FARMINGTON -- Lagoon, the state's largest seasonal youth employer, will be hiring some 1,300 new workers during job interviews set for early March.
Interviews for lifeguards will be Friday, March 3, 4:30 p.m. at Lagoon. No previous experience is necessary, and Lagoon will hire 150 lifeguards, age 16 and older. Applicants must be 15 or 16 by June 1.On Saturday, March 4, and Saturday, March 11, from 9 a.m. to noon, Lagoon will conduct interviews for all non-lifeguard youth positions at Farmington Junior High School, 150 S. 200 West. These interviews will be for all youth, age 15 and up.
In addition, Lagoon seasonally hires security guards, EMTs and even some adult ride operators during the pre-season when school is still in session. However, these potential workers just need to call 451-8038 to schedule an interview -- they don't attend the regular interview sessions.
John Jachim, Lagoon's human resource manager, said the park actually employs about 2,100 youth workers, but the reduced number is adjusted for the returning employees from 1999.
He said working at Lagoon is probably as much fun as most teenagers envision it to be.
"It's great for kids. They meet hundreds of new friends," Jachim said. Also, unlike the "Catch-22" of prior experience needed for many jobs, Lagoon requires no previous experience of its new employees.
"There's no job experience required. We do all the training," he said.
Jachim said all the paperwork needed will be available at the interviews and candidates will be interviewed by Lagoon supervisors at that time, Parents may come to the school, but may not attend the interviews with their children.
The only other helpful but not-required paperwork to have on hand for the interview is a driver's license or birth certificate to show proof of age, Jachim said.
What kind of employees is Lagoon looking to hire?
"We look for punctuality and dependability," he said.
For those hired, preliminary Lagoon training begins in March and employment concludes at the end of October.
First-year employees, age 16 and older, are paid $6 per hour. If they complete the season, they are given a 70 to 75 cents-per-hour bonus for all the hours they worked throughout the season. Second-year employees earn about 25 cents more per hour.
Jachim said 15-year-olds are paid $4.85 per hour and are given a season-end bonus on the same system.
He said 15-year-olds can't be ride operators, but they can be ticket takers, or work in food service or some other areas.
Lagoon can't guarantee that employees won't have to work on Sundays. Still, Jachim said supervisors try to work around Sunday conflict. For example, some may work only every third Sunday or work Sunday afternoons so they can attend church.
Not surprisingly, most of Lagoon's youth workers come from Davis County. Most of the rest are split equally between Weber and Salt Lake counties. However, Jachim said last year an unusually high number of employees came from Brigham City. Also, a few youth workers commute from as far away as Provo or southern Idaho.
UTA bus route No. 70 offers regular access to downtown Farmington, from the north or the south. A trolley bus runs every 15 minutes when Lagoon is open from downtown Farmington directly to the park's front gate.
Dick Andrew, Lagoon spokesman, said working at the park gets into your blood. He said all of Lagoon's front-line management started working the park as teenagers and only a couple of Lagoon's 15 park directors didn't work there as teens.
"There are a lot of us that have been around here for a long time," he said.
Jachim said at least two former Lagoon teenage games operators went on to success in the amusement business. Nolan Bushnell invented Atari's Pong game and another, Robert Lundquist, started his own amusement park games equipment company.