The 10 Summer Jobs You Don’t Want

May 11, 2009     Posted in Reality

summer-job1If you are lucky enough to balance a part-time job with your class sched during the school year, you’ve got it made in the summer: you can pick up extra shifts and make bank, yet request days (or weeks) off to go on vacation without looking for a slacker.  Unfortunately for many of us, when finals week rolls around, we’re stressing about how to land a job and start saving for next fall’s text books (and bar tabs).  It sucks when you’re desperate, because you’re bound to accept any offer that comes your way.


By Kathryn S

Here are the ten worst summer jobs… which might just make bankruptcy look like the better option.

1.  Amusement Park Attendant
You make minimum wage to stand in the blazing heat all summer, get lobster-red sunburns, and keep little kids in check as they anxiously await their turn on the water slide you’d sell your soul to go down.  You deal with cranky parents demanding that you speed up the line (which you can’t, for everyone’s safety), and clean up puke when the little brats get sick off of the giant ice cream cone they inhaled right before getting in your line.  Oh, and you have to wear a doofy polo with the theme park’s logo.  PASS.

2.  Landscaping and Construction.
These jobs are grueling no matter what time of year.  But when it’s 90 degrees and there’s no shade in sight, you can really do some damage to your body.  Sure, it pays well, but you’re going to constantly battle UV rays, dehydration, and straight up muscle exhaustion.  If you’ve been relatively inactive sitting at your desk and studying all summer, taking on such a physically exhausting job will be brutal.

3.  Flyering.
I wouldn’t include this if I hadn’t done it before, since most of you probably have no clue what “flyering” is.  One summer, I took a one-day job hanging 1,000 door hangers advertising a new ice cream shop on residential doorknobs.  It paid $250 for the day, so I thought it would be cool.  However, that day was spent walking around on concrete for 9 hours (even in sneakers this gets painful), and being paranoid that residents would come out with a shotgun after I left shit on their doorknobs.  Oh, I tried to wear sunscreen, but missed two strips of skin and wore a racer-back tank top.  My sunburns left scars, which look like wings on my back.  No lie.

4.  Flyering- Part 2.
If you live in a big city, there are plenty of companies looking for promoters to hand out fliers advertising their product.  Again, one of the sh*ttier jobs I’ve done in my life.  You stand for hours in the blazing heat, trying to give people a deal… and they get MAD at you for it.  They could just walk away and say “No thank you,” but these people feel like you’re targeting them.  As a flyer-er, I’ve seen everything from people saying the product I’m promoting sucks (not my problem, just trying to make a deal), to strangers thinking that my handing them a piece of paper means they should immediately tell me their life story.

5.  Ice Cream Scooper.
One of two things will inevitably happen.  One – you build huge forearm muscles scooping ice cream for obnoxious tourists in plaid shorts and fanny packs.  It’s crazy hot and the ice cream melts down your arms, so you retreat in a sticky mess every night.  Plus, you can’t even eat any of the goods.  Two – you CAN eat as much ice cream as you like, but you’re sedentary for the whole summer and can’t fit into your bathing suit two weeks after starting the gig.  Oh, and after a shower, you have SPRINKLES clogging the drain.

6.  Theme Park Mascot.
We’ve all heard the Disney horror stories, right? About the theme park characters who aren’t allowed to take their “heads” off, even if they get so overheated they puke on themselves? Need I say more…

7.  Any office work that is totally unrelated to your future career plan.
Let’s face it: you need the money so you do secretarial work all summer and miss all of the beautiful summer pool parties and beach outings, yet get no career experience out of it.  Settling for a desk job simply blows.

8.  Babysitting.
Like the office gig, you’re going to miss out on a lot of fun outings this summer.  Babysitting as a part-time job isn’t so bad, but if you’ve somehow committed to wrangling the neighborhood brats every day for the summer, when you say “NO” to your BFF’s beach party road trip, it will feel like a dagger through the heart.

9.  Housekeeping.
You live in a summer tourist mecca where jobs just sprout over the summer.  EVERYONE’S taking their holiday there, and the restaurant and hotel jobs are flourishing.  Yet, you get stuck as a housekeeper.  Remember that scene from Blue Crush when the surfer girl freaks out over cleaning some drunk football player’s shit out of the bathroom? Yeah, picture that before you agree to be a housekeeper.

10.  Lifeguarding at a Senior’s Center.
You’re not going to have the opp to do mouth-to-mouth on anyone remotely attractive.  And you’re going to get depressed about the inevitable future when you see the wrinkled doing “water sports” in the pool each day.  Yeah… need I even explain that one?

Hey, CC’ers, what jobs are you looking forward to (or NOT looking forward to) this summer? And what are the gigs you passed up on because all the money in the world couldn’t persuade you to punch in every day for three months?

22 Comments on "The 10 Summer Jobs You Don’t Want"

  1. grace b says:
    Mon, 11th May 20094:44 am 

    I've been working at a smaller chain bookstore for the last three years. It pays decent, I love the people I work with (minus my crazy boss but whatevs) and it's convienent to my house. I'm really gonna miss it when I move.

