Quote Originally Posted by AZBuck View Post
Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

There are major problems to finding short-term part-time work on the road. Without an in-demand skill set, you are basically trying to sell yourself out as a day laborer, and one with the stated intention of moving on as soon as you've parted your employer from some of his money. In this market you're competing against locals who know where the local 'market' is and show up there every morning at the break of dawn eager to sell their work for money to put food on the table. They also know who might be hiring and how to sell themselves. That is, after all, their full-time job. I simply don't know how you'd compete with them. Similarly, trying to get seasonal work in outdoor settings or even resort establishments would put you up against people who decided long before you got there that they were going to spend the season in the area and have put their names on waiting lists should an opening occur, even for a day. The one possibility where you might have an advantage is if you had a specific skill set, be it plumber, electrician, computer programmer, nurse, or some other in-demand profession where you had certification and the bulk of job seekers did not. Then you might be able to use any professional societies you may belong to, or contacts you may have made in the field, or even the local help-wanted adds as resources. But really, in today's economy, banking on finding part time work on little to no notice is not a secure way to finance your trip.

AZBuck
I have to agree. My high school students are now having trouble finding jobs -- and we're not in a part of the country that's been hit hard by the recession. Finding day labor, I suspect, is nigh on to impossible.

I do know someone who works as a traveling nurse. She works in one state for a couple months, then moves on. She likes it, but it has most definitely taken a toll on her two children's educations.