| > If I tell my kids to be camp counselors, are their careers in a tailspin from the get-go?
It might not be a good idea to tell a kid what to be, even in a first summer job, but rather just to have some kind of work experience perhaps if you feel that is important in their life experience (which many do, but not all). But the assumption seems to be that being a camp counselor would be less stressful/likely to result in burn out than what is more traditionally considered an internship, and I don't suspect this to be the case. Caring for youth on a pool or out on a lake, say, requires far more responsibility than writing software code of various kinds that will be tested by various people before going to market, for example. Counselors also often work long hours.
But to your question of putting their career in a tailspin, it might depend on when that job was taken. I know a gal whose only paid work experience prior to entering Stanford a few years ago was that of camp counselor. I doubt she's going to have career problems once out of Stanford. But if someone is a camp counselor say just before the senior year of college, that *might* be a drawback for some job applications down the road. |