4 Seasonal Jobs That Don’t Suck

Most seasonal jobs suck. Sorry, but that’s a fact. When you hear the phrase “seasonal job”, what comes to mind?
For most people the image of stocking shelves in a department store, or dealing with harried customers screaming for last minute gifts is what a “seasonal job” is. But that’s not all of it.

While there are many people who work seasonal jobs at places like Macy’s or Nike, there are plenty of people who prefer to stay away from retail work. We’ll cover that in some more detail a bit later.

The point of this article is to cover some of the seasonal jobs that are a good fit for people who don’t normally like traditional “seasonal jobs” that are more sales and retail store focused.

Career Jobs vs Money Jobs

Before we dive into the list of seasonal jobs that I’m going to discuss, I wanted review the difference between a job for money and a career job.

While it’s obvious that all jobs provide money, there is a difference between a career and a seasonal opportunity that you work for money.

Some seasonal jobs can turn into careers, or more precisely they can turn into long term ongoing opportunities.

The way this happens is when large businesses hire extra employees during the season and find someone who is a hard worker and then keeps them on file for a future opening.

Many places that have union staff and guarantee winter vacations need to hire on relief workers. This is very common in roles such as concierge, building porter, or handyman work. In many cities these jobs are safeguarded by the union and temp agencies are used to hire temp workers to fill these roles who are then let go as soon the union staff return. This is one of the many reasons staffing agencies get a bad name.

However, if you find work directly with a company that is hiring people, and not a temporary staffing agency, you will have a good chance of finding a permanent role once the season is over.

With large companies such as BJs, Costco, UPS, and others who hire many people for seasonal work the same rules apply.

The upside to a seasonal job at a large company is that you can test run the situation and determine if the business is one you’re comfortable working at long term.

The Seasonal Jobs That You Should Avoid: Retail, Retail, Retail

Most people rightfully associate seasonal jobs with retail jobs. These might be anything from a mall kiosk to sales job at Nike.

The upside to these jobs is that they are everywhere. Every single retail store is hiring around the holidays. The downside is that the pay is low—almost always it’s minimum wage—and the work environment is not that great.

If you’re looking for a good seasonal job, then most people would advise that you steer clear of retail. Especially retail for large big chain stores. Seasonal retail work in smaller stores is not as problematic and for some people it can even be fun.

The 4 Seasonal Jobs That Don’t Suck

Now that we’ve spent some time discussing the boring stuff, let’s go ahead and jump right into some seasonal jobs that you should look into. These are not the boring, dead end jobs of fast food or retail.

The key thing to remember with fast food and retail is that you can never use these on a resume to impress people—they are usually things you want to keep off of a resume. Also, the kind of people who work in mainstream retail

Resort Jobs and Park Jobs

Resort jobs are always perfect for people looking for seasonal work. It doesn’t even have to be a winter time resort job, it can be a resort job for a summer work as well. Think of ski resorts, beach resorts, or even theme parks.

The upside to working at these sort of places is that you’re not going to deal with the same type of low skilled workers that you find in places like regular retail stores. Many local retail stores hire people who have no experience working–which can be a problem if you end up working with them!

Better Quality Workers Than Retail Establishments

Resorts and parks have more luxury in hiring people. They can take more time in weeding out the criminals and people with sketchy job history.

For a regular retail store, it’s not uncommon to find people who have not been vetted by the hiring managers. Retail workers often have criminal records, or no work history. A retail store might have a regular staff for the majority of the year, but around the holidays they are forced to hire anyone off the street.  Many of these people who only work around the holidays are people who normally do not work year round —which is a major red flag.

So, working at a resort where they are able to properly vet the workers is a bonus.

Christmas Tree Sales and Holiday Event Work

Selling Christmas trees is a time honored seasonal job. You can look on websites like Craigslist or even Indeed and see postings for people who want to hire seasonal tree sales help.

These jobs are easy to get, they often don’t require a resume, and the owners almost never run background checks, ask for references, or go through any of the processes that most normal employers do. They also hire people without any experience, which can be a major gift for people who have a slim work history.

The upside to this is that you can get a job without any effort. You might also be offered to be paid in cash. Off the books, essentially. This is not legal, because there is no tax being paid by the employer or by the worker, but many cash business such as tree sales operate this way. The jobs are popular around the country, ranging from Oregon tree sales to Manhattan Christmass tree lots like SoHo trees.

The downside is that the work is physical and demanding. If you are someone who doesn’t mind standing outside, though, it can be lots of fun. People are in a good mood when they are shopping for Christmas trees, so you are not going to have to deal with angry customers looking to return sneakers to a store or a sweater that doesn’t fit.

Also, it’s a great experience to have and many people like the stories that they get from working these events.

Many major cities have tree stands where tree farms from outside of the city come to sell trees. These farms have to hire locally. They do not have staff living in the cities that can work on site, so they post ads online for local tree salespersons.

Guided Tour Jobs: Seasonal Tourist Based Work

Guided tour jobs are commonly going to seasonal in nature. Many locations have pop up stores and events that are temporary in length. These events will hire an abundance of people to come in and work the event as tour guides or other sorts of personnel.

In large cites like New York and Las Angles, events at museums often coincidence with the holiday season. Also, events such as the Van Gogh experience and the National Geographic Exhibit on King Tut are both examples of events that take place and require part time employees to work.

What I would suggest is to use cheap job posting sites to look for ads posted for short term work. Craigslist and Indeed are the best places to find these jobs. The postings on Indeed and Craigslist require only a modest amount of money so even small events will use them to hire and find

Remote Customer Service Work During the Holiday Rush

During the Holiday season, another opportunity to work a seasonal event is a remote customer service role.

Many large companies have an increase in in-bound customer calls during the holiday season. These companies are in dire need of employees who can handle these calls.

The great thing about these roles is that they do not require any skill, they require virtually no training, and they can be worked remotely.

Many large companies hire outsourced workers remotely, but they still prefer to have US based customer call reps because it makes their business look better.

The majority of these jobs are going to be offered by staffing firms that handle the onboarding, payroll expenses, and insurance premiums that are involved with a sudden onboarding of staff. You will not find that many if any large companies hire directly.

These remote customer service roles might advertise salaries in the $20+ range, but in truth they are mostly minimum wage roles.

In certain cities like NYC and in states like New Jersey salary needs to be displayed, but the staffing firms often get around paying accurate wages using tricks such as deduction techniques and other fine print language.