What You Should Know About Seasonal Jobs

Taking on a seasonal job can help you pay holiday gift debt, supplement your income, build new skill sets, or land full-time job opportunities. Tailor your LinkedIn profile to help seasonal job recruiters find you, search LinkedIn, Google, and around your hometown for local opportunities, and network to find the right opportunity.

By Brandi Fowler

Seasonal jobs are short-term, temporary positions you can take during the holidays and other seasons to boost your income and/or break into a new company or industry.?

Those jobs can include retail positions during the holidays, accountant work during tax season,?lifeguard duties during the summer, etc.?

“The key benefit is the ability to get experience that you wouldn't otherwise,” Little Talent Group CEO April Little told LinkedIn News. “The number one reason for most people is to bring in extra cash, especially during the holidays, or to cover a gap that they might have in their employment.?

“But this is an opportunity for you to really shine. And if you are unsure what you want to do with your career, there is an opportunity for you to identify what you want to do by taking that temporary role. You don't have to fully commit, but you are able to go there, figure out what you want to do, make some extra cash as you do it, build your resume, and even build the stories that you share in the interviews. You are going to have those additional varying experiences that you wouldn't otherwise have.”

Determine Which Type of Seasonal Job Is Best for You Before Applying

Think about which seasonal jobs are best for you before applying, including what your ideal pay rate and seasonal job schedule would look like.?

“Is it work-life balance?” Little said. “Is your driver money? Is your driver just getting additional experience that's going to help you land that full-time job that you want? Or is it just identifying even what you want to do?

“A lot of people don't know what they want to do. Prioritize what your number one driver is. That should be the leading reason why you take the seasonal job. For most people, a close second or a first for them could be the money. So, identify: ‘Does the interest that I have align with the money that I also need to make? Do I want to be in the office/warehouse or can I do this seasonal job from home? Is it going to interrupt my work-life harmonization?’”?

Types of Seasonal Jobs and When to Apply for Them

Seasonal jobs can be part-time or full-time depending on the position, and although you can find them throughout the year, most tend to arrive right before the holidays, Little said.

“What I've seen mostly in my career, even from the staffing side, is that they have been full-time,” Little said. “The top industries that I've seen hiring for seasonal jobs include retail, tax, logistics, and delivery.”

Little said she has seen employers start hiring for seasonal jobs as early as Oct. 1.?

“It is really important for anyone they hire to really understand the business and to prepare and to learn the job, to be able to make those impacts during the really busy holiday season,” Little said. “So they usually need folks to sometimes start several weeks in advance to be able to make those impacts.”

Little said she saw some of the highest-paying seasonal jobs in retail, with commission attached, and logistics.

Seasonal jobs can also be found in the warehouse, retail call center, and virtual call center space, said career coach and certified recruiter Ebony Thomas .?

“That is across industries because a lot of orders go up,” Thomas said. “Definitely retail. All of your typical mall stores, Bed Bath and Beyond, Bath and Body Works, etc. definitely need the seasonal help.

“A lot of restaurants need the seasonal help as well simply because there will be a lot of families that will not be cooking dinner or hosting families. So they will be out. Look at diners, not so much fast food, but overnight diners. They are going to need the help. Virtual call centers like Williams Sonoma, even though it's a retailer and they have stores in select cities, hire a lot during a seasonal time because people shop more online. Big retail giants like Amazon, Walmart, etc., have a lot of seasonal work [too].”

Thomas also said the healthcare industry also has more voids to fill than usual during the holiday season because people tend to be sick. Certified nursing assistant roles usually ramp up, for example.

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Seasonal Jobs

Seasonal jobs can not help you boost your income and learn new skills, but they can land you a full-time job too.?

“Some jobs will convert you after the holidays,” Thomas said. “Seasonal jobs were already factored into the annual compensation plan, and this is a time right now where a lot of companies are going through their [budgets] and creating new annual compensation plans.

“So, they already slate in possibly rolling over some seasonal jobs into permanent roles. When I worked at Amazon seasonal, I worked there for four months. Then I was converted to a full-time customer service [representative]. I never expected a conversion to happen but it happened. So people sometimes think like, ‘Oh well I don't know, it is only temporary, no benefits.’ You start off that way [but you don’t always end that way].”

