Friday, July 10, 2009

Summer Job Files: Summer '05

In honor of the summer, each week we take turns to recount a summer job we had back in the day. [Editor's Note: Back in the day refers to when we were in school...sigh...college].

It was the summer of 2005. It was a summer WG2 and I will never forget. We had just finished our sophomore year of college and we were spending our summer living on campus and working as summer staff for our college admissions office.

We obtained jobs as tour guides early in the spring of freshman year. We thought we were awesome and that every perspective college student visiting our campus would think we were cool. How could they not? We had some pretty sick tour guide jackets!

When our plan to go to France for a month didn't happen ('cause we were totes broke) we decided to apply for summer staff jobs. As tour guides we were a shoe-in. Half the job description was giving summer tours. The other half: photo copies, data entry filing and sneaking to the basement to play cards.

The pay was $8.00 and we were put up in apartments on campus. There were six of us. Three girls and three boys. We lived across the hall from one another, just like Friends. We made family dinners, would drive (less than a mile across campus, pathetic) to work and go to the movies together.

While working as summer staff, WG2 and I became a dynamic duo, giving tours together, rather than separately like we were supposed to, when we were bored. We once gave a spectacular tour together and we dubbed it "The WG1 & WG2 Comedy Tour." The students and their parents thought we were hilarious (or at least laughed like they did). We tried to replicate the Comedy Tour but it was never the same.

Sometimes WG2 took naps under her desk and I would be on the lookout for our boss. But our bosses didn't do that much work in the summer. We had story time many a morning with one of them. The six of us piled into his office like grade schoolers and listen to tales of his colleges days, which were only a few years ahead of ours.

It was a rather carefree summer. Workwise, at least. Lifewise, well, I thought I was in love with one of the other summer staffers who was in love with our fourth, non-summer staff, roommate (you should see my journal from that summer) and WG2 had an interoffice summer romance. Drama!

There aren't many life or work lessons that one can learn from making photo copies or data entry but we had fun, made some money and are now in the tour guide hall of fame. Just kidding, there isn't one. But if there were, we'd totally be in it.

5 comments:

blaqbird said...

so I will soon be unemployed (term position) and I plan to relocate because I have nothing else to lose! I'm searching the web for jobs, but I feel like I could be doing more. Any tips?

Thanks!
~blaqbird

Jac said...

I was a tourguide my junior and senior year of college and loved it; probably my favorite job of all time. I was not really good at the "office work," which included answering the phone and stuffing envelopes but I was a GREAT tourguide so that is all I did- lol. I would totally go back to that job... except it paid like $7/ hour and I worked about 10 hours a week. :-)

Jac said...

I, too, was a tour guide. And it was definitly one of the most fun jobs I ever had. If it paid way better and was full time, I would go back to it in a second!

christinamg said...

That sounds like an awesome summer job! You would have totally been in the hall of fame. ha ha.

Monster Librarian said...

This post made me grin! I miss those summer jobs back in the day!