food service associate

security officer

guest service agent

human resources assistant

park services attendant

Valleyfair

No work place is perfect, but I'd love to see this place improve. I have met life-long friends and truly have grown as a person through my work. This job can be mentally and physically demanding at times but it greatly improves your work ethic and career advancement for when you decide to move on from Valleyfair. 

The job is much more relaxed during shoulder seasons of May and September - October but overall more fun and enjoyable July-August. 

Hours are worst during June and July specifically in the Foods Department. Over hiring happens every year so being sent home early often is not always fun. If you decide to work the whole season, don't freak out about hours. You will get as many hours as you like during May and then September and October. Hours usually start to get better in the middle of August. As a 16+ employee, you can expect to get 20-40 hours during the summer. As a Team Lead, you can expect 30-50. If you have specific requests on hours or days off it is very achievable!!! 

Benefits are good for students and younger people. Free tickets, ability to win extra money through secret shoppers (foods department only), allowed to drink soda for free while working, scholarships available, free admission to all Cedar Fair parks, super flexible. 

Pay for foods associates under 14 is around 8 dollars. Regular 16+ associates was $11.25. Foods team leads was $12. Foods Area Supervisors make $13. Pay usually goes up each year so expect this to change for 2020. 

Sometimes the pay doesn't feel worth it, but benefits of the job tend to outweigh it. There is also pay raises for each year you return. 

This year they gave all associates a 2 dollar raise for working in October. 

My biggest complaint about my experience is just the lack of appreciation. Sometimes you feel completely outcasted from decisions made by your supervisors and managers. I wish team leads at least were brought into these decisions and made to feel like we really make up the leadership in our department. 

Many internationals really do not enjoy their experience very much and it's simply down to the fact they are not appericate or feel they are not cared about by management. I make it a mission to learn about very associate, their skills and likes and dislikes and their life outside work. Doing this makes us feel connected and we can gain a trust to help collaboration in the workplace. Supervisors and managers need to do the same in terms of getting to know their associates, this is how you make people return to Valleyfair and want to do their best everyday. 

Overall, it's a great starter job that has room for advancement. It's also a job that allows those under 16 to start work and gain some work skills. Hiring starts at 14 in the foods department. You will meet life-long friends, and that is a near guarantee.

Working as a lifeguard isn't necessarily an easy job, especially at an amusement park.  Lifeguarding requires a level of self confidence and patience that has to learned, no one ever comes in with the levels necessary for the job.  Each day on the job a guard is responsible for water and has to enforce the rules, it builds up and the guard evolves in his/her ability to guard that water and protect visitors.  As the summer went on, I became more confident in my abilities as a lifeguard.  Before I could reach those level though, it was important that I realize the significance of my job and what levels of confidence and patience I would need.  As a lifeguard you are responsible for each life that enters your zone of water.  It is up to you to be the lifeguard with a smile on your face and one that enforces the rules and keeps enforcing them, even if the guest makes fun of you or does exactly what you say not to do.  It was also extremely important that my coworkers and I could work as a team and that we all supported each other, emotionally and physically.  We all had to be able to count on each other in our skills as a lifeguard and ability to be a friend.  We also had to hold each other accountable to uphold the rules put forth by management and to respect their decisions, as they have to keep the safety of all park visitors in mind in anything they do.  A typical day could range anywhere from 5 hours shifts to 12 hour shifts with 30 minutes breaks for every 6 hours of guarding water or cleaning locker rooms and bathrooms.

I worked in the food department in the beginning of the seasonal position. I then learned how to make the basic shakes, burgers, ect, or how to run them/use the register. Cleaning the dishes in the backroom. I then worked in a smoothie booth, in which there was no a/c, no working telephone (though it was working in the beginning of the season, and lastly I was all alone in a building without a camera. Not even a walkie talkie. For awhile I begged for a camera be installed. One season a former co-worker threw a "cash bag" on me, and one guy stole my working "puma shoes" in front of me. These acts were not looked upon seriously. I almost cut off my finger when accidentally I shut it in a car door, I worked a 12 hr shift still in my new position, working in the employee cafeteria. Preparing food, opening register, grilling and serving and handling the register/money on a two person staff involved major multitasking skills. I worked nearly 60 hrs a week without a social life and received zero over time hours, not to mention being under aged. The security this job provided was overall good, there were security guards monitoring the area every few minutes around the clock and also many cameras set up at all angles to assure protection to guests/workers. If you work here, expect to work weekends, days, nights, holidays, overtime without the extra pay and double the hours. I really enjoyed the feeling of a hard working day, and knowing that the workers got a good satisfied meal. I took it into consideration that my job was important because I was in charge of feeding nearly 400 people daily.

Working as a creature this year was the best career decision I have ever made. I don't have to work too much (Fridays and Saturdays 7pm - midnight) so I have more than enough time with my family and other priorities. I looking for a fun and enjoyable part time job while continue school, and that's exactly what I got! The amount of diversity and general good nature was astounding. Everyone at ValleySCARE is awesome and some of the best people I've ever met. I have worked a total of 3 nights so far and I love it. The only thing I have to complain about is the makeup department. As a monster I wear heavy amounts of makeup and my shift doesn't start till that makeup is on. My makeup time is just after the time the mazes open and I miss out on a lot of fun things that happen before that. I did like everyone in the makeup department except for the receptionist. The receptionist was so unbelievably biased to what creatures got their makeup on early and very disrespectful, particularly to the vampires in the Chateau. All of the vampires are working very hard and we are constantly getting good reviews, but the hassle to get past the receptionist and get my makeup on is too much for me to handle. I think that the receptionist is a very nice lady but everyone has flaws. Overall this job has been amazing and I'd like to thank the officials at Valley Fair for giving me this opportunity to make people scared and in turn happy.

