Is a Summer Theme Park Job worth it?

Even though it's a little early, I am currently considering applying for a job at an amusement park next summer, and I'm trying to get some input as to whether or not it would be a good idea. I am mainly considering it because I'm a college student that needs money to pay for school, and if I'm going to get a job, I'd prefer to have one at a place where I normally enjoy myself. I'm just not sure if it would be a good investment of my time for my purposes because I hear that most seasonal park employees usually make around minimum wage. I'm also under the impression that working at a park would probably take away the fun of being at the park, but I really don't know anything since only I've visited parks from the perspective of a guest. Feel free to share any advice if you've had any experience working at a park.

[TTD03]

^ You love the amusement park industry as a guest. Have you ever wanted to be the guy behind the controls and making people have fun? If you answer yes, go for it.

Your perspective will change on the park, but that comes with the job. Most "GP" employees hate the park after, but you as a "coaster enthusiast" typically will enjoy the park still after working there.

There's a reason I am applying to Cedar Point in 2 summers. It's going to change my view on the park drastically, but I wouldn't want to work anywhere else!

[Mr. Freeze]

I definitely enjoyed my time at SFOT over the summer and the past couple weekends. There will be times where you have to deal with idiot GP, just a heads up on that. I definitely feel that you would enjoy your time at the park even more, cause when you are not working, you get in for free (and who doesn't love free theme park admission, plus discounts throughout the park). I say go for it.

[Mikey]

Working in a Theme Park can be a very rewarding experience.

You will:

• Make many new friends who are also competing against you for what little promotions and pay raises exists.
• Work in climates of varying extremes for long hours and little pay with no recognition for superior performance.
• Find that the department that works together also sleeps together.
• Learn that the General Population is full of complete and utter morons who some how manage to meander their way through life.
• Find out that even when you are right, it's still your fault, and only someone dumber then you can fix it.
• Realize that the brochure may lead guest to think the park runs on magic pixie dust. Lets face it it's run by the blood sweat and tears of an unappreciated, underpaid, and overworked seasonal labor force headed by an incompetent and lazy management team whose primary job it is to do less with more and a maintenance and operations team forced/motivated to make things work with shoe string budgets, parts and supplies sourced by the lowest bidder, all the while contending with the fact that at any one time one of the trade unions is about to strike which will complete eff it all up.
• Quickly discover there is no such thing as good toilet paper in a Theme Park right after you eat the mandatory cafeteria food after visiting the company store to buy yet another uniform.
• Should you find yourself surviving such conditions you will soon realize one of two things: You are battle hardened enough to take on what ever the world may throw at you and can perceive the 1 in 100,000th chance of making a career in this industry, or that making $13.00 an hour in the air conditioning at Star Bucks is a much better gig.

Pro-tip: Never source your main chick and your side chick from the same department or shift.

[TTD03]

Mikey wrote:

Working in a Theme Park can be a very rewarding experience.

You will:

• Make many new friends who are also competing against you for what little promotions and pay raises exists.
• Work in climates of varying extremes for long hours and little pay with no recognition for superior performance.
• Find that the department that works together also sleeps together.
• Learn that the General Population is full of complete and utter morons who some how manage to meander their way through life.
• Find out that even when you are right, it's still your fault, and only someone dumber then you can fix it.
• Realize that the brochure may lead guest to think the park runs on magic pixie dust. Lets face it it's run by the blood sweat and tears of an unappreciated, underpaid, and overworked seasonal labor force headed by an incompetent and lazy management team whose primary job it is to do less with more and a maintenance and operations team forced/motivated to make things work with shoe string budgets, parts and supplies sourced by the lowest bidder, all the while contending with the fact that at any one time one of the trade unions is about to strike which will complete eff it all up.
• Quickly discover there is no such thing as good toilet paper in a Theme Park right after you eat the mandatory cafeteria food after visiting the company store to buy yet another uniform.
• Should you find yourself surviving such conditions you will soon realize one of two things: You are battle hardened enough to take on what ever the world may throw at you and can perceive the 1 in 100,000th chance of making a career in this industry, or that making $13.00 an hour in the air conditioning at Star Bucks is a much better gig.

Pro-tip: Never source your main chick and your side chick from the same department or shift.

