Plenty of seasonal jobs never reach the big job sites, or they land there after the best places have gone. Working out how to find seasonal work is mostly a question of where each kind of employer advertises, because a ski resort, a fruit farm and a parcel warehouse recruit through very different channels. If you are wondering when seasonal jobs start hiring, the short answer is months before the season opens, and the sector timing sits in our guide to a CV for a summer or seasonal job.
Go straight to the employer
Seasonal employers with a lot of places to fill usually run their own recruitment pages, and those pages are often the only place the full list of roles appears. Think of ski resort operators, holiday parks, theme parks, summer camps, hotel groups and large retailers taking on extra staff for the peak. A job board may show three of their openings when the careers page lists forty.
Start by making a list of employers instead of searching for job titles. Pick the area you want to work in, then write down every operator there: the lift company, the two biggest hotels, the campsite group, the water park. Look for a page called "seasonal jobs", "work with us" or "join our team", which is often linked in the site footer and missing from the main menu.
Take Maya, an invented 24-year-old who wants a winter in the mountains. Searching "ski jobs" gives her a handful of agency adverts. Listing the eleven employers in one valley and visiting each site gives her six live application forms, including two kitchen roles she had not seen advertised anywhere else.
Some of these employers keep applications in a general pool for the whole season, so an early form can turn into an offer when someone drops out in week two. Others want a fresh application for each role. Read the page properly, because resort forms often ask for your available dates and whether you can stay to the end of the season, and those answers can weigh as much as your experience.
Use specialist seasonal boards
General job sites rank by keyword, so a two-month contract at a lakeside campsite gets buried under permanent hospitality management roles. Specialist boards avoid that problem, because their employers are paying to reach people who want exactly this kind of work.
In the UK, examples include Seasonworkers.com for summer and winter roles and Natives.co.uk for ski and resort jobs. In the US, CoolWorks.com is known for jobs in national parks, ranches and resorts. Check that each one is still current before you build your search around it, since small boards change hands and some stop being updated.
Set up alerts, then look at the date on every listing. An advert left over from last season tells you nothing about current openings, although it does tell you who hires, and you can go to that employer's own page. If you have a specific trade, such as chef or outdoor instructor, our roundup of niche job boards by industry may give you a second route.
Public services, farm bodies and agencies
Public employment services
These are easy to overlook, yet they often carry vacancies from local employers who will not pay for a job board. In the UK, that means the government's Find a Job service and local Jobcentres. In the US, look at American Job Centers and your state workforce site. Many offices in tourist areas run recruitment days before the season, and advisers tend to know which local businesses are short of staff, so a phone call can tell you more than the website.
Farm and harvest work
Farm work runs on its own network. Growers often recruit through regional farming associations, producer groups and labour providers, and some advertise only on their own sites. Search the crop plus the place, such as "apple picking Kent", instead of "farm jobs", and try the local growers' association.
In the UK, businesses supplying labour to farms generally need a licence, so look the provider up on the official register if one applies. Rules differ between countries, so check the position where you plan to work, including your right to work if you are crossing a border.
Agencies for warehouse and event peaks
Staffing agencies fill a lot of peak warehouse, parcel and event work, because those employers need large numbers of people at short notice. Register with a couple near you, and take ID and proof of your right to work so they can place you quickly. Ask how shifts are confirmed and how much notice you get if one is cancelled.
Event work such as bar crews, stewarding and festival build-up usually goes through event staffing firms. Security roles may require a licence, so check what applies where you are before you apply for those.
Ask people, read noticeboards, knock on doors
Returning staff are the first choice for many seasonal employers, and some managers fill places through them before anything gets advertised. That gives you two moves. If you have worked a season, tell your manager before you leave that you would like to come back, and get a name and an email address for next time.
If you have not, find people who have. Resort staff groups on social media and camp alumni groups are good places to ask who is hiring, and current workers will tell you which manager is fair and which "staff housing" is a caravan behind the bins. Ask them a direct question, such as "Is the bar at the marina taking anyone on?", and you will get a more useful reply than a general request for help.
Small employers often skip online advertising altogether. Check the noticeboards at the supermarket, the tourist office and the town hall, along with local community pages. Then go in person: campsites, beach bars and independent shops often decide on the spot, and our guide to handing in your CV in person covers when to go and what to say.
Carry a one-page CV when you do. If your LinkedIn profile is up to date, Postulit can turn it into a clean CV in a few minutes, which you can then trim for the role.
Check the housing and spot scams
Accommodation decides whether a seasonal job works out financially, so raise it before you accept. A wage that looks modest with a free room can beat a higher one in a resort town where rents jump for the season. Ask these questions directly:
- Is accommodation provided, and how much is taken from your pay for it?
- Is the room shared, and with how many people?
- If the site is remote, how do you get to work?
- What happens to the room if the job ends early?
If nothing is provided, look for housing before you say yes, because rooms in a popular resort can run out well ahead of the season.
Seasonal work also attracts scammers, since applicants are often in a hurry and far from home. A simple rule covers most cases: do not pay a fee to get a job, and do not send a housing deposit before you have a signed contract and can verify who owns the room. An employer may have a genuine deposit arrangement, but it should be written down and should not arrive as an urgent request for a bank transfer.
Contact the employer through the details on its own website, not the ones in the message you received. Be wary of an offer made without any interview, and hold back passport copies and bank details until you have a real contract in front of you.
A first week of searching
Use the channels in order of how close they sit to the person hiring:
- Choose one area and list every employer in it, then apply on their own pages.
- Set alerts on one or two specialist boards and call the local employment office.
- Message two people who have worked there and ask who is short of staff.
- Compare any offer against the housing questions above before you agree to anything.
Send your first application today, to the employer at the top of your list.