Scrambling to Get Summer Jobs

Students try to get summer jobs before college students return

As summer draws near, high school students rush to find summer jobs before college students get home and occupy all the jobs.

Senior Alexa Jade is one student who plans to work over the summer.

“I work at Great Harvest Bread Company in Old Town Warrenton,” Jade said. “If I have extra time over the summer, I’m looking into getting a second job as well.
I have not seen many jobs taken by college students because most of them work where they go to school.”

Most students want to get hired as quickly as possible.

“I feel that many students try to get jobs to start saving money and to be able to pay for things like a car and gas,” Jade said. “Personally, I wanted a job as soon as possible because I was bored…it seemed like a good, healthy way to keep me busy while providing the benefits of earning money and learning how to behave in the professional world. It also gave me new skills which I can add to my resume.”

Senior Nathan Pullen works at Jiffy Lube Live in the summer.

“It’s a pretty easy job, and it’s nice to have a little extra money over the summer,” Pullen said.

Students are mainly motivated by monetary needs.

“I got a job at Revive Studio in Gainesville,” junior Harper Crater said. “It’s really fun; I just check people in at the front desk and clean up around the studio. I applied because I needed to start saving money for my summer
plans.”

One popular place for high school students to work is Effee’s Frozen Favorites. Mark Farris, co-owner of Effee’s, said the return of college students does affect high school students, but not as much as one would think.

“I would say that there is a slight impact to hiring due to returning college kids,” Farris said. “However, we have always maintained a good balance. We don’t usually hire new college employees unless they are just starting community college locally. We always seek to hire high school age employees so that we can have them as part of our team for a couple of years.”

With the school year winding down, now is the best time for students, who want to work over the summer, to start applying for those summer jobs.