How easy is it to find a summer job in Boulder? (Frisco: sublet, rent)

[vrda99]

Hello, everyone!

I'm a student from Croatia and I will be working in the US this summer. Out of all the offers I got, the one in a hotel in Boulder seemed the best. I will be be coming with my 2 friends.

My question for you guys is, how easy is it to find another job there. Plenty of my friends already spent their summers working in the US, but they always went to smaller, touristy towns, like Ocean City, MD, Myrtle Beach, SC or Cape Cod in MA. None of them had problems finding 2nd jobs, they said they literally went from one restaurant to another and just straight up asked the manager for a job.

Now, that seems plausible in a smaller town that relies on students who are usually chepaer to do those kind of jobs. My concern is that in Boulder, which is an actual city, we just won't be able to do that since it's main sector is definitely not tourism.

Also, how touristy is Boulder actually? Do people really visit it during summer? I know it's a college town and very lively, but do people from other parts of the country actually go out of their way to visit it?

Thank you all in advance!

[CSHail]

Boulder is somewhat of a tourist destination, mainly for its outdoor activities and scenery.

https://www.planetware.com/colorado/...o-us-co-73.htm

Your friends should be able to find jobs pretty easily there. With half the county burning down a few weeks ago, jobs in construction should be especially plentiful this summer (sorry, but true).

[vrda99]

Originally Posted by CSHail

Your friends should be able to find jobs pretty easily there. With half the county burning down a few weeks ago, jobs in construction should be especially plentiful this summer (sorry, but true).

We will almost certainly be working in the hospitality/tourism industry, but thank you anyways.

[Ruth4Truth]

There's hospitality/tourism work in Boulder, but you may have competition from the local university students. It's hard to say. How many hours will your main job be--will it be full-time or only part-time? The US embassies shouldn't be giving visas to students, who only have half a job, i.e. not enough to support themselves. I've heard of this sort of thing happening before.

If you're coming in a student visa, it's illegal for you to work more than 19 hrs./week. What kind of visa will you be on?

[vrda99]

I will be there on a J1 visa.

I doubt local students will be a competition hahaha $12/h is a neurosurgeon salary in my country, if not more.

[lostboy]

Hi Vrda the rafting companies in Buena Vista CO are usually looking for raft guides in the summer. They will train you before the season starts if you don’t have experience. The Arkansas River is very popular for white water rafting and you would get a taste of life in the Rockies. Just another option for a fun summer job...Good Luck

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by vrda99

I will be there on a J1 visa.

I doubt local students will be a competition hahaha $12/h is a neurosurgeon salary in my country, if not more.

The J1 visa is for people on a work-study program, such as taking English classes at least part-time, then working half time, or doing career/job training, and working part-time. You're supposed to be enrolled in a university program back home, or participating in some kind of formal training program, then working part-time.

This type of visa is being abused by people in the students' home countries, who sign the young people up for some flimsy "study program", set them up with a half-time job that's inadequate for paying their rent (even if they share a room), then abandon them to fend for themselves. This is what you're planning to do, OP: fend for yourself after you get here, because your work assignment won't be enough to cover your expenses.

In this way, the organizers back home avoid responsibility for the fact that their program participants have to break the law and violate the terms of the visa in order to survive in the US.

Of course, not all programs are illegitimate like that, but it sounds like yours isn't operating according to requirements. I got a distress call once, from a parent in Russia of a young person who got suckered into what had been sold as an English study-in-the-US program. The kids only were given half-time jobs, and had minimal English classes to attend. The rest of the time, they had to grab whatever jobs they could find, and they were upset, that their work/study-abroad program in America resulted in them spending the summer flipping burgers in MacDonald's, on what was advertised as an English immersion program. They felt exploited. And they were violating the terms of the visa.

Did you have to pay anything to some middle-man in your country to get on this visa program? Just wondering.
https://www.path2usa.com › j1-visa-overview

The J1 visa is a nonimmigrant visa for foreign nationals coming to the United States to participate in work-and-study-based exchange visitor programs. J1 visa exchange visitor programs allow participants to work, study, teach, conduct research, or receive training in the USA for a period of a few weeks to a few years.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by lostboy

Hi Vrda the rafting companies in Buena Vista CO are usually looking for raft guides in the summer. They will train you before the season starts if you don’t have experience. The Arkansas River is very popular for white water rafting and you would get a taste of life in the Rockies. Just another option for a fun summer job...Good Luck

This actually sounds like a good idea, potentially. The OP could learn about the river rafting business. Croatia has beautiful river systems, that an enterprising person or group of persons could launch a river-rafting business on (if they don't already have that).

The only problem, I think, is that the OP will already have a half-time job assigned to him, and is looking for an additional job to go with that. Both jobs would have to be in the same location or close enough to use transit to commute from one to the other. And he may have some kind of formal classes or training/internship to attend as well. It's supposed to be a work-study program he's on: half-time work, half-time study or training.

[brk330]

In the mid-90's, when my wife and I were seasonal ski bums, we came down from the mountains to sublet in Boulder for the summer.
We found that wages were a lot less compared to the ski towns and the college kids took all the jobs. We ended up doing factory work at Celestial Seasonings through a temp service. Ugh, what a mistake.
In August we got a friend to drop us off at the campground in Frisco and headed back to the hills. There was just way better attitude and infrastructure for nomadic young people in the mountains.
Maybe things are different now?

[vrda99]

Originally Posted by lostboy

Hi Vrda the rafting companies in Buena Vista CO are usually looking for raft guides in the summer. They will train you before the season starts if you don’t have experience. The Arkansas River is very popular for white water rafting and you would get a taste of life in the Rockies. Just another option for a fun summer job...Good Luck

Thank you!

Ruth4Truth, I'm pretty sure J1 is not a half study-half work visa unless they changed something in the last year or so. It's only a work visa mostly used by students. 2 jobs is fine, but as you said, at least one of them has to be part-time and the closer they are, the better.