summer camp jobs & interviews

Now that we are in mid March, most camps open within 3 months. With the overall job market so tight, college students would be well served to explore summer camp jobs sooner rather than later. At Maine Arts Camp, we are fully staffed for male counselors and may hire another 2-4 female staff in a month or so, depending upon enrollment. We have had lots of quality applications and have an older and more mature staff than ever. We have many graduating college students on staff this summer. For college students, taking a summer camp job makes a lot of sense at this time. At sleepaway camps, staff get their room and board taken care of and most camps will offer some sort of travel allowance for staff who live a good distance from camp. Also, living and working with a team of staff helps to prepare young college students and graduates for the work force.

At camp, we talk about staff "wearing many hats". If an applicant is looking to fill a specific role only and isn't willing to fill in wherever needed, we don't hire that person. I don't know how each college career service prepares their students for interviews, but getting across to students that they need to be "ready, willing & able" to be part of a team and jump in where needed would be the first thing I would talk about. This underlying thought process doesn't just work at camps, but any job. Is it hard work being a camp counselor (especially at a sleepaway camp)? Sure it is, but after a summer working and living with kids, most staff should easily transition into a 9-5 job. What else should applicants think about when applying to work at a summer camp job? Since we receive so many applications, we look more carefully at the ones that take the time to fill out our staff application with some thought, care and sincerity. If an applicant can't express why he or she wants to work at our camp specifically, then we usually don't even offer an interview.

We were very impressed with career services at Alfred University last month. We spent a few days at Alfred for a job fair, a meeting with interested students and many interviews (7 in two days). We later did several phone interviews and ended up hiring 5 Alfred College students, 3 of which are graduating this year. Since we're a small camp, with only about 33-34 counselors living with the campers (dorm counselors), 5 from one school was amazing! Keep in mind that Alfred is known for its arts programs, so Maine Arts Camp is a great match for Alfred students. Thanks to Kevin Jacobs and the rest of the career staff at Alfred! They are such good advocates for the students and do the hard work to make sure that students have every opportunity to succeed.

Applying at MySummers enables applicants to apply and get their information directly out to interested camp directors. MySummers is unique in that after an applicant fills out the registration form, his/her application is immediately e-mailed to camp directors. This method makes it easy for camp directors and qualified applicants to find each other. There are other summer camp jobs sites on the web and applicants should explore all avenues. Applicants need to be pro-active and stick with it. We had an applicant call yesterday who had sent in her application about a month ago. Although we're still not interviewing her at this time, we will if enrollment picks up. I also gave her a couple of summer camp jobs sites to register with. A site that has a good number of job listings is Summercampstaff. For good advice on jobs, internships and more, go to Quint Careers. Good luck in your search for a summer camp job!

Rick Mades
owner of Camp Finders & MySummers
owner/director of Maine Arts Camp

Facebook and social networking

I attended the ACA National conference last year in Orlando and sat in on an interesting workshop. It was run by camp directors (Director's Roundtable). The workshop was on the last day of the conference, but may have been the most thought provoking session that I attended. Staff at camp are employees only while they're at camp. In the off season, how can camp directors influence returning staff or former staff to continue to act in a responsible role of a counselor, not a friend to current or former campers? The Roundtable discussed how it is basically impossible to control what happens on Facebook, who staff and campers befriend and any communication through Facebook or other means. At Maine Arts Camp, we have a policy where if a camper and staff would like to communicate in the off season, such communication needs to be approved by the parents of the camper and by the camp director. In theory, this is a good policy, but parents and camp directors cannot possibly know everything that goes on with such communication. I have talked with another camp director who feels that campers come back to camp for their friends and staff, so healthy communication is a good thing. As camp directors, we want campers to return and feel like camp is their second home. The same director is often on Facebook, checking his staff's pages to make sure that nothing inappropriate is on the page. Should camp directors be Big Brother? We have let our staff know, both in staff training, in the Staff Handbook and in the off season, that even though they are not employed by camp except during the summer, in parents eyes they still represent our camp. That is a scary thought for a camp director as any communication is out of his/her control. We also remind staff that they may need a reference for another job, so they should keep their professionalism in all aspects of their lives. In fact, after this blog, I need to write a recommendation for a former staff. She is applying to grad school to be a teacher. If you're looking for a workshop on this topic, Chris Thurber is available. We have a local lawyer (to Maine) address our staff, but Chris travels the country.

Good luck!

Rick Mades
owner of Camp Finders & MySummers
owner/director of Maine Arts Camp