Gigs for summer 2024 range from seasonal jobs in resorts to part-time positions staffing concerts and events. And, there are some that simply allow you to spend your side gig hours enjoying the sunshine.
Where can you find great gigs for summer 2024?
Seasonal jobs
If you have summers off because you’re a student or a retiree, seasonal jobs can be a great option. They often walk a fine line between work and vacation. Make no mistake. The work is real — and sometimes involves long hours.
But these jobs also involve working in resorts, lodges and national parks, where the settings and free-time options are unique and engaging. Sometimes the nature of the job is too.
Some of the options:
- Be a “climbing coordinator” or a horse “wrangler” at the Sanborn Western Camps in Colorado.
- Work as a bartender or barista on Mackinac Island.
- Act as a wilderness trip leader at Camp Nebagamon in Wisconsin.
- Join the staff at luxury resorts in Martha’s Vineyard or the Virgin Islands
- Become an activities director at a resort in Montana
To be sure, many of these positions pay only a little more than minimum wage. But many come with free or discounted housing and meals, as well as access to resort activities. So, while you don’t earn a lot, you have almost no expenses. This makes it easy to save the bulk of the money you earn.
Finding gigs for summer
Both CoolWorks and VagaJobs list seasonal job openings from resorts all over the country. Xanterra Jobs specializes in resorts located in national parks, including Yellowstone, Glacier, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, Rocky Mountain and Zion.
Finally, SeasonWorkers can help you find jobs in foreign countries. But there’s one caution with this site. SeasonWorkers intersperses listings for paid jobs with internships that the worker pays for. Be sure to carefully scrutinize these listings to make sure they’re paying you, not the other way around.
Event staffing
Summer concert season also boosts demand for event staffing, which can involve watching concerts, comedy shows or plays, while ushering guests to their seats or working in a concession stand.
A site called Qwick helps people with hospitality and event experience find temporary jobs in 20 U.S. cities. These jobs can be as diverse as helping caterers serve at weddings; manning a booth at an auto show or home expo; or taking tickets or serving as an usher at concerts. The one catch: You must have at least a year of relevant experience because there’s no training, nor much time to get up to speed.
Other sites that hire temporary workers for events, include Instawork, Wonolo and BlueCrew.
Offering tours
If you’re an extravert who loves showing people around your town, summer is the perfect time to make some money at it.
Two sites — Viator and ToursByLocals — allow individuals to create tours that they can offer through these sites. You set the agenda, the pricing and the schedule. The sites merely market your tour to interested travelers.
If you’re interested in guiding tours for others, US Ghost Adventures also enlists freelance tour guides to provide ghost tours in more than 60 cities nationwide. Pay is $25 per tour, plus a discretionary $25 bonus, plus tips.
In-person marketing
Two marketing firms enlist freelancers to canvas malls and neighborhoods to hand out literature and discount coupons for local businesses.
Both Field Day and Oppizi pay between $15 and $35 per hour, depending on the assignment, and usually enlist freelancers for gigs that take anywhere from three hours to two weeks.
House and pet-sitting
As vacation season revs up, there’s also huge demand for people willing to watch houses and pets while their owners are away.
The best place to advertise your availability for this work is Rover. Rover lets potential house and pet sitters stipulate what kind of pets they’re willing to watch; whether they’ll watch them at your home or their own; and their daily rates. There’s no cost to sign up as a house or pet sitter. But you’ll pay a site commission on your bookings.
The only downside to this site is that there’s plenty of competition. And people with lots of reviews tend to land at the top of the regional search queue. One savvy sitter said he counter-balanced that in his early months on the site by dropping his rates so they were the lowest in his area until he built up dozens of positive reviews. He also printed business cards, with his Rover “address,” and gave them out to travel agents and veterinarians in his area. He now sits for Rover full time and earns a high five-figure income.
3/25/2024
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