For youths who want to work this summer, the job market is strong, offering a wide range of employment opportunities. The bigger question seems to be, Who is going to take them? “
At Yellowstone, you could show up today and probably be in a dorm room and go to work tomorrow morning,” said Bill Berg, a founder of the job board Coolworks.com, which contracts with employers in the national parks and other travel destinations to promote job opportunities. “In many cases, you can write your own ticket now, particularly if you’re a cook or a chef.”
Other traditional jobs like lifeguards and hot-dog vendors at the ballpark also go wanting. “Not as many kids want to do that kind of work,” said Howard Feldstein, director for the Arlington Employment Center, which for the last 11 years has held a summer job fair for 13-to-23-year-olds in the Washington area. “I think the desire for summer jobs has changed a little bit; kids are looking not only for income, but what makes them look good for the next step in their life.”
Increasingly, students are seeking out internships, both paid and unpaid, or jobs that will provide training for a future career. In response, employers who rely on teenagers and college students are adapting their jobs to make them more attractive. Summer camps, for example, are creating internships and working with universities to allow students to earn college credits, said Ann Sheets, president of the American Camp Association.
“When you think of working at summer camp, you normally think of recreation activities,” she said. “But there are many other positions that have nothing to do with recreation.” For example, Ms. Sheets said, a student interested in nutrition could work as a dietitian with a camp.
A business major can help in purchasing and operations. “The camp directors I know have packaged opportunities so they apply to a number of types of students,” she said. Darcie Strohmaier, a 21-year-old psychology major at Ramapo College in New Jersey, will be working as a cabin counselor at Camp Echo in the Catskills, for college credits. Ms. Strohmaier wants to be a teacher after graduation.
She will be using the experience to do fieldwork with children. As part of the cooperative program offered by her college, she will live with and supervise a group of 8-year-old girls. She will write weekly journals on her experience, followed by a term paper at the end of the summer. Her focus will be conflict resolution and motivation in children. She pays the college $250 for each of four credits she will earn, but she will also be paid about $1,800 by the camp.
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How To Get An Ad Copywriting Job
I've already told you how to do my job. But first, you have to get my job. I get a lot of emails asking the question: 'copyranter, how can I get a job like yours that pays me a ridiculous amount of money for being stupid?' Why, even former Gawker intern and current stone cold stud-about-town Neel Shah was curious!
Even though the job title has "writing" in it, you really don't have to be much of a writer. Regular readers of this column already know that. You do have to have a portfolio of fake ads and ideas. But! You don't have to enroll at an expensive ad school to create one. Here's one possible bullet-pointed plan.
Take a single ad concept class as a continuing education student at an ad school (I went to the School of Visual Arts here in town.). All of these classes are basically taught the same way—each week you're simply given a product/service to do fake ads for.
Many ad classes are taught by working creative directors—so kiss major ass! Ask to see his or her portfolio. Tell him or her it's the single most creative thing you've ever seen in your entire life (but try and be more subtle).
Agencies hire teams. So you should find yourself a good art director (If you're lucky you'll find a great one who'll do most of the work, maybe because he/she is blindly ambitious, maybe because he/she thinks you're hot.) Look for homely lone art directors in the class, or ask the school for help finding homely lone art directors. Believe me, they know who they are.
By the end of the class, you'll have a pretty good idea if you're stupid-clever enough to work in this biz. If you don't get hired out of class like I did (the ASS I've kissed!), you should then drop off your portfolio to ad headhunters. Or you can think up you own clever ways to get your crap in front of creative directors' noses (Send them your portfolio in a box labeled THE BABY'S YOURS, etc.)
I've been working for the same small agency for 15 years, but the best way to make good money quickly is to keep updating your portfolio and switch agencies every six months or so. Such vagabond behavior is not frowned upon in advertising because it's understood that your bosses, creative directors, are a congress of douchebags.
A serious tip: Think visually about the product's benefit. Unusual visual representations beat wordplays every time. Plus, that means more work for your art director and less for you!
Lastly, forget everything you know and believe about logic and morality.
That's it. I cannot emphasize the final element enough.
Seriously.
Okay. Source
Even though the job title has "writing" in it, you really don't have to be much of a writer. Regular readers of this column already know that. You do have to have a portfolio of fake ads and ideas. But! You don't have to enroll at an expensive ad school to create one. Here's one possible bullet-pointed plan.
Take a single ad concept class as a continuing education student at an ad school (I went to the School of Visual Arts here in town.). All of these classes are basically taught the same way—each week you're simply given a product/service to do fake ads for.
Many ad classes are taught by working creative directors—so kiss major ass! Ask to see his or her portfolio. Tell him or her it's the single most creative thing you've ever seen in your entire life (but try and be more subtle).
Agencies hire teams. So you should find yourself a good art director (If you're lucky you'll find a great one who'll do most of the work, maybe because he/she is blindly ambitious, maybe because he/she thinks you're hot.) Look for homely lone art directors in the class, or ask the school for help finding homely lone art directors. Believe me, they know who they are.
By the end of the class, you'll have a pretty good idea if you're stupid-clever enough to work in this biz. If you don't get hired out of class like I did (the ASS I've kissed!), you should then drop off your portfolio to ad headhunters. Or you can think up you own clever ways to get your crap in front of creative directors' noses (Send them your portfolio in a box labeled THE BABY'S YOURS, etc.)
I've been working for the same small agency for 15 years, but the best way to make good money quickly is to keep updating your portfolio and switch agencies every six months or so. Such vagabond behavior is not frowned upon in advertising because it's understood that your bosses, creative directors, are a congress of douchebags.
A serious tip: Think visually about the product's benefit. Unusual visual representations beat wordplays every time. Plus, that means more work for your art director and less for you!
Lastly, forget everything you know and believe about logic and morality.
That's it. I cannot emphasize the final element enough.
Seriously.
Okay. Source
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