Summer jobs are not only a part of teenage or college life anymore. As the economy gets bad more and more people have to look for a second job to support their families and their lifestyles. In Benton, TN there are a few different options for summer jobs that truly stand out from the rest. Here in Benton we have the Ocoee River that runs through the town as well as the Hiawassee River. This makes for many jobs in the tubing and rafting businesses as well as kayaking business that open up when it comes summer time. The river begins to run in March on weekends only and then at the very end of May opens for a 5 day week starting on Thursday and ending on Monday. There are also restaurants that get a big boom when rafting season comes around so the town seems to liven up when summer roles around.
Read also: 5 Great Summer Jobs for Teens
I love living in the town because, especially for teachers, having a summer or weekend job can be very easy if you know where to look and when to look there. The rafting business has many different job opportunities. First there are the rafting companies themselves which offer office jobs, cashier jobs, cleaning jobs, bus driving positions, and then of course the most fun filled job you could ever have, raft guide. Raft guides get paid literally raft all day and meet new people. You can expect to make anywhere from $20 to $40 for each trip you do and then of course there are the tips that you get to keep. On average during the busy parts of the summer you can easily run 3 trips a day. That makes the lowest potential for earning around $60 in one day plus tips, which usually are at least $10 per trip. The better you are with the customers, the better your tips for the day. The weekends are the busiest parts of the season so if you have a Mon-Fri job then working at a rafting company only on the weekends is very possible and practical.
The job opportunities do not stop just at the rafting companies. There are a number of photography companies on the river as well. Many of the companies hire in a photography company and pull a sales percentage from photo sales, while others employ their own photographers. This opens up positions in photography, data running, and photo sales at some rafting companies as well. One of the companies on the river that operates independent of the rafting companies, but has posts at all of the companies they shoot for, is Digital Ocoee. This company is one I personally enjoy because it is where I found my summer job between school times. The company usually has between 5 and 6 companies that it shoots for, which opens as many sales positions as there are companies as well as running positions and photography positions.
If for some reason rafting isn’t what you are looking for in a summer job then there are restaurants that get more business as well as gas stations that need help through the summer because of the rafting season. Whatever you like to do there is something that is an easy job that pays at least $7 an hour that you can do through the summer. Most of the photography jobs pay between $8 and $10 and hour and running jobs usually pay around $7 plus mileage. Hours vary due to varying trip times but usually for a weekend run around 10-18 hours. When the season hits full fledged then you can expect to have between 32 and 45 hours in a week. Working at restaurants and gas stations vary upon pay and hours depend upon the store.
This article was written by James for the website jobinsighter.com
To be featured on the website, please contact me and send me your article about jobs!