The Ride of a Lifetime
Working at “America’s Roller Coast” is more than a summer job. It’s a season pass into another world where 5,000 employees bond over group outings, nights spent listening to country music and conversation with new friends from all over the globe. We sent writer Amber Matheson to explore.
What was your first summer job?
The dog days of my teen years were spent mostly in the pursuit of doing as little as possible — part-time shifts at a fast-food place, a few hours at a local greenhouse, babysitting the neighborhood kids. In college, I divided my time pretty neatly between waitressing and lying by the pool while my peers were volunteering, traveling abroad and notching prestigious internships on their budding resumes. “Ambition,” as it were, has never been my summer jam.
So I feel, ever so slightly, like an imposter as I waltz into a hotel conference room on a breezy spring morning in Sandusky, Ohio. There are two distinct groups of individuals here today: Smiling, jazzed Cedar Point employees wearing nametags that celebrate their tenure — “11 years of thrills!” “Three years of fun!” — and a few dozen people milling about with that uncertain look in their eyes that I imagine is typical of people who venture to hotel conference rooms for anything besides conferences. This second group of individuals, some of them with applications and resumes in hand, are here for a little career speed-dating — a casting call for the thousands of positions Cedar Point must fill this summer. Tables line the room, laden with the tools of the trade for various departments: oversized stuffed animals at the merch table, palm trees flanking the corporate office table (heck, they have to make the few desk jobs here seem cool somehow, right?). The guy that staffs the employee dorms brought last year’s CP yearbook.
Now I’m getting jazzed. I grew up coming to Cedar Point each summer, but it never occurred to me that I could actually work here — and maybe even live here. Yet by the time you’re reading this, Cedar Point will be teeming with about 5,000 employees. More than half of them live in Cedar Point housing, a network of on-site dorms and some off-site apartments that’s open (via application) to anyone who lives more than 30 miles from the Point. Think college campus-meets-United Nations, courtesy of 1,500 international college-age employees. Teenagers live alongside retirees in separate men’s and women’s dorms with a cafeteria and lounges, and staff resident assistants are on hand to monitor the halls and host activities (like an epic annual soccer tournament). If Cedar Point were an actual city, it would be ranked 283rd out of the 1,051 towns in Ohio, just above Amelia, with 4,932 residents and just below Munroe Falls with 5,019.
Of course, it would undoubtedly claim the top ranking in roller coaster enthusiasts per capita.
Like Brendan from Brunswick, Ohio, who’s waiting for his group interview in the ballroom next door. At 22, he’s been visiting Cedar Point since he was just 2 years old. “I love the park atmosphere,” he tells me with a dimpled smile. “I’ve had some of my best memories here; I want to help make those memories for other people.”
When you put it that way, Brendan, it does sound pretty special.
Later on, I chat with Dustin, a 25-year-old guest services supervisor in his fifth summer at the Point. Working here has literally changed his life — he switched his college major from instrumental music education to a business degree. “It’s an experience, not just a job,” he says. “Part of the reason I got hooked is I love the freedom you have over the summer, working at an amusement park and living at an amusement park.”
OK, I’m seriously getting the FOMO vibes at this point. And that’s when I catch up with Deangelo, the location supervisor for Top Thrill Dragster. “The biggest perk is getting free admission into the other Cedar Fair parks,” he tells me. There are 10 other parks around North America — and Cedar Point staff can even take free, employee-only bus trips to places like King’s Dominion (in Virginia) and Canada’s Wonderland (in Ontario).
Um, tell me again how I wasted the summers of my youth. I could’ve traveled the globe while living in the Cedar Point dorms — “it’s not a ‘by chance’ thing,” says Dustin, “if you work at Cedar Point you will meet people from all over the world.” I could’ve cavorted in the park after hours during special employee-only nights. I could have met someone while working there and gotten married on the platform of the ride on which we worked together (yep, that’s happened).
