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Making hay while sun shines
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Earning their way through the torrid summer is an activity that has caught up among youngsters now. Apart from money, a summer job gives them a taste of work culture and helps cultivate a professional attitude, says SYEDA FARIDA.
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HAVE A SLICE: There is a lot of scope for summer jobs.
"CALLING YOUNG and energetic candidates, between 18-22 years of age with a right attitude,'' reads a typical summer job ad.
There were times when mangoes, movies and indoor activities, or a visit to grandmas' farmyard used to be one's summer activity. Not any more. Holidays are meant to make that extra buck, and the concept of summer jobs has caught on like wild fire among the youth.
When asked about her classmates' whereabouts hoping that the summer heat would keep them indoors, enjoying a nice siesta after a sumptuous brunch and aam ras, "probably they are on the summer jobs," is the cool response from Divya, an Intermediate student, also on her first summer job doing the Palmolive Shaving Cream in-store promotional campaign at the Food World.
"Most of the students are interested in a summer break and want to work in big stores, pizzeria or coffee outlets. The air-conditioned ambience helps in summer," says Chetan, a BCom final year student looking for a summer job.
A final year graduation student Alam, is a popular compere, model, and is into riding. With his first summer job with Tata Cellular Cash Card four years ago, Alam has since done campaigns for Yamaha Rx 135, Cadburys, Bullet Royal Enfield and Bajaj Aspire. "It was an important moment for me when I purchased my bike with my summer earnings," says Alam.
From Rs 250-Rs 350 per day for the promo events or the Rs 2,500-Rs 4,000 take home per month clocking about eight hours per day, summer jobs provide that extra money the young would like to spend on, be it books, taking care of fuel or footing the mobile phone bills.
QUICK BUCK: Qwiky's is a favourite destination for job hunters. - Photo: Satish. H
Apart from the money, the experience that the work brings is important especially for the students who want to take up a career in market related fields with the brand recall and relaunch experiences. "I intend to do my MBA," says Tulsi, promoter at the `Dad and Me' customer promotion at Shoppers' Stop.
Working with brands such as Coty, Colgate, Coke, Tide, Act II and HDFC, the experience provides the young with poise and self-belief. Having worked with Coke last year, K Shailendra is sure about himself as he handles the Nescafe Frappe cold coffee in-house campaign at the Food World. After Satnam `Cash' Singh took up a summer job at Qwikys , he feels that the experience has "helped me a lot especially, interacting with people and I feel I am a changed person now." Today, he works with Standard Chartered.
The experience certificates that the students are provided with at the end of the summer job at the MNC outlets adds to their curriculum vitae. Also, summer jobs tend to give a good amount of exposure to work culture. "Summer jobs prepare for your profession in future. You come to know how to survive in the professional world. There is the rule of the jungle where it is the survival of the fittest with emphasis on performance," says Salim, from Qwikys. "We are looking for summer trainees for service to work on weekends. The person should be street smart and be able to gel with people well,'' he adds.
There have been several openings in different areas in the twin cities this time around. For instance, APTECH provides summer job for existing students in documentation and data entry projects during summers while the 3-45 day market research avenues at IMRB offer young students get an experience in corporate, semi-corporate and household research as part of the ongoing research here. Some of the interesting openings that have attracted youngsters are the jobs at pizza joints in taking orders, making and delivering pizzas, handling rush hours, making exotic coffees at the coffee shops or working at family entertainment centres. "There is lot of scope for summer jobs here. One can be a lane martial who takes care of bowling, or could work as an in-charge of pool, snooker and food," says Piyush, at The Alleygator.
SUPER ACHIEVER: The upmarket supermarkets are chock-a-block with youngsters.
"We have X std students walking in for a summer job," says Vipin, Manager, Café Coffee Day, Amrutha Mall. "It was different five years ago to find the right people to work with for promotional campaigns. Today, we have a lot of enquiries. Youngsters are enthusiastic to learn and work," says Sathya, Agency Head, Pioneer Promotions. "There is a lot of promotion activity happening during summer. We have several students working on summer jobs for various events," says Uday Pilani, in charge for Jalwa Event Management at Hyderabad.
"It has been a great experience working with Dubai World Trade Centre for the GITEX. One tends to learn the difference between the work culture as prevalent in India and abroad," says Shylesh who started his first summer job in a dot com company as a content developer for a US-based company for their Indian operations and there has been no looking back.
"Most of the students come back after schools reopen," says Vishal Khanna, Senior Manager-Operations, Pizza Corner. "Once you tend to become financially independent you would rather continue with part time jobs managing college and work ", says Shylesh.
With learning to be independent at an early age and being able to manage their finances, the composed and confident students, reflect the new face of the once described laid back population. As the system hums "it's a hard day,s night", the young brigade works with enthusiasm preparing for their future landing into the working world.
Openings for summer jobs:
Qwikys Coffee Pub (6266668): service, especially on weekends.
Café Coffee Day (7899111): team members, service.
Jalwa (6319111/7761471): Promotion activities.
Pizza Hut (3378844): management of rush hours, afternoons, and evenings
Pizza Corner (7899111): summer trainees for tele-orders, pizza making, and deliveries.
Pioneer Promotions (7720482/83): in-store promotions, home-to-home surveys.
The Alleygator (6315000/5100): lane martial, pool, snooker, and food centre in-charge
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