As summertime approaches, many high schoolers begin their search for a summer job. They hope to earn some extra income, gain work experience, and possibly learn new skills that would be worth mentioning on a resume or in a future job application. Given the seasonal nature of their availability, high schoolers often feel limited to the opportunities they can seek out–exploring temporary jobs within retail or food service, considering summer-specific work such as lifeguarding, or looking to schedule as many hours as possible doing babysitting or lawn care. 

With some additional creativity and time, however, high schoolers can explore job opportunities across many different fields and identify roles that feel interesting and meaningful. Counselors can encourage students to think outside of the box and put some effort into finding a job they are excited about.

Helping Students Find and Apply for Jobs

To get started, students should draft a resume that includes their contact information, education, skills, and experiences–including any clubs, extracurriculars, volunteer experience, or other work that showcases their initiative, responsibility, and leadership. Counselors can support these resume-building efforts by sharing examples and reminding students that high school resumes may be short on work experience, but are a great way to showcase interests, skills, and potential. 

Students should begin to look for opportunities as early as possible–asking family, friends, neighbors, and even local businesses about any work opportunities. Counselors should encourage students to put themselves out there even if an opportunity feels like a stretch–sometimes, a student asking about an opportunity and sharing their skills helps a company to think about how additional support in the summer months might be useful, prompting them to create a position. Counselors can also use their CCR platform to share links to job listings or contact information for local industry partners interested in student employees. 

Where to Look

When thinking about summer work opportunities, students should consider their interests, strengths, preferred environment, and what experience they hope to gain. They should also take into account their community–local businesses, various types of seasonal employment, and the specific needs or trends in their area that might create work opportunities. Share the following list with students to help spark their interests and add breadth to their summer job search:

New Businesses: While more established businesses might have official jobs posted for summer work, connecting with businesses new to the community can be worthwhile. Newer businesses or startups are often in need of additional support, and a high school employee could perform a variety of entry-level tasks such as social media content creation, administrative and logistical help, packaging and shipping, event coordination, and customer support. 

Community Recreation: Community recreation organizations require significantly more support in the summertime, and a variety of different skills and backgrounds will be needed to deliver programs. From swim lessons to art classes to sports camps to cooking classes, students can watch for summertime job postings to lead or support programs on the community recreation page. 

Museums or Educational Centers: Assisting with tours, selling tickets, or helping with special events, high schoolers can be an asset to community learning centers. Students who have participated in drama or who are confident in speaking and storytelling might consider looking at opportunities in these spaces. 

Libraries: Once school is out for the summer, libraries take over as a community center–offering access to books, games, and digital resources along with summer programming. Libraries often need additional help with reshelving books, facilitating summer programming, or assisting patrons with their book-finding or technology-related needs. 

‍Theaters: Both movie theaters and live theaters are busier in the summertime. Theaters often hire high school employees to help with ticket sales and concessions. Theatrically or musically gifted students might also apply for a job supporting youth theater productions. 

Agricultural Businesses: Farms, orchards, nurseries, summer markets, plant centers, and local parks departments are often in search of seasonal workers. Students interested in agriculture, horticulture, or green-industry jobs might consider exploring work in these spaces.  

Animal Shelters, Wildlife Centers, and Veterinary Clinics: Many animal shelters, wildlife centers, and zoos hire high schoolers to work in the gift shop, support events, or lead summer camp activities. Animal lovers might also connect with veterinary clinics or doggy daycare locations to offer dog-walking or animal care support.

Summer Tourism Needs: Water parks, local beaches, and waterfront businesses come alive during the summer months. Summertime is also host to community events, outdoor concerts, festivals, and special programming for residents. Students can look into work opportunities connected to these local, seasonal activities.

Starting a Small Business: High schoolers might also consider what skills they have, what type of support they can provide, and how they can market themselves to the community. They could offer summer tutoring, art classes, sport-specific coaching, or technology-related support. This allows high schoolers to set their own hours, work within areas of interest and expertise, and make connections within the community.   

‍Encouraging Students to Try Something New

For high school students, a summer job can be truly meaningful–offering a way to contribute to the local community, creating opportunities to connect, and possibly even serving as a springboard to a fulfilling career path. While many students know they want a summer job, it is common for them to fall into the footsteps of friends or siblings by taking on familiar roles without considering all of the available opportunities. Nudging students to step outside of their comfort zones can help them to identify interests, build new skills, and consider career paths they may not have previously identified. 

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