Posted on 07/06/2009 9:17:34 AM PDT by Decombobulator
ERIN McAULIFFE had a vision for this summer. A 20-year-old junior at Bowdoin College, she had lined up an internship at a New York publishing house and imagined stimulating days leafing through manuscripts, and evenings of sparkling conversation with friends at downtown cafes.
She ended up starring in a real-life version of the movie “Adventureland” instead. In that recent comedy, a recent college graduate is forced by economic hardship to work at a suburban amusement park.
Life is imitating art for Ms. McAuliffe. With her parents unable to help bankroll three months of unpaid work in Manhattan, she gave up the internship offer and moved home to Andover, Mass., where she took the one job she could find: working 12-hour days at an amusement park. For $7.80 an hour, she tends bumper cars and the big swing, and endures the many carny jokes of her friends.
School’s out for summer 2009, and instead of getting a jump on the boundless futures that parents and colleges always promised them, students this year are receiving a reality check.
The well-paying summer jobs that in previous years seemed like a birthright have grown scarce, and pre-professional internships are disappearing as companies cut back across the board. Recession-strapped parents don’t always have the means or will to bankroll starter apartments or art tours of Tuscany.
So many college students and recent graduates are heading to where they least expected: back home, and facing an unfamiliar prospect: downtime, maybe too much of it. To a high-achieving generation whose schedules were once crammed with extracurricular activities meant to propel them into college, it feels like an empty summer — eerie, and a bit scary.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The girl highlighted didn’t lose her internship, which was unpaid, she just couldn’t get her parents to foot the bill for her to live in New York.
Still, I wish I had taken a job one summer working at a theme park. In fact, when I retire I think I’ll try to get a job at a theme park.
And my daughter and I might do halloween haunt jobs at theme parks either this year or next year. It seems like a lot of fun.
You, too? I didn’t get any summer vacations in Europe or pre-paid apartments either. Mumzy and Daddy didn’t foot my bills so I had to work min. wage during high school and college.
My high school teens and all their friends easily found jobs this summer. They’re all making more $ than I am and at easier jobs. The rule in this house is when they turn 16, they pay for their own clothes and entertainment.
I always worked 60+ hrs a week in the summer and 20-30hrs a week while at school both in high school and ollege. I had alll kinds of terrible jobs. I did janatorial work, concrete work, construction, lawn work, working in gas and conveinient stores, you name it I probably did it.
However the job i never had was working at an amusement park or at a summer camp. Now that I am older I wish I had worked at a boy scout camp in the summer.
I wish I could do it now.
Pretty good read.
One year I applied through the Navigators for a program they had where they got you jobs at Kings Dominion, and a place to stay at a college, and you would then do bible study and outreach when you weren’t working.
My brother had done it before me, and my wife (who doesn’t really like theme parks) did it the year after me, but the year I applied something happened and they cancelled the program.
ManPower, Kelly Girl and places like that used to hire.
I always had summer jobs that paid. They weren’t the greatest — janitor, grunt labor, etc. — but they did pay.
I was thinking if I were in that position I’d volunteer like crazy, which is also a resume stuffer and network opportunity, as well as flip burgers, flag traffic or whatever.
You got to jump out of airplanes AND get paid for it??
Cool!
Yep.
And I turned 21 the night before my first jump.
Circling an Alabama drop-site for three hours in a C-141 without air conditioning made me wish I still had my old steel pot to puke in.
Showing your age. Most places don't have typists anymore. Top dogs may have executive secretaries, but the typing pool has gone the way of the Dictaphone.
My age is about to be 43 ;-). I worked temp agencies, too, when I couldn’t get temporary Civil Service work. I used to take any job that paid more than the cost of gas to get there.
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