This deserves a round of applause.

[Mr. Freeze]

Very well said Mikey. Like the last little tid-bit

[Coasterkidmwm]

As you all know I worked Mantis for a season and cannot shut up about it so I have experience with this.
Working a roller coaster requires 3 things. I will address each below:


1. An attention span
2. Patience
3. Not-being-a-pussy

1. An attention span is crucial. It's very easy to zone out working a ride and not notice that some dumbshit unbuckled his seatbelt to try and put his hat through it and can't remember that the square piece goes into the square hole. This will happen all the time. You have to be looking around for these kinds of things. Each ride will have its own nuances and annoyances, some more "relevant" to safety than others. Management will know this, and you'll quickly figure out what the "total rejects" rides are where idiots are sent in your first month. I bet you 10,000 dollars it'll be a tall-stick-ride, like an S&S tower. Albert Einstein could get fired for missing a seatbelt twice because he got bored and stared a bird instead.

2. Guests are astoundingly dumb. There are two approaches to dealing with this situation. One is being positive and realizing that nobody wants to follow directions on vacation. The other, which I much prefer, is cynicism. If you're working or example a standup ride, they won't stand up. "I didn't wait all of this time (15 minutes top) to stand up!" will happen once a week. They won't leave their shoes on if it's required. They'll stare at the bins with their mouth open and not put their stuff in the bin. They will try to walk into employees only areas. They will tell you that since they're a welder that Top Thrill Dragster is experiencing a "massive air leak" and that they almost died. They will tell you things that defy the laws of physics. They will tell you their gigantic balls are being hurt by the restraints when they're really not (it's really great when the GF says 'oh you're not that big be quiet' to the guy in front of you). This will happen every day. The easiest days will be the special education days because those individuals don't have to be told twice and can follow directions while thinking it's all frigging awesome. Certain ethnic groups follow directions better than others, really dislike pointing, and really really really dislike being told Michael Jordan was better than Lebron James.

If you're working a high capacity ride that requires guests who listen and are fast, they won't listen and you need to be prepared for that. A great example of this is the newer B&M's with the stupidly short track length after the MCBR like Gatekeeper or Intimidator 205 or whatever (the B&M). The dispatch interval on those is difficult assuming you have a train full of intelligent and compliant people, which you will never have.

Are you working a ride that immediately shuts down in a slight drizzle or a breeze? Be prepared to be asked when the winds will die down. Guest really love hearing that you'll have to consult the computational air physics model in the back room to let them know. Raptor down for rain? IT'S THE NAZIS. It's totally not the fact that it's really bad to have a mixture of seagull feces and rust dripping on guests in the rain.

Does this ride go upsidedown? No it totally doesn't. Don't mind this 100+ft neon yellow dive loop I'm standing under that causes hearing damage.

Also be prepared to hate enthusiasts. They "know" why a ride broke down all the time despite not having access to the ride company that spits out 5 random digits and then "overspeed in main". You're lucky if it gives you something intelligible like "overspeed in main" or "lift not active". Remember pumping the estop in No Limits, and the arbitrarily imposed Intamin G limits? Good luck doing that IRL.

Fat people who don't get that they're big suck ass. The ones that do are frigging great.

3. Not-being-a-pussy is important because when the time comes to clean up some idiot that violently expelled a 12 dollar funnel cake into your row and you be the "I can't handle it" guy you had friggin' better be able to handle buying everyone a round of beers or people WILL NOT forget. Your ride supervisor will remember you pussed out and made some poor woman from the Ukraine who is sending half of her paycheck to a super corrupt company while simultaneously tolerating the toxic underbelly of midwestern America and you will be stuck with the worst jobs ever during opening and closing. Speaking of which, if you're at a park that features immigrant workers, be nice to them. They don't see at least half of their paycheck and it's borderline exploitation.

Don't be the idiot afraid of heights that works a tall ride. If a 400lb mechanic can stand on the see-through bendy grate that all B&M's have, you can stand on that grate too. Then again the kind of people that can't handle walking up a 150ft flight of stairs can't handle more than 1 smirnoff ice before being "totally wasted" while the 5'3'' skinny Ukrainian girl is working on her second solo cup of bottom-shelf straight vodka. Speaking of which if you find any of the non-tracksuit wearing Ukrainian/Russian immigrant workers they're a frigging blast and can drink enough alcohol to kill a horse while not thinking it's a big deal.