Thomas suggested researching the company if you are interested in being converted.?

“Amazon just had 10,000 layoffs,” Thomas said. “If I'm there seasonally, I don't know if I want to convert over to full-time. I think I might just want to stick to this and move on. Those things matter. Think about the stability of the company.”

If you want to be converted, show your skill set and that you would be a good fit for the organization, Little said.?

“Be consistent, take initiative and be diligent,” Little said. “Do a good job at your job, look for any opportunities [where] you can add some value, gain that visibility, and check in with whomever your lead is. And be vocal that you want to stay there.

“After a few weeks, if you find that is where you want to be, I would vocalize that and I would continue doing a great job. Ultimately, if the business needs an opportunity met, then certainly you have a high chance of landing a full-time job.”

One drawback to consider before taking on a seasonal role is that you may not have much time off, especially if you are working during the holidays, Thomas said. But you can use that to your advantage.

“They will extend as much overtime as possible to you when you are seasonal,” Thomas said. “But that is a good thing. Sometimes, a drawback could be [not having days off you want]. You may only get Thanksgiving off if they are closed or you may only get Christmas off, but the day after and things like that, you may have to go back to work because [the company] will have to fulfill a lot of the orders. A lot of the work that they are doing, they have to get right back to it.”?

How to Find Seasonal Jobs

The key is finding the right seasonal job once you have pinpointed your priorities.

You can search LinkedIn, Google, and job boards to find them, but Little said it also pays to look around your hometown.?

“What I have seen is that the world is going back to a pre-COVID place, and a lot of it you can find when you're driving,” Little said. “A lot of seasonal jobs are on billboards when you are driving on the expressway. There are signs outside of companies right now saying ‘Now hiring for seasonal help.’ So those are usually the number one places where you are going to see that because a lot of the time companies have budgets, so they may not necessarily post on the most expensive job site.”

Little also proposed tailoring your resume and LinkedIn profile to help recruiters find you for seasonal work.?

“One of my favorite features on LinkedIn is the Open to Work feature, but there are features on LinkedIn that will say if you are open to contract work, seasonal work, part-time work,” Little said. “So that is a good way for you to find an opportunity, by way of a recruiter sourcing you, in addition to having on your headline that you are open to seasonal opportunities.?

“And even in the body of where you post. The other thing I have seen work very well is job seekers writing content around the real experiences that they are having searching for jobs. I have seen people get seasonal jobs from making a post or a well-written comment on a post.”

Network to Find a Seasonal Job — and Don’t Be Afraid to Negotiate?

You can also network to land seasonal jobs.

“If you are currently on LinkedIn, I would start looking at some of the companies that you have seen hiring full-time or seasonal, and look up the hiring manager or recruiter and send them a note,” Little said. “[You can also] in-person to network as well. There are a lot of open houses. I went to Marshall's last week and they are having hiring event days. Those are great ways for you to get your name out there and maybe land a job the same day too.”?

After you land your seasonal job, it is OK to negotiate, Little said.?

“A lot of times a seasonal job might just be a fixed rate,” Little said. “But a seasonal job should be a great practice ground for you to stay at that organization, get the experience and go elsewhere. So you should get in the habit of negotiating your pay or asking because sometimes there is a $1 to $5 range.

“I would thoroughly look up what those jobs pay on multiple websites like Levels.fyi, or even LinkedIn has some tools now, Payscale.com, Salary.com. You might even be able to do some informational interviews with folks that were in those seasonal roles before to find out what the full range was. I would go in with your number. I would ask.”?

Top Takeaways

What You Should Know About Seasonal Jobs?

• Determine what type of seasonal job could work for you, including schedule and pay rate.?
• Seasonal jobs can not only help you boost your income, but you can also pick up new skills, break into a new industry, and land full-time roles.?
• Tailor your LinkedIn profile and digital resume to help recruiters find you for seasonal jobs.
• Network to land seasonal jobs, search LinkedIn and other job boards, and look around your hometown for local seasonal job postings.?