High-Paying Seasonal Jobs

For some handsomely paid seasonal employees, now truly is the most wonderful time of the year. The challenges, chores and annoyances unique to fall and winter can also be seen as temporary opportunities to profit.

Of course, the following jobs won’t be found at these impressive rates in every locale, but take them as an inspiration to size up local markets and cook up your own service relating to seasonal demands.

By Colleen Kane
Posted 4 Nov 2010

Commercial divers only work about 160 days a year, but can still earn a yearly booty from $18,000 to $80,000, reports careers website JobMonkey.com. Furthermore, “It’s not unrealistic for a commercial diver to make over $1,000 a day,” the report says.

Of course, there’s a reason it’s so well paid. The diver’s life is constantly at risk, and they must have completed specialized training. It’s not for the faint of heart or body, so the deeper dives and more claustrophobia-inspiring missions command the best pay.

While commercial diving pays adventurous divers to salvage, perform searches for law enforcement, or work for the petroleum industry all over the world, the more laid-back branch of diving employment, Scuba instructors, earn significantly less and consider the tropical locations to be their high compensation.

Celebrity chefs, TV cooking shows, and other food culture trends have led to an ever-increasing culinary awareness. As a result, that old family recipe for green bean casserole with the onion crunchies on top no longer cuts it for anyone but the kids’ table at a Christmas party. This is good news for chefs in need of extra holiday income this season (and for the adults at the party).

Private chefs can work through an agency or independently, and rates for working a party can vary greatly depending on the amount of attendees and the menu offerings. Hourly rates with Private Chefs Inc.start at $35 an hour, but pay can go much higher. Cleveland area chef Ron Ramos charges $150 an hour for the first four hours of an event, plus the cost of food.

For seated dinner parties, Chef Jo’s Home Cookingin Houston charges fees ranging from $50 per head to $120, with a $450 minimum.

Being a personal chef is not easy work and requires significant experience and preparation, but cooking for enough parties at the right rates can make for a very satisfying holiday season.

As holiday displays grow more lavish and involved (not to mention competitive) every year, businesses and owners of private homes are shelling out for professionals to deck their halls. For one 41-year veteran at the top of his field, this seasonal gig has become a year-round occupation. Lou Nasti, whose Brooklyn company Mechanical Displays specializes in animated figures, employs a staff seven days a week during his high season of August through the second week of December.

Boasting local clients like Macy’s Herald Square as well as international projects in Thailand, Korea and Australia, Nasti reports that NYC buildings can drop $35-40,000 on their animated lobby décor, and he works on one private home that spends $30,000 a year. After the holidays, he gets paid again to take it down.

For Nasti and other decorating companies and contractors, who work projects of all sizes, business is good, and it’s not declining anytime soon.

“It’s a necessity. You can’t go by one location in Manhattan that doesn’t have something,” says Nasti, who is already booking for the 2011 holiday season.

“People want something exciting in their location: windows, a wonderland walkthrough, a talking reindeer over a bar, or just to decorate the place to make it look magical. This morning I came in at 5 am and I’ll leave at 6 pm [but] I can honestly say I’ve never gone to work a day in my life.”

Holiday gift shopping is a prime example of an unpleasant seasonal task that can be outsourced, and for seasonal job seekers with the right skills it can finance their own gift shopping, and then some.

Year-round personal shoppers focus on finding wardobes suited to their clients’ body types, lifestyles, and budgets. Stilista,a style agency in Boston, offers personal shopping services from $100 an hour, a rate frequently quoted by other shoppers online. Sweet and Sassy Shopper, a company based in Short Hills, NJ, to shop for family and corporate gifts, works on commission of the total buy—up to $5,000 costs the client 10 percent for their services.

It will likely take time to cultivate a clientele and to build to the hourly rates the pros command, but the good news is that for those with a good eye and the right knowledge, personal gift shopping is a business requiring no overhead or supplies, and one that can be started up independently.

With many students applying to colleges and graduate schools during the fall and winter, now is also prime exam-taking (and retaking) time. Tutoring is one freelance gig that has traditionally paid well. But when you’re talking tutoring for standardized test preparation, -- tests that can make or break a candidate’s college or grad school chances -- those rates can soar into another echelon.

An hourly rate of $30- $50 is common for tutors for such standardized tests as the SAT. However, Manhattan GMATpays $100/hour for tutors who scored in the 99th percentile on on their GMATs. The same goes for their LSAT and GRE tutors. Manhattan (which has branches throughout the U.S.) also pays each of their cream-of-the-crop tutors a $4000 training bonus.

Jeremy Redleaf of the website says a private party Santa can make $100-$500 per event. But that’s only the tip of a jolly red nose. Considering the numbers rolled out by the salary data website Payscale’s Dr. Salary (Al Lee, PhD), aspiring party Kringles and mall Santas might want to get on line… to visit St. Nick, and then beg him for his job.

“A beginning Santa can earn an hourly wage of $100, while veteran Santas can earn an average wage of $175 to $200 per hour,” writes Lee. “The really big pay rate comes on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day; that's when these Kris Kringles can earn wages of $175 to $200 for their first hour of work, and $100 to $300 for every hour after that.”

It’s not a shabby deal: the job requirements don’t extend much beyond a pleasant demeanor, a real beard and a big belly. And at the rates quoted above, that’s an $8,000 - $10,000 very merry Christmas season.