    I refuse to work at a restaurant. You just can't convince me!

  2. Engineer says:
    Mon, 11th May 20094:44 am 

    Damn, I didnt get a summer job. Now I have 4 months of boredom because I dont have friends.

  3. La says:
    Mon, 11th May 20095:41 am 

    I worked at an ice cream parlor for a very long time. Best job I ever had. Free ice cream, the customers were nice, and the job was fun.

  4. Emily says:
    Mon, 11th May 20095:47 am 

    I work at an ice cream shop…the forearm muscles rock…the other stuff does not.

  5. sauer kraut says:
    Mon, 11th May 20096:17 am 

    nothing wrong with working in landscaping. pays good for the hard work. hard work never killed anybody. the exposure to bad UV rays is over-hyped.

  6. Allison says:
    Mon, 11th May 20097:49 am 

    I work at an italian ice store. Its fun to work at, the customers are very nice, and I don't have to do any serious scooping because its all ice! AND I get to eat ice all day, stay inside in my little window where customers can't get within a foot of me. I love it =]

  7. Crittle says:
    Mon, 11th May 20098:18 am 

    I worked at an amusement one summer, worse part was when guest tried to sneak their under height kids onto the ride, then they would get so angry and yell at you when all I was trying to do was protect their children from their poor choice.

    I think you should add telephone customer service, pay was great, hours were lousy customers were nasty.

    The one summer job I really enjoyed was landscaping and construction.

  8. Jes says:
    Mon, 11th May 20098:33 am 

    i had a babysitting gig a while ago and man it was nice.. i got payed about 10$ an hour to hang out in a pool with two super well behaved kids and still got off in time to hang out with my friends…

    that was the life.

  9. Jennifer says:
    Mon, 11th May 20099:11 am 

    I clicked on this article, because I thought it might be funny… it wasn't. I would kill for just about any of those jobs. Try getting stuck working third shift in a factory over the summer, and we'll see how much you detest having to babysit as your next summer job. I would rather do ANY of those jobs than not have a job at all. With the economy the way it is, be thankful for any gruesome job you get, College Student – it's not like you'll be stuck with it forever. After three months, you can quit and go back to school. I realize that there are some summer jobs that still suck, but when you need money and it's slim pickings, you can't always be so choosy…

  10. kyle says:
    Mon, 11th May 20099:16 am 

    gheeez…your so negative, quit complaining – your lucky to get a job, esp. this summer

  11. Ashley says:
    Mon, 11th May 200911:03 am 

    i'm working in a liquor store. having awesome coworkers make the time fly by. and summer is our busiest season so there isn't a lot of downtime, which also makes it go by faster. and the cute college guys who come in are nice to look at too ;-)

  12. bloggingwithaj says:
    Mon, 11th May 200911:06 am 

    Yeah, beggars can't be choosers. Think about all of the people (like me) who are out of college and will be doing these jobs and thanking their lucky stars they have an income.

  13. Annie says:
    Mon, 11th May 20095:24 pm 

    I'm working in a greenhouse this summer. Its surprisingly chilly; I had to wear two sweaters to work the other day. I'd like to help with landscaping; it pays well. =)

    I also adore babysitting.

  14. natasha says:
    Mon, 11th May 20096:24 pm 

    i see what you mean..

    but a job is a job.

    oh how i need one…

  15. onika says:
    Tue, 12th May 20091:05 am 

    i once worked at starbucks in my country (indonesia), i got out on my 4th day of working…it wasn't a summer job, u guys at state are lucky..u are able to have a temporary job every year..so u can have a lot of experiences, before u get to the real job live..In my country, company rarely have an opening for a part-time job..so, when we graduate..mostly will be trap in a job that we hate so much !!

  16. Denise says:
    Tue, 12th May 20094:06 am 

    My son is working this summer as a photographer in a water park and he loves it! He is 18 years old and loves taking photos and then he works in the office downloading the photos onto a computer. It’s all great experience in my opinion! Great article you have written. Well done!

  17. Stefan says:
    Sat, 6th Jun 200912:52 pm 

    I've just got a job working in a pet supplies warehouse. I wish I was safely insulated in the halls of academia again! There's nothing worse than working a shitty job with stupid people.

    I can't wait until fall.

  18. ankita nalya says:
    Wed, 19th May 201012:06 am 

    i want to do some work in summar vacation. i have just completed my 12th class.

  19. BlueCollarWorkman says:
    Tue, 22nd May 20129:00 pm 

    I have to disagree with the "landscaping and construction" one. As a blue colalr guy, I can attest to the fact that it does get hot, but you can drink water. And you do sweat, but you can drink water. But guess what that kind of job can do for you? Help keep you from becoming overweight! You're busy all day on your feet doing stuff, not sitting on your duff in an office. Not too many overweight construction workers. And you get to be oustide with the fresh air. My sister worked at the park district one summer planting flowers in teh city's parks. It was hot and sweaty, but she loved being outside and getting the fresh air…which si genearlly lacking during the school year in muggy, stuffed classrooms.

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