Anonymous
05/21/2026 10:35
Subject: For a rising college junior, lifeguarding is not a “real” summer job/internship, right?
If OP is really concerned about her niece, she should talk to her about what she wants to do and start working her own network to help her connect with people towards an internship next summer. If she doesn't want to help, then she should mind her own business.
Anonymous
05/21/2026 10:33
Subject: For a rising college junior, lifeguarding is not a “real” summer job/internship, right?
Having a lifeguard job does help on the resume. There are plenty of ways to spin it. You may not know how to spin it, but kids certainly do.
This is where clubs and activities help beef up the resume.
This is where clubs and activities help beef up the resume.
Anonymous
05/21/2026 10:31
Subject: For a rising college junior, lifeguarding is not a “real” summer job/internship, right?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Wow, so much sniping about summer jobs vs internships.
Yes, internships are important
And also, internships are really hard to get
The most important summer for an internship is rising senior.
What helps you get that first internship? Any real work experience.
Both my kids did regular summer jobs for two summers, got good internships as rising seniors. DC1 now works FT for his internship company. DC2 is interning this summer.
I hire interns for my team. We never hire anyone younger than rising senior. And I never interview anyone who doesn't have a basic summer job on their resume.
On what planet do you live on that “any summer job” makes you a strong candidate for a competitive rising senior internship? That’s basically like saying having a pulse. Every ambitious college kid has summer jobs and internships. By senior year, the resumes without serious and relevant work experience are immediately discarded by recruiting software. Spare us this boomer coded old timey bulls*** that recruiters ignore all the strivers with office internships and perfectly curated resumes to hire the raw lifeguard with a firm handshake and good eye contact.
+1 my son got a great data science internship as a rising senior. He'd worked retail and camp counselor jobs since high school. But he'd also spent two years working with his college's data consulting team, working with a few different professors across disciplines on challenging data acquisition, cleaning, and analysis projects. He said that was what the hiring managers mainly wanted to talk about. But they were also interested in his summers that he'd been lead counselor for a group of 5-6 year old boys. He can deal with chaos and keep his cool in any situation.
Anonymous
05/21/2026 10:31
Subject: For a rising college junior, lifeguarding is not a “real” summer job/internship, right?
This is a great job. Period. You are 100% wrong.
Anonymous
05/21/2026 10:29
Subject: For a rising college junior, lifeguarding is not a “real” summer job/internship, right?
Seems like having an internship in or near the area of interest would be a benefit for future job prospects post-graduation. However, it's not as if kids without will never work. Also, we don't know the kid's plans. Perhaps they want to go into the service after college? Perhaps they are already planning on grad school. Perhaps, they applied and didn't get any. Perhaps.... they worked their ass off in an incredibly difficult major and are in need of a well-earned rest? Who knows and who cares. She (or he) will be fine. And maybe also have one, last, crazy summer!
Anonymous
05/21/2026 10:27
Subject: Re:For a rising college junior, lifeguarding is not a “real” summer job/internship, right?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:She is in good company. HS age kids can’t get lifeguarding jobs at our MoCo neighborhood job because the college student lifeguards have taken the spots because they have experience and get hired over HS kids.
I noticed this too. Older college kids and foreigners on visas taking lifeguard jobs local teens used to rely on.
No, companies needed to hire out because our kids were too good for these jobs. Like OP's kids.
No. Some pool management companies hire foreign labor because they can pay these kids substandard wages. It is really awful, actually. I don't know how it is even legal.
Anonymous
05/21/2026 10:26
Subject: For a rising college junior, lifeguarding is not a “real” summer job/internship, right?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Wow, so much sniping about summer jobs vs internships.
Yes, internships are important
And also, internships are really hard to get
The most important summer for an internship is rising senior.
What helps you get that first internship? Any real work experience.
Both my kids did regular summer jobs for two summers, got good internships as rising seniors. DC1 now works FT for his internship company. DC2 is interning this summer.
I hire interns for my team. We never hire anyone younger than rising senior. And I never interview anyone who doesn't have a basic summer job on their resume.