Aside from that it can be a very rewarding way to kill a summer before real responsibilities like internships get in the way. I had a great time doing it and met some fascinating people, especially when you consider the multicultural aspect of working with immigrant workers.'

It will be hot out. It will be cold. Deal with it.

That all being said, it was a great opportunity to meet a great many people from all over the world while killing a summer and I don't regret doing it. If you get bored there is always a way to entertain yourself like "creative queue openings" where you try and make people move in a unique pattern or the ever popular "let go of the seats release button while some idiot is jumping around and have him smash his nuts".

Also as a side note if you're working at a place with employee dorms do some Googling beforehand because it'll save you a great deal of pain and frustration. Also try and find socially awkward roommates (coaster enthusiasts are best for this), because waking up to "sex smell" is not pleasant (or the part before said smell is generated) when four people are shoved into the equivalent of a small college dorm room and said dorm facility happens to have had a serious bedbug problem for the past decade.

[Mr. Freeze]

We had I believe 3 internationals on B:TR and 5 on Freeze. Was definitely nice getting to talk to people from other countries. You will also gain that extra little friendship between your team, and I have found that is probably the best part of the job, besides the job itself.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Mikey wrote:

blahdy blah.

I still think the pinnacle of minimum-wage achievement is sitting in B&M controls and letting go of the "seats" button during loading without warning, and watching idiots that are jumping around land on that bicycle seat while their legs flail about not touching the ground to be the absolute best.

[hyyyper]

I applied for an amusement park job in 2006, got hired, and I'm still working there in the weekends and vacations. It's a fantastic experience, but it's not for everybody. I'd definately give it a shot.

i once thought about becoming a ride operator at Drayton Manor (an hour by train from my home city), still considering it to be honest, although i'd prefer to be a ride maintenance person, but my grades aren't good enough.

[Mr. Freeze]

Do whatever you think is right for you at the time. I will probably keep the job at OT, unless something crazy happens and i have to leave. Plus, once your in, you have connections for other jobs as well.

[Coasterkidmwm]

skyscraper wrote:

i once thought about becoming a ride operator at Drayton Manor (an hour by train from my home city), still considering it to be honest, although i'd prefer to be a ride maintenance person, but my grades aren't good enough.

Just remember you may be better off at a Starbucks 20min away.

[Dirk_Ermen]

I've worked for a couple of months on a themepark. It was good fun, but to me it was a too repetitive job and I enjoy a lot more when I'm just visiting them.

Do it.

Just be aware of this: You can choose your department, but that's it. You don't have a choice as to where you work in your department, so you may wind up not getting to work coasters at all.

I worked as a ride op at Valleyfair the summer after my freshman year of college and loved it. Yes it was stressful, yes there were ridiculously long days, and no I probably wouldn't go back for another summer, but it was such a great experience and I'm really glad I did it. I'd highly recommend it.

I dont know if they still have this policy.
Believe it or not, back in 98 I applied for a tool crib attendant position at SFMN and they would not hire me because I had a tattoo on my leg and it was against there dress code policy if I wore there uniform shorts

Your real stories are worth hearing, thanks!

[Coasterkidmwm]

highdesertmike wrote:

I dont know if they still have this policy.
Believe it or not, back in 98 I applied for a tool crib attendant position at SFMN and they would not hire me because I had a tattoo on my leg and it was against there dress code policy if I wore there uniform shorts

All tattoos must be covered still in Cedar Fair parks I believe, and only mustache's are allowed. You also must be clean shaven and I have seem them send people down to the office to shave with a terrible single blade disposable razor.

Thanks for all of the input everyone. I think I am definitely going to apply for a park job for next summer once they start taking applications.

^ good luck!

VF15 wrote:

Thanks for all of the input everyone. I think I am definitely going to apply for a park job for next summer once they start taking applications.

Out of curiosity, what park?

^Most likely Valleyfair since it's my home park, although if I got the job, enjoyed it and ended up wanting to do it again the following summer, I might consider working at a park further away from home.

I know several people who have done the Disney College Program and have loved it.