READ THIS BEFORE YOU APPLY!!!!
This job is insanely stressful if you go into the rides department especially if you are operating a single ride. The people training you give you an 11 page manual that you physically don't have time to fully understand then leave you there all on your own. If there was a fire or injury I would have had no clue what to do and might have gotten someone seriously hurt. I also worked Park Services for a few days and it was horrible as well. They made us scrape up moss from the stones in the ground for 8 hours in the blazing heat. When I got home I couldn't move my back at all it was horrible. My last few days were tolerable because I was working with other people at a ride so I wasn't as stressed in comparison to being by myself. Also the break system is so flawed it's not funny. The team leads you work with assign breaks so they always give themselves the better breaks while a lot of the time you have to take a break at the beginning of your shift and work 5-6 hours straight with no bathroom break. I can see why some people like this job, the supervisors do almost nothing, they mostly just walk around and sit on their phone all day.
TLDR: Very stressful, break system is horrible, I wouldn't work here again ever but I can see why some people like it.

The job was horrible, I was constantly in the sun when I worked at the kiddy rides or standing in the rain when we had to close the rides or working with some of the worst management and customers. 

The people that come into ValleyFair were very rude. We were constantly trying to find "scammers", people using different ways to make their children taller than they were so they could ride bigger rides, people jumping fences to get into the ride area, people disrespecting ride operators, etc.

The job did not pay well for the disrespect we were issued by customers. 

The management was also not the best, they were always negative, some even came to work intoxicated. They did not bring moral to the groups at all. 

We had to pay for any umbrellas or rain gear and we weren't allowed to wear our own. Shade was not provided in the kiddy areas, we were left to fend for ourselves and we couldn't make our own. So much sunburn even with sunscreen. 

There was never enough crew to work for you if you were sick or if someone didn't show up. There was not enough crew for maintenance for the rides. There was not enough security.

At Valleyfair you can work nearly as many hours as you can imagine, as your "seasonal" status gives you the opportunity to work over 40 hours a week with no overtime, which is cool, and also not cool. The conditions are just as you can imagine, good until you look at finer details. The management turnover is crazy (I've had 2 different directors in 2 different years, as well as a re-structure of the entire security department) Often times what kept me from quitting was the people (who worked with me and under me). The hardest part of the job is understanding the message that comes from the top down, as it's often miscommunicated or you find yourself misinformed. The Culture is mostly college kids, so it is a fun environment.

TLDR; Valleyfair is a good job for college kids, and kids who need a summer job. If you're looking for a job for the long-term, I would advise you to look elsewhere.

A typical day starts at 6 am and consists of 10-12 hours of grunt work.  Lifting, pushing, carrying, etc... of weights ranging from a couple ounces to several hundred pounds.  The first 4-6 hours has us delivering carts/truckloads of packaged food to various locations in the park.  The afternoon is usually spent delivering pop-ups, maintaining the warehouse, and other general tasks.  In my time, I've learned more about who i am, my strengths/weaknesses, and what I'm really capable of.  My co-workers and I generally get along well as we are able to be both easy-going and light-hearted and serious about the work.  The hardest part of the job is the 60+ hour work-week.  There isn't much time for anything else.  The most enjoyable part is getting outside and getting plenty of exercise.  This job has gotten me into much better physical shape and it has really improved my strength and endurance

If you don’t care about the pay but the job benefits and experience as a MINOR, go for it. I was paid $8.21/hour as a 15 year old and while the work environment was sweet: co-workers were my age range and supervisors cared whether I was comfortable or not with anything. I just dreaded working because every shift I took killed my braincells of how awfully boring and repetitive it is. Ring up customers. Stand and stare at the walls. Restock if I get lucky. Stand some more. My point is that the pay feels low for me to keep doing this. The pay max for the merchandise department is $10/hour. You’d be better off with the food or aquatics department when you’re 16+ because the pay is $15/hour ($17/hour for 18+).

Valleyfair is a great place to meet some of the most important and amazing people in life. It's a perfect place to start out for jobs. I started at 15 years old and stayed until age 17. It's a lot of work and dedication and I definitely was challenged everyday working there but I am happy I was. It has helped me build good work ethic and experience. I have met some of the most amazing people working there and do not regret anything despite all the hard working hours I worked and lack of appreciation I got. It has taught me more than enough about the working world. It was fun while it lasted and I will always remember this company and thank them for the forgiveness and experience and. most of all the people I met.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Food service associate 13 salaries reported	$16.77 per hour
Security officer 12 salaries reported	$18.08 per hour
Guest service agent 5 salaries reported	$17.65 per hour
Human resources assistant 4 salaries reported	$17.75 per hour
Park services attendant 3 salaries reported	$14.17 per hour

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