Pros
- Being the sole reason babies, kids, adults, and kids/adults with special needs can swim all by themselves for the very first time. - This is an indescribable feeling you absolutely can not find anywhere else. - For a part-time job, the pay is amazing, and it's pretty easy to get raises. - After working here for a couple of years, you'll start to bond with the families, and it's amazing to see how fast the children grow up and how they advance in their swimming skills. - There are many opportunities to advance after you start out as a Swim Instructor. There are lots of additional trainings you can choose to take (special needs, adults, babies, swim teams, office, and hourly assistant manager). I really enjoyed all of the "hats" I wore or the different positions I held at the company. I enjoyed learning about all of the different aspects of how the company works. - The company paid for my CPR and Lifeguard training. - Some of my coworkers have become life-long friends and feel like family. - There are PLENTY of opportunities for extra hours. - The managers are very considerate of scheduling hours that you request. Also, your schedule changes each quarter, so it's nice to have a couple of months with the exact same weekly schedule (nice for those who need to work more or less hours in the summer due to college or children).
Cons
- Terrible work/life balance as a full-time employee, but a really great job to have part-time so you don't get burnt out. - The clients/parents can very rude and can have unrealistic expectations, but there are some parents that are the nicest people I've ever met. - The cost of lessons greatly increased one quarter, and so many customers were outraged. - This is a physically exhausting job. (But it is really great exercise!!) - Once you advance to an hourly-paid shift coordinator, it's extremely difficult/competitive to advance further in the company. - The corporate employees are very exclusive and seem to withhold information regarding company policy/operations changes (although I believe this has improved since I left). This pretty much only affected management and doesn't really affect part-timers at all. Overall, I loved this job so much. I left because it was too physically and mentally demanding as a full-time manager, and it was an EXTREMELY hard decision to make.
