Web site helps students find seasonal employment

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – \nCoolWorks.com is a Web site for people looking for a seasonal job or career in popular places like Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park or even out of the United States. Students can get summer jobs at places like ski resorts, ranches, theme parks and tour companies. \nThe site offers links to Web sites that offer interesting jobs. In addition, the site has places for internships and volunteering.\n“CoolWorks was born of the idea that employers in national parks might be able to use the then-brand-new World Wide Web to distribute applications to potential applicants, thereby decreasing the need for paper-based applications – being green very early on,” Director of Operations Patty Bishoff said. \nCoolWorks has been on the Web since 1995. The creators of the site wanted to eliminate the hassle of the application process and be friendly to the environment.\nAn applicant can go online, research information about an employer, apply online and have the application reviewed in 24 hours or less. and there’s no paper involved. The site “works” for applicants because employers pay for the advertising. There are no fees included for the applicant. \n“Though our site is full of current openings, our \n‘help wanted now’ page remains the most popular page on our site,” Bishoff said. “We are also proud to offer tons of information on areas of interest for people who think CoolWorks’ jobs rock: info on tours, travel, schools, gear, books, other sites, news items. And we have people all over the world writing about their experiences. Real life people living real lives – nothing is cooler than that.”\nThere is also a seasonal worker’s guide that gives several links to things like room and board, resume tips, assessment tests to find the right fit and a salary calculator.\n“At CoolWorks, we think of ourselves as being lucky to wave the ‘dream job’ magic wand,” Bishoff said. “We see so many really cool jobs come across the site, there are days when we say, ‘I think I’ll apply for that one.’” \nA summer job could turn out to be more like an adventure than just a way to earn some cash. \n“We started with 10 employers, all in national parks, and we’ve grown over the last 12 years to include over 2,500 employers in national park areas, camps, ranches, amusement parks, cruise lines and more,” Bishoff said. “The natural compliment to these (mainly) summer employers was to find winter opportunities, and so we hooked up with plenty of ski resorts and resorts in warm-winter areas such as Florida and Arizona.” \nThere are also opportunities for students to find full-time work in a job that they find “cool.”\n“If a ‘cool worker’ chose to live the lifestyle year round, the opportunities are right here,” Bishoff said. “One of our favorite ‘Blogging The Dream’ writing couples have worked from cost to coast – Alaska, Maine, Florida, California and points in between.”