Beach Jobs Working on the Beach

The sound of gulls, the crash of waves, and the laughter of children. Add the sun, the sand and the swimsuits, and throw in cash to work in this environment. Who wouldn’t want to work on the beach and get paid for it?

Finding a beach job isn’t as easy as it seems, however, and the search becomes quite competitive in the summer: not only is this the busiest season on the beach, but swarms of high school and college students are searching for your ideal job as well. So how do you land that job with a view, as it were?

Go where everyone else is going

There may be a cute, private beach right outside your house, but if no one is going there, there certainly won’t be any businesses or agencies nearby searching for employees. Before you start your job hunt, find the most popular beaches. Ask friends, family and neighbors where they prefer to go, and investigate.

Many beaches are increasingly being bought as private property, and could either exclude you from the property entirely (if they’re residential) or could offer you incredible job opportunities (if the beach is owned as part of a club or resort.) Do your research and remember: profit comes from demand.

Have the Right Skills

Just as a surgeon must know how to operate, so too must someone working on the beach have the right skills for doing so.

If you want to work right on the beach, being a strong swimmer and certified to perform First Aid/CPR are absolutely crucial to getting hired. At this point in the summer, it’s too late to know how to learn how to swim, but for future summer beach jobs, your local YMCA can provide affordable swimming lessons. Getting First Aid/CPR certified (or recertified), however, is as simple as going to your local American Red Cross center. They can provide classes that provide official certification in less than a day, as well as teach you vital lifesaving skills. If you have a special skill, such as waterskiing, sailing, surfing, or any other cool water sports, search for businesses needing instructors for their classes.

If your ideal job doesn’t involve lots of swimming and lifesaving, make sure you emphasize your customer service experience or, lacking that, your ability to interact positively with others. Beaches are ultimately a tourist destination, and businesses are looking for employees who can deal with all sorts of happy customers and unsavory types.

Hoof It

The only sure way to find out what jobs are available and where is to take a long, unromantic walk along your local beach. What you’ll notice immediately are the stores, boutiques and restaurants catering to the beachgoers—even, in some cases, arcades and amusement parks. The summer is a peak season for these businesses with the large numbers of schoolchildren out for vacation and families taking trips, as well as the temperature.

Even if these businesses aren’t advertising giant “Help Wanted” signs in their windows, it’s a good idea to go in, ask to speak to a manager, and fill out an application anyways. Though they may simply just put your application in a file for future use, some great job opportunities arise for the intrepid job hunter who cared enough to ask in person. (And remember, just because you’re working in a beach environment doesn’t mean you can search for a job in your swimsuit—treat this like a responsibility, not a vacation, and dress nicely.)

If you want to be a lifeguard, check with the organizations running the beach. They can range from the official Coast Guard to boating clubs and residential communities on private beaches. Lifeguarding jobs go quickly, though (they pay well and the atmosphere is ideal), so apply early and to many places.

You can also check with local summer schools, church and community service groups, and surf shops to see whether there are any classes you can teach. You’ll need to be extremely skilled in whatever you aim to teach (sailing, waterskiing, surfing, even scuba diving), and these jobs will be difficult to find. Alternatively, you can promote yourself as an instructor by tacking up posters and getting your name out on the boardwalk, advertising a flat rate per hour of personal instruction.

Whatever you choose to pursue, good luck getting that job on the beach! When you come back to school, you can show off your killer tan to all your office gopher intern friends who stayed indoors.