Pros
Getting to do fun outdoors activities such as stand up paddle boarding, hiking and kayaking, and getting to mentor kids in an active, non-classroom setting. Once you are out in the field with your co-instructor and your group of kids, you pretty much get to run the day as you see fit. You can also rent equipment on the weekends, and they have an active sense of community amongst employees through social events and outings.
Cons
For the record, I do not believe I am disclosing any confidential information/trade secrets of this company, only my own opinions and things that any prospective employee should be aware of in case they are considering working for them. Awful pay relative to the work you are doing and what comparable fields (childcare, substitute teaching, outdoor sports training) offer (pay starts at $10 per hour). The cost just to start working for this company is out of this world (unpaid training days where you receive "certifications", minimum wage pay ($9.30) on other training days, the cost of your fingerprinting/background check, required attire such as water shoes you must provide yourself, CPR/First Aid certifications you must pay for yourself (about $100 and hours of your time), unclear descriptions of required medical certifications leading many to PAY THE COMPANY THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING FOR upwards of $200 for their "discounted" wilderness first aid certifications, your own gas and use of personal vehicle to get to training locations often far away, inflexible training dates which require you to miss other work opportunities- only to find out that they are flexible, and many instructors who start after the beginning of the summer DO NOT have to go through what you thought was absolutely obligatory), not to mention the camp directors are so disorganized that you will often have to pay for your own park passes when you are driving a van full of 13 kids to a location (or drive your own vehicle, as they often ask you to do when there isn't enough room in the van for all the kids and instructors), and then wait to be reimbursed. I've seen employees who signed on as full-time get their hours cut simply because they overstaffed camp sites, not unlike a flight that overbooks its seating. The upper management adheres to an extremely cult-like atmosphere, clear and obvious from our large group training days, in which positivity is rammed down your throat by Avid4 disciples who seem to have started out caring about the creation of an ideal summer camp experience, but who have somehow lost the ability to care about paying their workers a livable wage along the way. The camp president once gave a speech to us about how statistics showed that in most companies, the employees didn't trust the company they worked for, but that Avid4 was way better than other companies in this regard. What a joke. The fact that upper management are making year-round salaries off of the sweat and personal expense of their seasonal employees (maybe one out of 60-100 employees gets the opportunity to work for more than 2.5 months- that may be an exaggeration but I'm trying to paint an honest picture of what I see and feel) is flat-out disgusting. This cult-like atmosphere pervades the language and structure of the camps, down to the terminology used in safety briefings for the kids. The parents are charged boatloads of money to send their kids to this camp (average is $419 per kid, per week, for only six hours of care per day), and the instructors in charge of their kids' safety and overall experience are paid less than beginning fast food employees. Honestly, I could go on. For example, if you want raises, you either have to return year after year (with tiny increments in pay) or you have to obtain more outdoor certifications for yourself at your own personal expense (such as kayaking/canoeing expert/trainer level skill, rock climbing, etc.). This may be no problem to someone who has already obtained multiple certifications in multiple outdoor fields and who may plan on a career in the outdoors anyways (future or past park rangers, for example), but to the average employee, this amounts to having to buy your way into the upper levels of a religion/cult. If you are 22 years old and have just graduated college and can't quite tell when you are being taken advantage of yet, or you are 19 and still in college and just want a job that pays what anyone else will pay you at that age and without your degree yet, be my guest and go ahead and enjoy Avid4 Adventure for what it is worth. But if you've got the situational consciousness and awareness and can feel guilt, shame, and emotional exhaustion over just knowing that you work for a company that advertises itself as a source of pure joy and education, but in reality would not exist without taking advantage of both employees and customers, then don't bother with this company. I know you've seen them tons and tons of times on Indeed.com and Craigslist. That's because they are desperate to hire anyone they can qualify in order to meet the demand of the sheer scale of their operation. Save yourself the summer and find a job that you can build a year-round relationship with.
