The best seasonal jobs are great for those who find themselves with free time and a need to make extra cash during certain times of the year. Temporary side hustles benefit teachers who need summer pay, students on winter break, or anyone who wants to earn money without making a long-term commitment.
Working seasonally doesn’t have to be unpredictable, either. According to the Department of Labor, retail jobs especially spike in the holiday season making it a great time to find work.
Seasonal jobs also make sense if you want to gain experience or get back to work after a gap in employment and may lead to a permanent position or help you change careers. To help you get started, we’ve put together a list of fun and flexible seasonal jobs that can help you get to work fast whenever you’ve got a reason to work.
1. Food Delivery
Around the holidays as gatherings of family and friends increase, you can easily pick up grocery and food delivery orders all season long. Companies like Doordash or Instacart offer flexibility — you choose your hours and how often you work — and work only for the days, weeks, or months you want.
As an independent contractor, you can be a courier for more than one company at a time to maximize earning potential.
Pro tip: take an order when you’re on your way home. Hey, you’re already out there driving, so get paid for it!
Choose your hours with DoorDash
DoorDash is a low-commitment seasonal job, and you can create your own schedule.
2. Babysitter
Seasonal nanny and babysitting jobs start popping up regularly as summer approaches and parents put their travel plans in high gear. These jobs can work really well for students whose class schedule leaves them free over the summer.
You can find this work on platforms like Care.com, by word of mouth, or by advertising your skills on social media. You can earn $10 to $30 an hour depending on your experience and skills. Knowing CPR and being able to drive can help you charge higher rates.
Find families in your area who are looking for childcare
Care.com is trusted by over 4 million families, and you can create your schedule and set your rates.
3. Pet Sitting
Calling all pet lovers! If you love pets, pet sitting is a great way to make money during the summer or winter months. Pet owners are always looking for trustworthy and responsible people to care for their pets while they’re out of town.
Rates vary depending on where you’re located and how much work is involved, but pet sitters can make anywhere from $40 to $75 a day. You can list your services on Facebook, NextDoor, but we also highly recommend Rover.
Check out our full Rover App Review for more information.
List pet sitting and boarding services on Rover
Rover pet sitters set their own rates and availability.
4. Summer Tutor
This is a natural seasonal job for teachers. It fits right into summer break, and teachers already have the necessary educational requirements and experience to start making money right away. It's also great for college students who want a part-time job over summer break.
Many platforms like BookNook offer small groups and create the lesson plans for you. Even if you aren’t currently a teacher, you may qualify to tutor with a degree in the subject you majored in, like math or a foreign language.
5. Lawn Care
Jobs mowing lawns, pruning shrubs, and raking leaves “heat up” as the weather warms. You can earn $20 an hour or more, especially as you build a base of customers who hire you season after season.
You’ll make more if you have your own tools like a mower, weed eater, and pruning shears. You can list your services on Facebook, NextDoor, Craigslist, and also ask your clients to refer their friends.
If your climate has heavy snowfall, in the winter you can swap mowing for shoveling snow from sidewalks and driveways. Because both of these seasonal jobs double as a powerful workout, you can also get your cardio in.
6. Bartender/Server
Bringing your mixing or serving skills to the table can keep you busy in summer at outdoor events or in winter at holiday parties. You can wait tables at catering events or restaurants that are staffing up seasonally.
It’s hard work but fun, as these jobs can take you to beautiful event sites in your area. For bartending, you’ll need to have drink recipes memorized, and be at least 18 to serve alcohol.
7. Clean Gutters
With the joy of home ownership comes the need to clean the gutters at least twice a year, usually during late spring and late fall. If you like outdoor work and being in the sun, that’s good news for you.
This is one of the best seasonal jobs for beginners, because you can get started with nothing more than a ladder, gloves, a water hose, garden bags, and some light tools. Advertise on social media or create a profile with a platform like TaskRabbit to start earning money fast.
8. Retail
You don’t have to look hard to find retail stores hiring extra help seasonally. Large retailers like Amazon, Walmart and Target increase staff during the holidays, but so do many local shops.
These jobs usually don’t require experience, and some chain retailers don’t even require an interview. Remember, we’re talking about working in the busiest shopping season of the year, like Black Friday, so good customer service skills and patience are a must.
9. Personal Shopper
If you always know exactly what present to get or love the thrill of the merchandise hunt, you might love this seasonal job. Clients hire personal shoppers to pick out presents, especially during the winter holidays, but also around Valentine’s Day.
A personal shopping job could be a great fit for students and teachers who are in between semesters. If you ultimately want to find the right long-term work, this skill ties really well to being a virtual assistant.
