Are you a young person looking for a summer job? Are you not sure of what types of jobs to apply for?

With the summer temperatures here, I’m reminded of some of my past summer jobs. I’ve held a summer job every single year ever since I can remember. I’ve always been a greedy kid.

We already looked at jobs to avoid. There are certain jobs that should be avoided. But today, we’re going to look at the opposite side of the spectrum here. Let’s look at my top summer jobs that I worked.

Lawn care.

I cut grass, watered plants, and did all sorts of lawn care for elderly people in my community.

The job was fun at times. I got paid $7/hour and grass grows pretty fast in the summer months. Some folks were a pain to deal with. They would hustle me and get the most work out of me in a one hour period. Then they would pay me $7 and send me home.

Others folks were a pleasure. Some just wanted someone to hang out with. One really ill gentleman paid me just to water his plants. I would sit down for hours with the sprinkler running. Pretty sweet.

Soccer referee.

Do you enjoy soccer? Do you want to get paid to exercise?

I really enjoyed being a soccer referee because I love playing and watching the game. I was also pretty happy with the pay. If I could do two games in an evening I would earn myself $45. Not bad for an evening of soccer.

Most of the games were in my area and I would ride my bike to work. There was never a shortage of exercise involved. I was always outdoors and I got to meet lots of folks.

Plus, there may have or may not have been a few occasions where I worked games that my brothers paid on. Conflict of interest? Perhaps. But that’s our little secret.

Paper boy.

I was a paper boy for like ten years. I got the job when I was in like grade 2 or something like that. I delivered the newspaper in my community.

The job didn’t pay a fortune, but I believe I made $200 a month or so. I had to deliver the paper on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. It was tough on Fridays because after school I really didn’t want to spend the evening working. I wanted to play soccer with my friends or just hang out. The most annoying part was actually putting the flyers into the paper and organizing everything at home. It was really messy and would take hours at time. Why didn’t they put the flyers in for me? Wtf?

The good part of the job was that I stayed active (even in the winter) and I knew everyone in the community. Everyone knew me and it was pretty fun. If I have kids, I’m definitely going to make them deliver flyers since I had to go through it.

Those were my favorite summer jobs. Applying for them is a different story. Every job has its own application process. To get into lawn care, I found it through an organization in my community that setup elderly citizens with young people to cut their grass. To become a paper boy I saw an ad in the newspaper. To become a soccer ref, I had to earn my certification.

What are some of your favorite jobs? Are there any jobs that you would suggest that the young people reading this apply for?

Martin Dasko

Martin Dasko