth – but they’re not volunteer work either. It is possible to develop an instant internship with a little ingenuity, luck and sales abilities. And it’s possible to take an internship even if you’re 33 or 57, especially if you’re changing careers or have been out of the workforce for a few years.
Here’s seven strategies for stirring up a short-term assignment in a hurry:

  • Search for successes. Look for organizations in your city that cannot keep up with demand. They are hot and they are in need of new staff. They may be in health care (see my article on healthy careers from the Washington Post) or mobile communications (such as those that develop advertising or specialized apps for our cell phones). Professional, scientific and technical employers are the most likely to hire this year, acccording to the Society for Human Resource Management, and that includes marketing and engineering firms and laboratories. Hint: Do some research on their products or service and growth plans so when you query them you’re already matching your talents to their success tracks or needs.
  • Drop out, drop in. Major companies choose their interns in February or March. So by June, a few have thought better of it – or found something better. When they drop out, you could fill in, suggests Mark Oldman, Vault.com co-founder said.  So contact the internship coordinator now and offer to serve as the relief pitcher- which after all is the one who often wins the game.
  • Go face to face.  Visit a half dozen organizations in a business park and introduce yourself as their problem-solving. high-energy intern (or other words that make you sound very appealing). Go mainly to smaller or mid-size employers and you could stumble upon a job before they’ve posted it, according to Richard Bolles, author of What Color is Your Parachute? books. This direct approach is one of his top 5 best job search strategies (you can see all five as they appeared in his book  “The Job-Hunters Survival Guide.” (Ten Speed Press, $9.99, 102 pages)  which was excerpted with a Washington Post article last year.
  • Get personal. Ask Dad and Aunt Sue or your neighbor whose yard you used to mow for work, or leads.  Family ties and personal connections were the No. 1 way this year’s college graduates expect to find jobs, according to a Monster.com survey. While you’re at it, find a family member or professional friend to promote you online. Ask them to send out your qualifications on Twitter’s Hire Friday or in a LinkedIn status or other posting.
  • Follow in a new executive. When a new CEO or CIO joins an organization, they want to put their stamp on the organization – and fast. So often they want their own team in place. If you time it right and write an excellent letter to that executive, you could come in as an executive assistant or intern to the chief. Vault’s Oldman told me about a similar strategy: Write a persuasive, personal letter to a half dozen senior executives offering to serve as their executive assistant / intern for the summer. Choose people in fields that interest you, then Google them. The letter must be customized to that person’s specific work and explain “why you’re excited to work with them,” Oldman told me. “It shows initiative.”
  • Seek a one-month assignment. Maybe this won’t be a summer-long internship but it could be a vacation relief or maternity leave replacement slot.  Offer to work the midnight shift; the dirty, undesirable clean-up job; the runner or the person who fields calls and customers who walk in. And take the job with a smile – and then come up with some ways to do it and something a little more meaningful too. You can find these directly or go to a temp firm, which is a field that’s been growing lately too.
  • Win the internship coordinator’s respect. Be personable, polite and persistent. Offer her help in recruiting for future internships. Offer to carry her boxes to the next recruiting fair in your region. Show a lot of interest. “If you’re on par with 10 other people, I’m going to see that person demonstrated their interest.  not one of 20 generic applications.  you’re putting your best self forward,” said the Smithsonian’s Tracie Spinale.  Even if you cannot land a summer internship, you’re putting yourself in place for one in the fall, when the competition is less fierce.

Some of these instant internships may take a week or three to work out. And some may pay less than the $17 an hour average pay for the college-student internship, as reported by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. (That average may be high because many of the better companies respond to NACE’s surveys.)

But most are ways to find “the hidden job market” of unadvertised possibilities and openings – where by some accounts more than half of all jobs are. Learn to succeed at that and anything they throw at you in your internship or the real jobs after it will be like mixing lemonade for your barbecue – sweet and cool.

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Teen job tips: Search starts here and on Facebook

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Ah – summer and the summer job. The first ones stay with us forever, whether we work as an admin in Mom’s business, a caddy on the links or at the Farmers Market. Some find first jobs in factories, others in candy shops.

This year, though, summer jobs look scarce for youth. Teen unemployment nationally tops 25 percent in April, and is higher than that in some hard-hit areas of California or Michigan.  So teens need help, lots of it.

That’s why Mity Nice and I are launching an ambitious series of teen job search tips. They’re culled from many sources and experts and from my life experience and expertise. After all, I’m a mom of three as well as a careers and workplace writer, and co-owner of Mity Nice, which hires teens to sell Italian ice and support charities in and around Ann Arbor. We know we can’t hire all the teens that need jobs this summer, or even a small percent of them. So we hope to help them with some advice and encouragement.

The tips will be offered on Mity Nice’s Facebook page, and also collected here. We’ll give one a day, or five each week for at least six weeks.

Here’s a sneak peak at the first three, a long-form version of what’s on Facebook:

1. Know what employers look for.

Some traits are universal:  NACE, the National Association of Colleges and Employers, lists five top qualities: communication skills, analytical skills, teamwork, technical skills and a strong work ethic.   The American Management Association’s four Cs add to that list creativity and innovation.

Many of these are the very skills that make you a good student or the go-to co-captain of your sports team – the “soft skills” that you learn from teachers, parents, teammate. And a few requirements are specific to a job, such as lifeguard’s need for certification or sous chef must know how to chop and saute vegetables.

