Working at Summer Camp is more than teaching sport! Camp has a reputation for being quite sporty, but there’s so much more to it.
There are Specialist Camp Counselor jobs in photography, performing arts, magic and circus skills, and so, so much more.
That means there’s a perfect summer job waiting for you Stateside even if you’re not a sports fan.
Today’s Guest Blogger, James, talks us through why he thinks Summer Camp is more than teaching sport…
From the outside, Summer Camp seems filled with jobs in sport and coaching.
It’s a preconception I had when I first thought about going to Summer Camp back in 2012. I wasn’t bad at sport, but I didn’t think I’d be confident enough to coach anyone.
My passion lies in media. Music, design, videography, and photography are all things I dabbled in during my Journalism degree.
After a bit of research, I found there were a lot of media-based opportunities at Summer Camp. In fact, a lot of camps had full media departments.
While I had a passion for media, my professional experience was fairly limited. However, I was fortunate enough to get accepted as a Media Specialist at a Summer Camp in New Jersey.
The camp had fairly limited resources, but with a battered guitar and a few cheap digital cameras from Walmart, I was able to run successful and engaging media and music sessions.
Over the next two summers, my skills in photography, videography, and music skills really began to develop.
I knew that I was getting better at creative media, but I had no idea of the enormous impact that my time at camp would have on my employability.
Zoom forward four years and I now work as the Brand Manager for a design company based in Liverpool.
In my job, I spend a lot of time looking at CVs from creative people who are looking for a job – many of them new graduates.
A healthy dose of travel on a CV is always impressive. Time spend travelling shows a level of independence and adventure in someone.
But when a CV shows that someone has experience of work and travel together, the impact is that much greater.
Showing you’ve gained professional experience in a field and you did it abroad will really help you stand apart from everyone else.
The fact that I could talk about my experience working as a multimedia specialist over two summers in the USA really helped me get my job.
Industry work experience as a student is difficult to come by, but the USA Summer Camp program is one of the most accessible and student-friendly initiatives available.
Summer Camp has had an immeasurably positive impact on both my professional and personal life.