Any theme park ride operators?

Question

how's the job? i got hired to be a ride operator at king's dominion and just wanna know if it's an "okay" job

Answer 1

I loved it and wish I could make it my life's work.  But that's the thing: you'll either love it or hate it.  If you have a tough skin and can deal with people who look at you as nothing but a kid making mimimum wage, it will mature you quickly.

It's not just about oprerating rides; you will deal with ride passengers and their problems/complaints too.  That was the one aspect of the job I never considered.  It is quite repetitive, but you never have the same day twice.  The added benefit is your job is affected by weather; work a ride that is adversely affected by cold, rain, wind, lightning--and you either get a free (though unpaid) day off, or you get to do special projects at your ride, but at least you won't be dealing with the people.  Crowds are also much easier to handle if the weather is nasty.

You'll gain customer service experience for the future that looks excellent on a resume all the way down to experience in operating heavy machinery, believe it or not.  I did this job for 6 years and on my resume, where I list all of my responsibilities for that job, it's the longest paragraph on my resume.

But one of the most valuable things I learned was how little I knew before about these rides and how intricately designed they are to keep passengers safe.  There's a vast difference between being a once-in-a-while passenger to being someone who can tell you what "that little box" is, or being able to stand there and simply identify "what that noise was" without even having to look.  It taught me many lessons about life that I use practically every day.