Either way, build these skills – and these words – into your resume and into your introduction to a future boss.

2. Develop a positive and confident attitude.

“Confidence is about trusting oneself,”" said the Buddhist monk Gayuna Cealo. You may feel very nervous about finding a job – that’s natural. When you go into a business to apply, push all that away. Take a deep breath. And fake it until you make it.

Another way to build confidence: Ask your best friend or a teacher  to list five great attributes you have. Write them down, put the list in your iPhone — and look at them often.

A third confidence booster: Practice. Recruit a friend to rehearse for job interviews. Or practice the introduction you’ll give walking into the store to  land a summer job. Or practice your affirmation – repeat it every time you wash your hands. (Yes, you can say it silently when you’re in the ladies’ room after gym.)

3. Create a resume.

Even if you’ve never held a paying job before, you really really need one. A resume is an important marketing tool – and a valuable way to gather up all the great things you’ve ever done or achieved, at least since you’ graduated from tricycle to two-wheeler. Your resume is an opportunity to tell your future boss that you’re a standout and you put extra effort in – whether it’s for a sport, a hobby, your classes, your volunteer activities or your friends.

If you can’t imagine what you’ll say, pull out your awards and recognitions. Then pull up your computer and send three adults who know you well these two questions: What have I accomplished or done that you think belongs on my resume? What three traits or qualities do I have that an employer will want?  (Yes, you may ask your BFF and your current beau those questions too, though they may not give you the best, resume-ready answers.)

Resumes are so important, Vickie wrote a longer blog post on creating a first resume. Read it soon – and then use it to create yours, or your kids.

I’ll post bonus material on this blog too, such as some advice sent to me from employment and recruitment companies, and anything that needs a little extra space beyond the short tips.

Please share these tips with teens who are searching, and with their parents, who are important career advisors and cheerleaders. And sign onto our MityNice page to see more later this week.

Teen tips are copyright Vickie Elmer, 2010. For permission to republish or use them, please contact the author.

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Building a first resume – it’s a chance to show off a bit

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Creating a first or second resume can seem like an impossible task to a 16- year old and his mother or father.

The youth has spent most of her time on the ice, playing hockey or figure skating, or on the courts, playing tennis or basketball, except when she’s on XBox Live with friends from around the world. Or maybe he’s a bookworm who would rather go to the library than any store and whose grades shine bright but whose social skills are a bit, er shy.

Why does a teen with no work experience need a resume anyway?  First off, it shows they’re serious about their job hunt. Second, it’s a chance to show off some talents that don’t fit neatly into the boxes on the online applications. Third, it gives the teen a start on a lifelong skill – career management and job hunts.

Start with three basic truths about a resume:

1. It is a sales tool, something that should make the person look good. That means singing your own praises and highlighting successes. So you include your GPA if it’s high and mighty and include your perfect attendance awards.

2. It represents you, as you want to be seen to an employer. Think of an employer as a cross between your parents, your strictest teacher and a really cool drama coach at summer camp – because they could be like any or all of those. Think of yourself as someone who is worth hiring – responsible, hard-working, bright and kind. So by all means mention fundraising for three mission trips and how you exceeded your goal by 200 percent. And if you’re really into hand made purses or swimming, show that – and think about the values and skills you’ve learned from it too.

3. It must be honest and truthful – not comprehensive. You can and should leave off some things – such as getting fired from a job or having to attend summer school because you failed Advanced Algebra. Just make sure there’s no glaring holes or omissions that would look strange or worrisome.

Now that you have that, let’s get started.

Figure out your skills and talents and abilities, the areas where you excel, writes Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D. of QuintCareers. His excellent career website offers a five-step worksheet to help Jrs. create their early resumes and a sample from Suzie Student of DeLand, Fl.

Start listing your talents and skills – and then when you have a bunch, ask three or five people for their list too. Tell them it’s for a resume and job hunt so they’ll think about the traits that will appeal to your future boss.

Ask yourself: Where have I made a difference? Who have I helped? It could be at your church or synagogue or with a club at school. It may be through the YMCA or Girl Scouts or a family friend’s small business.

Think about all the different ways you’ve worked – as a volunteer in your church or at a soup kitchen or in your aunt’s company; babysitting; lawn mowing; helping a teacher with a special project. Work experience can come from paid jobs or volunteer experiences. It can be picked up as a counselor in training at a summer camp or as helping organize the neighborhood picnic.

Ask yourself: What awards or honors have I received? What other recognitions can I mention?

I also found some fine advice on developing teen resumes on ReadWriteThink.org,  which provides teachers and students resources.

If you have more questions about resumes, JobDoggy, which focuses on part-time jobs for teens and college students, answers 10 key questions, suggesting students include jobs where they’ve been fired (and be prepared to answer questions honestly about that in the interview without trashing your former boss).

And a site called Got A Job offers lists of action words to use in your resume – from improved to founded to solved and more.

Ask yourself: Where have I demonstrated leadership?

Leadership skills also are important, NACE found, so if you were the president of the Key Club or captain of your track team, highlight that. And if you still are stuck as to what to put on your resume, go online and print out three job applications from companies in your area. When you fill them out, they’ll give you some more ideas.

This post is adapted from a WorkingKind article from May 2009.

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