I've only ever had 1 interview in 8 summers, for 4 different camps. However, I've worked Girl Scouts and Camp Fire and 1 of the camps I grew up at. I've never heard that any of them do second interviews. Granted, I don't know how many other people apply for the positions.
I've seen on here that some camps basically just give contracts to returners in the fall and say welcome back! Out of the camps I've worked at some required a returner application and 1 reference. My current camp and some other camps I know require the returner application and 3 references. Granted, unless something crazy comes up in this, they'll likely hire you if they planned on it based on what they know from previous summers, but gotta have the paperwork to back it up. Plus, 10 months is a long time in college (or any time in life) to have gotten up to some trouble or just change.
Applications are meant to be as streamlined as they can for the ones doing the hiring. I heard once for teaching jobs that there are "hoops" to jump through to weed out those who might not be determined, hard working, etc enough to do what needs to be done even if they don't agree with the process or don't want to do all the paperwork. Granted, I'm sure this isn't technically the reason this is all in place, but just gives a silly thought over it. If the directors have 10 different applications it gets tricky. Plus I could apply for arts and crafts, counselor, and challenge course as my 3 choices for jobs. Well, do we need to complete 3 different applications then?
Side note- I don't actually want to be the art or challenge course person... I like my counselor and unit coordinator positions! :)
Yeah, sometimes the questions are silly. My favorite, besides the "describe your experience with youth, camping, ..." I wanted to be snarky and put "look at my work history." Same goes for the similarly phrased question on all new camp applications "camp requires you to live in tight quarters with limited privacy and personal space. How do you think you will handle this?" when I applied to my first new camp I had been a counselor for 3 summers and a CIT for 2 summers. :) But they don't ask those questions on the returners app!
