Scoring a Summer Job
This is a summer when students who find any kind of job – like decorating cupcakes or cleaning gutters - are pretty doggone lucky.
Yet don’t give up hope. As a student, you have some advantages that other job-seekers don’t. Here are some ways to put those pluses to work . . .
- Join Facebook and LinkedIn groups for your college and let it be known that you are available to work. One good strategy is to stress your availability to do computer and online work – like updating databases, creating spreadsheets of customer data. Lots of people and companies are looking for computer-smart people to do temporary jobs like those. Working from your computer might not be as energizing as getting out of the house, but a job is a job, right? And flexibility is a good thing during the summer.
- Visit your college’s alumni office and network your way to graduates who might be hiring. No mistake about it – alumni like to hire current students. It makes them feel like they are “giving back” to their alma mater and its students.
- Work the “Gigs” area of Craigslist. Tread carefully and look out for weirdos and scams. But you’ll find all kinds of short-term work here, like handing out samples at microbrewery festivals, scanning boxes of family photos, babysitting, driving elderly people to the mall, and other weird assignments. You’ll find listings for a ton of stuff that could satisfy your need for short-term summer employment.
- Get face to face. Hey, you are young and energetic and easy to like, right? So why not walk into places of business and hand out resumes. Example: I know one student who found a job last summer by “working” a big building full of medical offices. By the time she had gone into 10 offices and worked her magic, she had two offers for part-time jobs covering the front desk while regular employees took their vacations. She pieced those two gigs together, and they became her summer job.
Get out there, be creative and good luck!!!