10. Gift Wrapper
If you love it when your corners meet perfectly on the end of a package, gift wrapping might be your jam. Stores hire wrappers as the shopping season intensifies, and you don’t need experience. Look for retailers that provide gift wrapping as a service to customers, like department stores or high-end boutiques.
11. Housesitter
Just like babysitting, the busiest travel seasons prompt vacationers to find someone they trust to look after the homestead. You can make $25 to $50 per day and will usually be expected to bring in the mail, water plants, and treat the house with respect.
List your services on platforms like TaskRabbit, NextDoor and Craigslist, or just get the word out on social media and among friends and family. Once you’re known as reliable and trustworthy, you may find yourself with a wait list of clients who want to hire you.
12. Summer Camp Counselor
Ah, summer camp. If the mention of it conjures happy thoughts of kind and energetic counselors who taught you sports, music, and arts and crafts, consider paying it forward.
Camp counselors can make around $10 to $15 an hour, and you can choose a camp that teaches a hobby you love. You’ll need to be fond of working with children or teenagers and if you’re not at computer camp, you may need to like being outdoors.
13. Referee or Umpire
It might surprise you that you can make $15 to $30 an hour as a referee or umpire, but every sport has them, and every sport has a primary season. You can leverage your years of experience playing sports, or you can educate yourself to become an expert in the rules.
This seasonal job is great for students who only have free time in certain seasons. Talk to your local recreational center, community team, or Little League for job leads, and consider offering your services to different sports if you want to work in more than one season.
14. Tour Guide
Travel spikes make summer a great time to hire yourself out as a tour guide. Your inside knowledge of the best local spots means you can earn $15 to $30 an hour leading groups and families. Build a Facebook or Instagram page about your business or use platforms like Airbnb to offer experiences.
Guides don’t just work in the summer season. You can find winter work by partnering with a ski resort to lead winter hikes or car tours that stop at popular spots for amateur photographers.
15. Warehouse Associate
That big increase in shopping many of us do around the holidays drives a need for warehouse associates. This work can be easy to find if you have a distribution center for Amazon, Walmart or another large retailer nearby.
Some of these jobs are pretty physical, requiring you to lift a certain weight as you load and unload goods. Other roles hire temporary employees to do order picking and packing. You can make $10 to $20+ an hour, and this work may lead to a permanent job with the company.
16. Lifeguard
This might sound like an easy summer just hanging out by the pool. On the contrary, lifeguards train hard and work hard because they have life and death responsibilities.
If you’re a water baby and looking out for people’s safety is your calling, it’s a decent seasonal option. The pay is on the lower side at most pools and beaches, but it fits the schedule of those looking for summer work.
17. Customer Service Representative
Businesses that experience a rapid increase in sales at certain times of year need reliable customer service representatives to answer calls, virtual chats and emails. Temporary CSRs work full or part-time, and many of these opportunities allow you to work from home.
You typically don’t need experience or education beyond a high school diploma. You will need a computer and a strong internet signal. Check out websites like Upwork and ZipRecruiter, or talk to one of your favorite stores. You may even get an employee discount!
18. Holiday Decorator
Your talent for turning your front porch into a winter wonderland is one of the best seasonal jobs for the winter. Clients keeping up with the Joneses hire hard workers to hang lights and wreaths, wrap garland, and place mantle decorations.
Look for these jobs on the same sites that advertise for lawn care workers, as many landscaping companies offer this service in the winter.
The Final Word on Seasonal Jobs
Your priorities determine which temporary gig is the best fit for you. We highly recommend Doordash because you can start and stop whenever you want.
But if you long to work with kids, consider tutoring, being a camp counselor, or refereeing for local teams. Want to make money in fashion and home style? Think about personal shopping, gift wrapping, and holiday decorating. For physically active outdoor work, take a look at lawn care, gutter cleaning, or being a tour guide leading hikes.
Whatever you choose, the best seasonal job is the one that works with your schedule and gets you closer to your financial and career goals.
FAQs
You can earn up to $2,000 a month by combining two seasonal jobs like housesitting and customer service rep. Or combine an active seasonal job with your year-round passive side hustle like investing in commercial real estate.
Doordash and Instacart offer the flexibility of setting your own hours and getting paid quickly. The more orders you accept, the more money you make, but you can optimize your earnings through a few pro tips.
Read what an experienced DoorDasher has to say about how to make more money than the average driver.
About Millennial Money Man
Bobby Hoyt is a former band director who paid off $40,000 of student loan debt in 18 months on his teaching salary and then left his job to run Millennial Money Man full-time. He helps other Millennials earn more through side hustles, save more through budgeting tools and apps, and pay off debt. He is a personal finance expert who has been seen on Forbes, Reuters, MarketWatch, CNBC, International Business Times, Business Insider, US News, Yahoo Finance, and many other personal finance and entrepreneurship media outlets.
