I’ve been lifeguarding for a little more than a year now. It’s honestly the best part time job. If you want to work this summer and you know how to swim you should be a lifeguard. Your schedule is extremely flexible, so if you can’t work then you can’t work. But If you want to work a lot of hours you can, especially during the summer time. Most weekends there are shifts on the trade board if you want your hours that way. 

There’s also a lot of opportunity in being a lifeguard. It’s really not that difficult to get promoted. I’ve seen people get promoted after a couple of months, simply by working a lot and just being a good worker in general. If you decide that you like aquatics you can try to get a full time job. Our current director started as a lifeguard part time, and now she’s our direct supervisor along with some other full timers. If you want to stay part time you can become a pool manager or you can get LGI certified and teach swim lessons. Lifeguarding also gives you a foot in the door for other jobs working for the City of Greeley. You could work at the daycare; you could move to the front desk, or you could officiate and maybe even coach youth sports. 

As for the actual work, you really need to know what you’re doing. Your entire purpose is to prevent people from drowning. As long as you are scanning the pool properly, and don’t zone out, it is really hard to miss people who are struggling to swim. That being said, as a lifeguard you are also legally obligated to respond to a person who needs immediate medical attention. This includes anyone having a heart attack, stroke, seizure, in addition to drowning persons. If you fail to respond to a life threatening condition, and fail to provide the proper care, you could be held legally liable and therefore be sued. It gets a little more complicated than this because there are measures that you are expected to take to protect yourself, like making sure to obtain consent and obtaining records of eye witnesses, and what you should vs. shouldn’t do varies depending on the situation. But most days you won’t need to deal with anything besides your typical lifeguard duties. Scanning the pool, calling adult swim, cleaning up around the pool deck, maybe dealing with a difficult patron would be your typical lifeguard shift. 

If you know how to swim, you should get your lifeguard certification and be a lifeguard for a summer.