So You Want
to Get a "Real Job?" Prepare for the Real World with a summer
job at Camp Ramah
You're busy planning
for next summer...
You are a
serious young person with serious aspirations. You may be headed to a
professional career in business, the arts, the sciences or technology, or
you may be considering a career in education (either Jewish or secular),
the Rabbinate, social service or other "helping" fields. You may
still be "undecided" having not yet found the one field that
really interests you, or you may be interested in so many things, you find
it impossible to settle on one. To get to where you want to be, you need
to achieve at least an undergraduate degree; and you will most likely
pursue graduate training of one sort or another.
Perhaps you
have already spent years at a Ramah camp, first as a camper, then as a
staff member, or you have never been to Ramah camp but you have camper or
staff experience at another camp. Perhaps you have never been to camp
before, but you’ve heard it’s a great place to spend a summer and work
at the same time.
You love
camp, kids and the great outdoors, but… this summer you are feeling
that, to get where you are going, you need to get a "real job"
or an internship at a hospital, in a corporate office, in a law firm or
accounting firm, at a magazine or television studio.
Forget the
internship. For a "real job" that will help you develop more of
the real skills employers want today, think Camp Ramah.
OK, so
perhaps getting twelve-year-olds up in the morning and motivating them to
clean their cabins, write home and attend class doesn’t seem like it
will help you get into law school or land a job at a Fortune 500 company.
Thinking about it that way, well, maybe you’re right.
There is,
however, another way to think about it, a way that increases the value of
the camp experience and makes it shine in comparison to many an internship
that may involve little more than answering phones, making coffee and
operating the copier. Working at camp provides real experience. Working at
camp is superb preparation for graduate or professional school as well as
for the job market. Even more, the skills and experiences gained by
working at camp when appropriately described on your resume or
application, are exactly those most sought after by employers at all
levels.
Whatever
the field or profession, whatever the work involved, employers all seem to
say the same thing. They are not concerned about their new young hires
having the technical skills and focused preparation for the field. Most
colleges and universities do a good job with that kind of education and
training. Even more, employers tell us that they will re-train their new
employees in any event, so that those employees will know the specifics of
how that particular company, firm or institution functions. On the other
hand, employers complain that there are some intangibles, some non-job
specific skills required by most new employees, which they just don’t
seem to have.
It may be
hard to believe that you could actually get these intangible skills by
working at Camp Ramah, but you can. Read on, and you will discover what
these skills are and how you gain them by being a Camp Ramah staff member.
Employers Want a Good
Solid Work Ethic
Employers
in all fields need employees who maintain a good work ethic. What does
this mean? It means you have to:
•
Work hard
•
Arrive on time, put in a full day’s work, and be less concerned about
watching the clock and more concerned about getting the job done
•
Be disciplined and deal with things like schedules and deadlines
•
Work on multiple tasks or projects simultaneously
•
Deal with stress
What
Camp Ramah offers:
Working at
camp demands the kind of work ethic described above; it’s hard to
succeed at camp without it. As a camp counselor, you are responsible for
the lives of others twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. There is
no harder work. The workday begins early in the morning and goes until
late at night. Even after your "work day" is over, you may work
on your own in preparation for some program or event. The day is
structured and the schedule is tight. You not only have to keep on
schedule yourself, but you also have to insure that your campers are on
schedule. Self-discipline is essential and there are always multiple
programs and activities that need attention simultaneously.
Employers want people
with initiative
As we’ve
been hearing for years now, organizations in all fields have become
"leaner and meaner." Organizations are flatter and people are
given responsibilities and then left to do the job with little or no
supervision. Employers want new employees who can work independently, take
the initiative and make
decisions.
What
Camp Ramah offers:
Working at
camp provides numerous opportunities to take initiative and
responsibility, to show one’s self to be both self-starting and
self-motivated.
As a
counselor, you will have to "wing it" on many occasions, making
it up as you go along. As an educator you will have to take initiative and
be creative in your programming, and know how to use the resources
available to you.
Here are a
couple of scenarios:
• The outdoor
program that has been planned for days never gets started because it’s
raining. The campers need
something to do that will hold their attention and keep them interested.
• A problem occurs
with a camper or a program or even another staff member in some far
corner of camp. It needs to be resolved immediately and there is no time
to get the director or a supervisor or anyone else. As a staff member on
the spot, you need to take charge and do what needs to be done.
One of the
great pluses of Camp Ramah is in the area of the supervision provided to
you. While it is true that companies want self-starters, they also want
people who know how to work with supervisors and superiors, people who can
take constructive criticism. The counselor advisors at camp are highly
trained professionals who can help you improve your skills and become
reflective about your work. It is impossible to overestimate the value of
these qualities in today’s marketplace and in the professional world.
Employers Want Team
Players
Work today
is less and less individual and more and more a group activity. Work
groups, quality circles, team efforts of all sorts are increasingly the
norm, and many young people enter the world of work unprepared to work and
to share their work with others.
What Camp Ramah offers:
At Camp
Ramah, working as part of a team is no problem. At every level of camp,
you will work as part of a group; no one is a "solo act." For
example, in the bunks there are two and sometimes three staff members.
Responsibility needs to be divided, work has to be shared and information
— about campers,
programs and problems — needs to flow back and forth on a continuous
basis. At the edah (division) level, teamwork is essential. Edah staff
meets regularly and you will work with other staff members on scheduling,
programming and a variety of other activities. Information has to be
shared about campers and problems, and staff must regularly back up one
another, fill in for one another and work collaboratively. And of course,
from time to time the entire camp staff must work together on some major
event or program (Visitors’ Day comes to mind). Camp Ramah veterans are
well experienced in being part of a collaborative work group.
Employers Want Good
Communicators
This is the
"mantra" of job recruiters and graduate admissions
representatives: nothing is as important as the ability to communicate and
work effectively with others. Whatever it is, supervising or being
supervised, working with customers or professors or the public, these
skills are a must.
What
Camp Ramah offers:
At Camp
Ramah interpersonal communications and interpersonal relationships are
key. Your success as a staff member is measured, in no small part, by your
ability to communicate effectively with others. Everyone works with and is
in constant communication with others. Campers need to be listened to and
understood — and they need to be supervised and given direction, often
in a gentle, diplomatic and unobtrusive manner. You need to work
effectively with co-counselors in a cabin, with other counselors in a
division, and with program specialists and supervisors. If you can master
the multiple relationships at camp and maintain effective communications
with campers and fellow staff, then you will be well prepared for the
interpersonal demands of graduate education and/or the workplace.
You'll develop many
more skills too...
In camp you will learn
the following skills that are so in demand in the workplace:
·
Leadership
·
Programming
·
Creativity
·
Supervising
·
Teaching
·
Counseling
·
Effective listening
·
Conflict resolution
·
Building and maintaining morale