On what planet do you live on that “any summer job” makes you a strong candidate for a competitive rising senior internship? That’s basically like saying having a pulse. Every ambitious college kid has summer jobs and internships. By senior year, the resumes without serious and relevant work experience are immediately discarded by recruiting software. Spare us this boomer coded old timey bulls*** that recruiters ignore all the strivers with office internships and perfectly curated resumes to hire the raw lifeguard with a firm handshake and good eye contact.
back at you. Obviously, a summer job alone is insufficient. Strong academics, research, industry-relevant projects, leadership in campus organizations, jobs on campus that are relevant to your field also build the resume. But, I'm also never hiring a kid whose only "work" experience appears to be hanging around an office where Daddy's friend got him a job. I'm in a heavy client-service team and I want to know you can show up every day reliably, deal with difficult people, and do the non-glamorous stuff. FWIW, my VP's top choice is always going to be the kid who was an RA, the ultimate dealing-with-difficult-people job.
Anonymous
05/21/2026 10:18
Subject: For a rising college junior, lifeguarding is not a “real” summer job/internship, right?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Getting an internship as a rising sophomore or junior is pretty difficult. There are fewer internships available overall and the preference is for rising seniors. Not that it's easy right now for rising seniors either.Anonymous wrote:Jeff Selingo has written extensively about internships being THE most important factor in post-graduation employment. Here is one of the CEO’s he interviewed on the topic of lifeguarding…
“You can’t spend your first couple of summers in college lifeguarding or working as a camp counselor anymore if you have a specific job in mind after graduation,” said Matt Sigelman, the CEO of Burning Glass Technologies, the company that provides real-time labor market data and has studied internship postings. “Those typical summer jobs are not going to position you for work after graduation.”
People on this thread are so out of touch. My DC was at a T20 and sent out 150 applications for an internship two years ago and didn’t get a single offer. Finally found one through a connection. It took him 250 applications to get a single offer post-grad. It’s a great job, and he loves it, but neither DH, nor I, ever sent out that many resumes.
Lifeguard niece made none of those efforts.
Anonymous
05/21/2026 10:16
Subject: For a rising college junior, lifeguarding is not a “real” summer job/internship, right?
Anonymous wrote:Wow, so much sniping about summer jobs vs internships.
Yes, internships are important
And also, internships are really hard to get
The most important summer for an internship is rising senior.
What helps you get that first internship? Any real work experience.
Both my kids did regular summer jobs for two summers, got good internships as rising seniors. DC1 now works FT for his internship company. DC2 is interning this summer.
I hire interns for my team. We never hire anyone younger than rising senior. And I never interview anyone who doesn't have a basic summer job on their resume.
On what planet do you live on that “any summer job” makes you a strong candidate for a competitive rising senior internship? That’s basically like saying having a pulse. Every ambitious college kid has summer jobs and internships. By senior year, the resumes without serious and relevant work experience are immediately discarded by recruiting software. Spare us this boomer coded old timey bulls*** that recruiters ignore all the strivers with office internships and perfectly curated resumes to hire the raw lifeguard with a firm handshake and good eye contact.
Anonymous
05/21/2026 08:15
Subject: For a rising college junior, lifeguarding is not a “real” summer job/internship, right?
Wow, so much sniping about summer jobs vs internships.
Yes, internships are important
And also, internships are really hard to get
The most important summer for an internship is rising senior.
What helps you get that first internship? Any real work experience.
Both my kids did regular summer jobs for two summers, got good internships as rising seniors. DC1 now works FT for his internship company. DC2 is interning this summer.
I hire interns for my team. We never hire anyone younger than rising senior. And I never interview anyone who doesn't have a basic summer job on their resume.
Yes, internships are important
And also, internships are really hard to get
The most important summer for an internship is rising senior.
What helps you get that first internship? Any real work experience.
Both my kids did regular summer jobs for two summers, got good internships as rising seniors. DC1 now works FT for his internship company. DC2 is interning this summer.
I hire interns for my team. We never hire anyone younger than rising senior. And I never interview anyone who doesn't have a basic summer job on their resume.
Anonymous
05/21/2026 07:43
Subject: For a rising college junior, lifeguarding is not a “real” summer job/internship, right?
Anonymous wrote:Getting an internship as a rising sophomore or junior is pretty difficult. There are fewer internships available overall and the preference is for rising seniors. Not that it's easy right now for rising seniors either.Anonymous wrote:Jeff Selingo has written extensively about internships being THE most important factor in post-graduation employment. Here is one of the CEO’s he interviewed on the topic of lifeguarding…
“You can’t spend your first couple of summers in college lifeguarding or working as a camp counselor anymore if you have a specific job in mind after graduation,” said Matt Sigelman, the CEO of Burning Glass Technologies, the company that provides real-time labor market data and has studied internship postings. “Those typical summer jobs are not going to position you for work after graduation.”
