Just a Paycheck : Students Can Pick Among Seasonal Jobs in Area With a 3% Unemployment Rate

Before Stanford University student Janice Cobolt can leave on her trip to Africa this summer, she must put in one more week behind the counter of a Costa Mesa clothing store.

Then, the 20-year-old figures, she will have the $2,500 needed for the flight to Kenya, which she wants to visit for her research paper in next semester’s Third World history course.

Cobolt of La Mirada is among hundreds of high school and college students working this summer in Orange County at a variety jobs for a variety of reasons.

Some hope to make a dent in next year’s school expenses, some want the experience and some simply enjoy working.

And in a county where the unemployment is just over 3%--the third-lowest county rate in the nation--there is no shortage of opportunity for those who choose to sling hamburgers, punch computers or move couches rather than trek to the beach or mall.

“I usually work doing something I enjoy during the summer to give myself a break from the grind of school,” Cobolt said. “Working with kids or volunteering for the Red Cross are preferences. But this year I had a goal in mind and knew I couldn’t accomplish it without making the money to get it done.”

Cobolt said finding jobs related to her history major is next to impossible, so she opted for what she called the easiest market to enter: retail.

“If all else fails, you know you can get a job selling something,” Cobolt said. “There is always something to sell and someone to buy it. I am just happy I didn’t end up at McDonalds.”

But Diane Hertz, a cashier at Burger King in Anaheim this summer, figures that a paycheck is a paycheck.

“It doesn’t matter if I like what I am doing; I am making money,” said Hertz, a recent high school graduate who plans to enter San Diego State University in the fall.

“Sure, it would have been nice to work in an air-conditioned office where I could wear heels and dresses, but the bottom line was I needed a job fast, and money is money no matter where you spend it.”

Richard Holden, a sophomore majoring in mathematics at Cal State Long Beach, hopes to make enough this summer working as an assistant foreman at a construction site in Santa Ana to avoid working during the school year.

“I worked full time last year and took 18 credit hours,” Holden said. “It was self-declared murder, and my grades showed it. So despite a compact disc every now and then, this money is for fees and books next year.”

Another student who has found summer work is Kevin Allmendinger, 24, of Yorba Linda, who is hauling furniture for the Starving Students Moving Co. in Orange County.

“I enjoy working for the moving company because there is no one looking over my shoulder. I’m not restricted to the office,” said Allmendinger, a second-year communications major at Cal State Fullerton.

Allmendinger’s boss, Tharnwell John Pool, said many students “come back from year to year and are usually good workers, but we do have a problem with dependability at times. A lot of them don’t feel this is what they will be doing for the rest of their lives, so they don’t always take it seriously and often don’t come in, particularly on weekends, which is our roughest period.”

Still, county employers are hungry for summer student help, said John Haesler, vice president of Temp Associates.

“We are always in need of more people,” said Haesler, who estimated that his company hired 300 students this summer for temporary clerical and computer data jobs.

Todd Glonek, a senior marketing major at San Diego State, found work through Temp Associates in the data-entry department of Armour Co. in Irvine. It is a job, he said, “in a field that will help me after I graduate. Making money is, of course, one of the reasons I’m working, but looking out for my career after graduation is equally important to me.”

Increasingly, college students want summer jobs related to their majors, said Gladys De Necochea, assistant director of career planning and placement at UC Irvine.

“We get students every now and then who just a want any type of job quickly, but basically most students are career-oriented in thinking and want the practical experience that will help them in the long run,” she said.

Deannie Lucas, 22, of Newport Beach, a senior majoring in engineering at UC Irvine, found summer work at Mobil Oil in Fairfax, Va.

“I usually work at the YMCA as a counselor, which helped my people skills but wasn’t in my field of interest,” she said. “It was a long way to come to get the type of experience I needed, but I know it’s worth it to start out with something in your corner.

“I did my share of working odd-type jobs, and for my senior year I thought it was just time to get down to business.”

Starr Lee, 30, a law student at UC San Diego, traveled to Newport Beach this summer to work in a law firm for the experience.

“It’s funny, but law school doesn’t teach a great deal about practicing law,” he said. “Without working in a law office, you have no idea what this business actually about. You have to go out into the real world.”