It’s alluring, this thriving microcosm behind the roller coasters; working here is utterly whimsical — and yet, it’s a force of nature that’s shaped generations of employee lives. Not bad for a summer job.
The dog days of my teen years were spent mostly in the pursuit of doing as little as possible — part-time shifts at a fast-food place, a few hours at a local greenhouse, babysitting the neighborhood kids. In college, I divided my time pretty neatly between waitressing and lying by the pool while my peers were volunteering, traveling abroad and notching prestigious internships on their budding resumes. “Ambition,” as it were, has never been my summer jam.
So I feel, ever so slightly, like an imposter as I waltz into a hotel conference room on a breezy spring morning in Sandusky, Ohio. There are two distinct groups of individuals here today: Smiling, jazzed Cedar Point employees wearing nametags that celebrate their tenure — “11 years of thrills!” “Three years of fun!” — and a few dozen people milling about with that uncertain look in their eyes that I imagine is typical of people who venture to hotel conference rooms for anything besides conferences. This second group of individuals, some of them with applications and resumes in hand, are here for a little career speed-dating — a casting call for the thousands of positions Cedar Point must fill this summer. Tables line the room, laden with the tools of the trade for various departments: oversized stuffed animals at the merch table, palm trees flanking the corporate office table (heck, they have to make the few desk jobs here seem cool somehow, right?). The guy that staffs the employee dorms brought last year’s CP yearbook.
Now I’m getting jazzed. I grew up coming to Cedar Point each summer, but it never occurred to me that I could actually work here — and maybe even live here. Yet by the time you’re reading this, Cedar Point will be teeming with about 5,000 employees. More than half of them live in Cedar Point housing, a network of on-site dorms and some off-site apartments that’s open (via application) to anyone who lives more than 30 miles from the Point. Think college campus-meets-United Nations, courtesy of 1,500 international college-age employees. Teenagers live alongside retirees in separate men’s and women’s dorms with a cafeteria and lounges, and staff resident assistants are on hand to monitor the halls and host activities (like an epic annual soccer tournament). If Cedar Point were an actual city, it would be ranked 283rd out of the 1,051 towns in Ohio, just above Amelia, with 4,932 residents and just below Munroe Falls with 5,019.
Of course, it would undoubtedly claim the top ranking in roller coaster enthusiasts per capita.
Like Brendan from Brunswick, Ohio, who’s waiting for his group interview in the ballroom next door. At 22, he’s been visiting Cedar Point since he was just 2 years old. “I love the park atmosphere,” he tells me with a dimpled smile. “I’ve had some of my best memories here; I want to help make those memories for other people.”
When you put it that way, Brendan, it does sound pretty special.
Later on, I chat with Dustin, a 25-year-old guest services supervisor in his fifth summer at the Point. Working here has literally changed his life — he switched his college major from instrumental music education to a business degree. “It’s an experience, not just a job,” he says. “Part of the reason I got hooked is I love the freedom you have over the summer, working at an amusement park and living at an amusement park.”
OK, I’m seriously getting the FOMO vibes at this point. And that’s when I catch up with Deangelo, the location supervisor for Top Thrill Dragster. “The biggest perk is getting free admission into the other Cedar Fair parks,” he tells me. There are 10 other parks around North America — and Cedar Point staff can even take free, employee-only bus trips to places like King’s Dominion (in Virginia) and Canada’s Wonderland (in Ontario).
Um, tell me again how I wasted the summers of my youth. I could’ve traveled the globe while living in the Cedar Point dorms — “it’s not a ‘by chance’ thing,” says Dustin, “if you work at Cedar Point you will meet people from all over the world.” I could’ve cavorted in the park after hours during special employee-only nights. I could have met someone while working there and gotten married on the platform of the ride on which we worked together (yep, that’s happened).
It’s alluring, this thriving microcosm behind the roller coasters; working here is utterly whimsical — and yet, it’s a force of nature that’s shaped generations of employee lives. Not bad for a summer job.
Story:
Amber Matheson
2017 July/August