People on this thread are so out of touch. My DC was at a T20 and sent out 150 applications for an internship two years ago and didn’t get a single offer. Finally found one through a connection. It took him 250 applications to get a single offer post-grad. It’s a great job, and he loves it, but neither DH, nor I, ever sent out that many resumes.
Anonymous
05/21/2026 07:38
Subject: For a rising college junior, lifeguarding is not a “real” summer job/internship, right?
Anonymous wrote:Jeff Selingo has written extensively about internships being THE most important factor in post-graduation employment. Here is one of the CEO’s he interviewed on the topic of lifeguarding…
“You can’t spend your first couple of summers in college lifeguarding or working as a camp counselor anymore if you have a specific job in mind after graduation,” said Matt Sigelman, the CEO of Burning Glass Technologies, the company that provides real-time labor market data and has studied internship postings. “Those typical summer jobs are not going to position you for work after graduation.”
Well, you can thank Trump for screwing over college kids who can’t get jobs or internships. You know this, surely, if you’re so pedantic.
Anonymous
05/21/2026 07:33
Subject: For a rising college junior, lifeguarding is not a “real” summer job/internship, right?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Jeff Selingo has written extensively about internships being THE most important factor in post-graduation employment. Here is one of the CEO’s he interviewed on the topic of lifeguarding…
“You can’t spend your first couple of summers in college lifeguarding or working as a camp counselor anymore if you have a specific job in mind after graduation,” said Matt Sigelman, the CEO of Burning Glass Technologies, the company that provides real-time labor market data and has studied internship postings. “Those typical summer jobs are not going to position you for work after graduation.”
That single anecdote you cherrypicked doesn't mean that lifeguarding is bad if your other options are not to have a paying job at all. Jeff Selingo writes about the importance of real world work experience, regardless of the field.
Not everyone can find a paying internship in their field. Not in this economy. If OP is so "concerned" she can offer to pay for her niece's expenses so that she can take an unpaid internship like rich kids do.
It’s not cherry picked, you just don’t like what the employment data show. The full article is also posted above, if you are interested in learning more (instead of attacking the messenger). And from the sound of it, OP’s niece isn’t lifeguarding as a default (after unsuccessful attempts in finding an internship). It was a choice that will put her at a competitive disadvantage after graduation.
+1. This thread is so boomer coded. Literally nobody is reading your resume without relevant experience and key words. A.I. is throwing a kid’s lifeguard career into the digital trash.
Anonymous
05/21/2026 07:28
Subject: For a rising college junior, lifeguarding is not a “real” summer job/internship, right?
Yes, it’s not a recent example, but my DH life guarded in his home town some summers during college and even law school. He was eventually a pool manager/head lifeguard in later summers. This did not hold him back at all.
Anonymous
05/21/2026 07:00
Subject: For a rising college junior, lifeguarding is not a “real” summer job/internship, right?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Real internships require networking, career fairs, cover letters and resume, certain GPA, certain skill set, interview prep, letters of recommendation, references, rounds of interviewing, facing rejection. If you get an offer, you have to find a place to live, plan all the logistics, get outside your comfort zone.
The same hometown lazy gig summer after summer requires nothing besides showing up in a bathing suit. This girl is going to be a university upperclassman with no skills and zero real world experience.
Oh please. So many internships are family and friend connections and the parents throw money at any roadblock. Believe it or not you actually have to be qualified to be a lifeguard. There are zero places that will hire a lifeguard who hasn't interviewed, passed training to be a certified lifeguard, and at some places passed a drug test.
If the lifeguard was hired back the following summer then it is a guarantee that the person showed up on time, can get along with others, think quickly, are not afraid of the unexpected AND most importantly (and this can't be emphasized enough) stayed off their phone during their shift. In my office exactly zero interns last summer and the previous one had the ability to do these things despite attending top ranked schools.
This is likely fiction from one of the chip on their shoulder persons spamming this thread.
But still revealing in that they confess “top ranked school” students make up all of his or her corporate interns. And no matter how worthless PP claims they are, they have the experience on their resumes, made professional contacts and references, learned some new skills, can narrow their professional path and city they want to begin a career in, and they are the pipeline FT job offers.
Nobody in PP’s human resources dept is frantically hunting down summer lifeguards, nannies, and golf cart girls who’ve never left their hometown.