Pros
Free access to the park... That's about it.
Cons
-Pay - $7.75 an hour, paid biweekly. Hours set up in such a manner that you would make no real money despite having worked seven or more days in a row. Paychecks usually severely docked due to having to buy your own uniforms and equipment, much of which was of a very low quality and had to be replaced regularly. It did not help that (Again, desperately needed a job at the time.) I was driving 50 miles a day, round-trip, in a gas-guzzling old Buick with no AC that got about 10.3 miles to the gallon to go to a "job" that didn't even pay me enough to keep fuel in the moderately-sized 18-gallon tank. -Exposure - You are constantly exposed to the elements, whether it be extreme heat and direct sunlight, biting cold, or storms of varying intensity. -Uniform/Appearance code - Forced to conform to a very "conservative" appearance code. Males are required to be completely clean-shaven or have a moustache, effectively causing most of their male employees to either look like children or pedophiles, respectively. You would either be sent home or forced to buy one of their overpriced razors if you had the least bit of growth. I mean, it's an amusement park... People care about as much about the associates having facial hair as they do about the economy of upper Slobovia. The uniforms were as overpriced as anything else in the park, and most of the garments were of abysmal quality, but managed to be obscenely heavy and made working in the heat twice as awful. And to boot, they are among the ugliest uniforms I have ever seen. -Management - A great lot of overgrown children on power trips. Most of the team leads and managers were between the ages of 17 and 22, and many of them acted even younger. They seemed to take their jobs far too seriously because they got $9 an hour and got to wear a different colour shirt. As a grown man in his early twenties, my worst fear was being screamed at by a bratty 18-year-old with a power trip and a management position, coupled with my notoriously short temper and misanthropic nature. And that, dear readers, segues into... -Customers - Or "guests", as the idiots in HR insisted we called them, despite the park treating them as anything but. While I did meet a handful of decent people, and even establish a couple of legitimate friendships, the majority of the "guests", better known as "Walking providers of our meager paychecks", were rude, belligerent, loud, obnoxious, whiny, and more often than not, just plain stupid. I cannot think to write a complete list of things I often called customers, occasionally to their faces. -Manner in which the park was run - We could be here all day, but I'm going to try and breeze through this is quickly as possible. There was a bogus regulation for literally every occasion. Only certain people could train you in even the most mundane of job aspects, such as giving a proper thumbs-up. Yes. I'm serious. You would be walked through how to press a button and do a thumbs-up over the course of probably twenty minutes, sign several lines to ensure that you knew how to press this button, and would then become a "certified" button-presser or seatbelt buckler. Once, I was offered a piece of a funnel cake by a guest. Now, before I finish, eating on the job is considered a fireable offense at Carowinds. I was yelled at by a manager, (again, late teens-early twenties, power trip.) and thought that was the end of it. A day later, I was escorted to the main office and held there for three hours with not a clue as to why I was there. A "hearing" was held and I was asked to write a witness statement. Over a funnel cake. I ended up being suspended for three days, kicked off the Intimidator where I was working, and barred from SCarowinds for the year. -Scheduling - Hours are inconsistent, employees are scheduled for either four or twelve hour shifts, for periods of 8-12 days straight, without a day off. In the end, after receiving an $87 paycheck and being forcibly removed from my break while in the beginning stages of a severe anxiety attack and trying to light a cigarette by a manager, I decided that enough was enough. I clocked out of my shift, put on the "normal" outfit I was keeping in my car, and rode every last ride in the park until closing, left, and never returned. The pay was so low that I was literally paying to work in an utter hellhole, I averaged one or two anxiety attacks a day, and I would come home every day tired, broke, and miserable. Don't waste your time working here unless you're under 18 and live within five miles. And even then, you would be better off in fast food. I reiterate, don't waste your time working here.