By definition, seasonal jobs are short-term and temporary. Nevertheless, they present a unique opportunity to check if a seasonal job matches what you need and turn it into a permanent job.
A seasonal job gives variety to work for home workers. Seasonal jobs are offering a win-win opportunity to check out new job positions at new companies or industries on a short-term basis while acquiring new skills, learning about a certain company and earning additional income during a certain season.
Seasonal jobs are only available during certain seasons of the year when the companies have an increased volume of work. This means that the seasonal employees will work only for that period of time.
If you are interested in seasonal employment, start looking for a job before the start of the season. E.g. if you are looking for a summer job, start your job search in the spring, then if you are looking for a job during the holiday season in winter, start your job search at the beginning of the fall.
If you are new to the whole work from home idea, this type of job will be a great way to add the needed remote experience in your resume. Usually, jobs regarding customer support are the most popular during holiday seasons and the easiest way of starting to work from home. Even though answering customer questions through email or phone may not be the job of your dreams, the pay is often very good and the hours are plentiful.
You can even make some pro and con list if you have doubts about starting on a seasonal job. As a best-case scenario, you will find a lot better job position with that company, and as a worst case, you’ll lose a few months of your life doing something you don’t like.
Pro and cons of taking a seasonal job
When deciding if you should take a seasonal job, here are some common pros and cons of seasonal employment.
Pros
Good for building your resume
If you are struggling to fill out your resume, you want to fill a time gap or you are straight out of college, starting a seasonal job is a great way of showing additional experience in your resume.
Even though sometimes taking a seasonal job might feel below your professional level, a time gap on your resume might raise a few eyebrows when looking for a better job. It also might raise the question of what were you doing for those few months? Taking a seasonal job can help you talk about the learning experience and the skills you developed while working over that period of time.
Also, if you want to change the industry, working two or three months in some specific sector can help you in acquiring new skills in your new field and prepare you for the next career step.
Landing a job for a big-name company such as Amazon or Apple, even if it’s for a few months, later on, can impress a lot of full-time potential employers.
Try out a new company
Just like the internships, with the seasonal job you can get a feel on how the company is operating, its structure, culture, and goals. You can easily talk with the other full-time employees and ask them for their experience and day-to-day tasks as well as how they feel for the company. This is a perfect way of seeing if that company is the right fit. If you like it there, you already have your foot in there to pursue long-term opportunities. If you don’t, you are free to go at the end of the season.
Possibility for a long-term job
Hiring employees for a longer-term from the seasonal employees is ideal from an employers’ perspective since you’ll be all ready trained and show them what you have to offer. Your manager’s feedback and recommendation are most valuable when the company is considering which seasonal worker to be hired for a full-time role.
If you want to be noticed by the management and stay in that company, try to finish your tasks on time and with top-notch efficiency. Most important you have to mention to your supervisor or manager that you are interested in a full-time role in the company.
Cons
There won’t be extensive training
Seasonal jobs are short-term by nature, and employers usually don’t want to waste their time in providing extensive, detailed training for their seasonal employees. Usually, there is basic how-to training on the first day or before starting the job, since most of the tasks for the seasonal jobs are repetitive and basic. The repetitive day-to-day tasks can bring your motivation to work down.
For this reason, if you think that learning new skills is more valuable to you, instead of adding a new company to your resume, consider spending your free time on activities or taking classes that will help you in gaining those new skills.
If you decide to take a seasonal job, it would be best if it is from a field where you already have some knowledge.
Tough schedule
Working from home usually means that you’ll have a flexible schedule, but that doesn’t mean that the working hours will always work out for you. During the holiday season or some other busy season, some of the companies may want you to work odd shifts such as night shift, split shift even a weekend shift. While searching for job opportunities, make sure that working odd shifts is not an issue for you.
If you already have a full-time job, adding a seasonal job as an extra income, you can expect that you won’t have any free time or social life. If you’re unemployed, make sure that the seasonal job is not taking too much time and slowing down your job hunt for a permanent job.
Low pay and no benefits
Seasonal jobs usually don’t require extensive experience or special training., which means that the wage is minimum or close to the minimum. Benefits such as health insurance and retirement plan are not offered in seasonal jobs, as well as some other company perks like discounts and outings are not on the table. If these benefits are important to you, you should ask for them from your employer before signing the contract.
However, if you are looking for additional income for the holidays or a trip, it would be a great opportunity for you. If you take your time in your job search, you can even find a good-paying seasonal job.
Types of seasonal jobs for home workers
Some seasonal jobs pay much better than others. Seasonal jobs that are high paying vary from season to season so you’ll have to try harder to find the one that fits right into your schedule, the time of the year and your interests.
Customer support – Your tasks will include enhancing the experience of the customers, answering questions regarding the products, solving product issues, making recommendations for a particular product or service, etc. These tasks can be easily done via email, online chat or phone call. These types of jobs often require training, good communication, and problem-solving skills. Although, most of the time you will have to use the scripts for handling the usual customer questions.
Virtual assistant – Making sure that every email is answered, schedule meetings, town cars, book plane tickets, even do some personal tasks for your employers, such as sending thank you notes or flowers.
Market Research – Performing market research for some particular field of interest, product or service. Research can be conducted using information from the internet or interviews with relevant people using phone calls, Skype calls, etc. Sometimes from the workers can be required to be bilingual.
Social media services – maintaining all social media platforms for a certain season, especially for the holiday season, making the marketing strategy for that season, posting ads for the company and its products and improving the image of the company.
