Sweep

CP just called me and gave me my interview. I applied for sweep. I am hoping to get hired this will be my first year. Has anyone else ever worked sweep and how is it?

I was a sweep last year and this year I'm a team leader so if you have any questions you can just ask. I enjoyed sweeping it definetly has its perks. If you have any questions just ask I'm usually on AIM Patricio156 or just email me.

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'03 Zone 5 Sweep
'03 Screamster
'04 Zone 5 TL

You will love Sweeping. It's hard to get used to the first few days and you will really hurt. Jenn always tells the Sweeps to give it at least a week for your body to adjust. But once your body gets used to the physical activity it's really awesome.. you get to move around all day, talk to people, get a great tan and you meet people from just about every department!

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Without Environmental Services Cedar Point would be a dirty park!

Look at it this way I work at Knott's Berry Farm in Park Servises, we do everything from sweeping, restroom, and trash. It takes some time to get use to working eight hours, I have work 13 hours before, now that is long.

I loved being a sweep, even if I did not always appreciate the way things were run. It is great exercise, and sometimes can be lots of fun to just walk around and watch what is going on. It gets boring really quickly, walking back and forth back and forth through the same section of the park day in and day out. The other problem is that you get hideous tan lines from being out in the sun all day. Make sure to bring a case of sunblock with you.

You will probably have a lot of fun with your crew, and meet a lot of cool people. I hope you have a good summer :)

People think I'm nuts when I say I want to apply to CP and be a Sweep. I think it would be wonderful and you get lots of exercise. Are there any age limits? I'm 46. Also, do you have a specific area of the park that is your territory, or can you roam all over the park? Also, can you listen to head phones while working? Thanks.

No, there are no age limits for sweeps (except that you have to be 17 or 18). Just as long as you think you'll be able to walk constantly from anywhere between 8-14 hours.

Yes, the park is seperated into four different zones and a crew is assigned to each zone. Nope, no headphones. That would be nice and make the job much less boring, but you're supposed to be alert so that you can hear guests if they are trying to ask you a question.

Thanks, Cassie, for info. My teenagers want to apply to CP and I thought, hey, I might as well apply too. I do lots of walking now, so that is no problem.

My bad Alex, when I was last there I thought Jenn had raised the Sweep age to 17...thanks for the correction :o

Oops. You're right. I stand corrected (by my manager, no less!). You've got to be 17 and a high school graduate or 18 to be a sweep. Red tags get all the fun. *** Edited 3/9/2005 9:37:03 PM UTC by Haux***

So you just walk around and sweep? Well I guess that could be fun depending what zone your in.

this may be a stupid question.. but why do you have to be 18 to sweep?

Cedar Point doesn't like children under 18 to have direct contact with guests. As a sweep a guest can ask just about anything and they worry that someone who is younger might not treat the guest correctly, with respect. When you have a subject,like, when's the laser light show. An immature employee might laugh at the guest or put them down just because they don't know. They don't use their mind to know that maybe the guest doesn't spend everyday in the park like they do.

To pull the immaturity card is stupid because I know alot of people under 18 that are alot more mature than alot of the 25 year olds I know. Just thought that I would throw that out there.

Sweeping is not the only part of a Sweep's job description, though it is the largest part. You are also responsible for cleaning things like the pay phones, fountains, signs, fences, trash cans and more in your zone.

I am not exactly sure why you have to be 18, but that is the minimum age for a lot of the jobs at Cedar Point. Being a sweep requires a lot of personal responsibility, because you are not directly supervised. No one is watching over you at all times making sure you are doing your job. (It would not be possible). If you are a ride op, for example, you are surrounded by your crew and TL's and it is easy to tell if you are doing what you are supposed to. Sweeps are roaming around on their own and need to be responsible enough to know not to take extra long breaks or talk to other employees.

Of course, there are plenty of people over 18 who are going to slack off and take advantage of the lack of supervision, so. But I don't know of anyone, at any age, who ever laughed at a guest asking a question. (Well, to their face). ;-)

I was a darn good sweep, but I swear the only time I would EVER run into my manager was the three or four times throughout the season when I was not following the rules. It never failed! Ah, I miss sweeping dearly. Two times in a row I went home for a little vacation and each time I came down with an almost death-like illness(withdrawl from CP? Ha). Well, all of the zones have their pros and cons...seeing the same area of the park every day can get old, but then it makes you partial to it. On occasion you get sent to different zones to help out, so that variety is nice. I think it would be cool to be able to roam the entire park and sweep. But you'd have to be really trusted, since nobody would have any way of knowing where you are.

The main reason for the age of 18 is the amount of breaks a minor has to have by law. Its too hard to keep track of.

I loved sweeping. If you have to work a front line grunt job that's the one.

Freedom. You get to know the park pretty well if you pay attention. You get to know people outside your department. And you get to watch guests.

And despite the controversial issue i'd have to say that sticking with people over 18 is better because it is a job that is self motivated. And while there are exceptions most of the time i would take my chances with someone older who has to have the job, not just because they need some pocket money to help the allowance.