Online tutor– Responsible for teaching students online and responding to their questions. Must be proficient in English or some other language, and have expertise in a particular field, such as math, science, SEO marketing, programming languages, etc.
Frontend UI Developer – Developing user-friendly browser-based UI. Usually, the candidates should have a few years of experience with UI developing analytics.
Writer / Editor- Writing excellent articles or blog posts, product descriptions, content for the website, newsletters, etc. All of the content is required to be SEO friendly. The perfect candidate should have proven experience through their portfolio, as well as great writing and editing skills.
Translating services – Having excellent translating skills to communicate in a few different languages, and accurately translate critical information, whether through one on one conversation or through transcription.
Developer – iOS or Android developer for a short-term project. The candidate also should have proven experience.
Accountant – Accountant services are especially needed before the end of the year when it is a tax season, and the accounting companies are overwhelmed with work. So the employees are required to provide written tax solutions for their customers. The training for the CPAs (certified public accountants) and tax attorneys usually starts in the fall.
Companies that offer opportunities for seasonal work
Most companies that are offering seasonal jobs are usually for the Christmas holiday season or during the summer. These companies start with taking applications around September if they need additional workforce during the winter holidays. Usually, the workers don’t have the perk of a flexible schedule or some other benefits. Although these companies are hiring employees for a temporary seasonal job, they may also hire employees for permanent jobs
The companies that are listed below usually are offering seasonal jobs:
Amazon – Amazon as one of the biggest online retail sellers are hiring its customer service agents during a certain season. These agents are work from home employees and need to live in certain areas or states. There is a chance of bonuses for working peak hours.
Apple at Home– Apple at home is hiring non-students and students that are enrolled in the college from which Apple recruits employees. Apple is hiring these home-based employees to work in its call-center program, so they can be prepared when the holiday rush begins.
Convergys – Convergys is offering seasonal jobs for virtual call-center agents that will be providing customer services, technical support or sales. Also, this company is offering paid training and benefits to their employees. They are hiring work from home agents from most of the US states, the UK, and Canada.
Intuit – Intuit is offering its seasonal remote jobs around New Year when the tax season begins. However, Intuit starts with the recruiting process for their CPA (certified public accountants), tax attorneys and enrolled agents in the fall. These seasonal tax advisors are offering their services through phone calls, online chats, emails, etc.
1-800-Flowers.com – 1-800- Flowers are offering their seasonal work from home opportunities more often than the other companies. They are hiring their sales agents for Christmas and Valentine’s in winter, and in spring they are hiring employees for Easter and Mother’s day.
Teleflora – Teleflora similar to 1-800-Flowers is offering seasonal jobs in the floral industry. They needed training for their work from home sales agents is paid according to the minimum wage of the employees’ state.
Sykes Home – Sykes Home is employing home-based agents for providing inbound customer services for different clients around the world. The recruiting process is done online and by phone. Usually, it includes technical skills interview and voice audition. It’s a huge plus If the candidate possesses bilingual skills (languages such as Mandarin, Cantonese, and Spanish).
TeleTech at Home – TeleTech is an outsourcing company that is hiring home-based call agents in most US states and Canada.
Carlson Wagonlit Travel – Carlson is offering seasonal job opportunities for experienced travel agents, who will work from home.
Yardi Matrix – Yardi Matrix is a company that is doing market research in the real estate field and is conducting seasonal surveys for apartment policies and rent, and some other questions regarding apartment hunt. Hired employees will pose as a potential renter asking these questions to the apartment communities.
Great American Opportunities – GAO is offering data entry jobs with seasonal character. This company has a long waiting list and if you are hired, you might wait until the next season to start with your seasonal data entry job.
How to make your seasonal job, a permanent one?
Even though the seasonal job is simply for a few months, sometimes the employer decides to keep the most valuable seasonal employees who work from home and offer them a permanent job.
Since most of the seasonal jobs have a tight schedule, the first rule in keeping the job and becoming a full-time employee is to be available and flexible with your schedule, so that your employer has the needed support with the increased traffic.
Second, nobody wants employees with an attitude, so do what you are asked to do without asking too many questions.
Third, treat your seasonal job as your permanent job, and try to give your best. After all, you are paid to do the job you are hired for. If you work hard, you will stand out.
Do seasonal employees need access to benefits?
In today’s fast-moving digital world, companies must offer really good perks and benefits to attract the best candidates. Usually, full-time employees are receiving these benefits, but seasonal and temporary employees are not.
Offering the following benefits to the seasonal workers can make a huge difference in their productivity:
- Training on the job – Even though the seasonal workers are working only for a short period of time, they are considering this job as an opportunity to learn new skills. Enable them to have access to the company’s online training programs that are available to regular full-time employees. Encourage the temporary employees to complete the training programs, so that they are far better prepared for doing their tasks successfully, and rump up their productivity.
- Company Discounts – Companies have a vast selection of discounts from their clients, local vendors, and different business services. They can easily give some of these discounts to their seasonal employees. They will feel really appreciated and do their best to complete their tasks with top-notch efficiency.
- Performance bonuses – Seasonal employees will do their best while working for the company. The company can give them some bonuses for their work performance, efforts, and loyalty at the end of their time with it. These bonuses can consist of cash, company discounts, gift cards, etc. Also, providing a good recommendation is a huge benefit, which they can use when applying for another permanent or seasonal job.
How many hours can seasonal employees work per week?
Usually, seasonal employees work from 30-35 hours per week in most of the states and no more than 6 months per year. If they work more than 35 hours, the employer must pay health insurance, otherwise, the company will pay penalties.