As the owner of a summer camp, you know that your success often depends on your staff.

Hiring responsible and trustworthy camp counselors is paramount to a safe summer camp experience that your campers will remember forever. Counselors are an extension of yourself during the camp session. You need to know that you can trust them to keep your campers safe, make the right decisions in tough situations, and act appropriately at all times.

In this article, we will review the camp counselor hiring process and questions to ask during camp counselor interviews so you can hit the ground running and find the best staff for summer 2026.

Camp Counselor Hiring Process

As you prepare to hire camp counselors for this season of camp, review this typical camp counselor hiring process to make sure you hit all of the key points.

1. Organize your needs. Before you can hire, you need to determine your staffing needs. Start by listing the number of returning counselors from the year before so you know how many new spots you need to fill. How many specialized counselors do you need and how many general ones? What age groups do you need to staff? Make a master list of the types of counselors you need to hire so you can have a smooth application and interview process.
2. Write a strong job description. Include an accurate job title, necessary skills, experience (if needed), qualifications (if needed), and responsibilities required, as well as salary and benefits. Make your job descriptions as specific as possible so you don’t end up wasting your candidates’ time or your own.
3. Post your job in the right places. Many camp counselors are young adults (18–24 years old) because they have the most flexibility in schedule and the energy to keep up with their campers. Therefore, we recommend posting your camp counselor jobs in places where those types of candidates will look: College career centers, university job fairs, Indeed.com, local community centers, and SimplyHired.com are all great options.
4. Plan and run your interviews. In the next section, we will outline our recommended questions to ask during camp counselor interviews. Beyond just planning the questions you will ask, you need to decide how you will hold the interviews (in person, over the phone or Zoom, or some combination?), how long they will be, how many references you need, and more. You should also include time in the interview to discuss the camp schedule, if they need to arrive early for orientation and stay late for cleanup, and more logistics.
5. Make your hiring decisions. After you (and any other relevant staff members and/or administrators) have interviewed the candidates, it’s time to decide who will join your team. Let the counselors know if they have been hired or not, and offer feedback to those who you decided not to hire. Keep your door open for future relationships and, if you are still looking for more counselors, ask for referrals from the counselors you did hire.

Questions to Ask During Camp Counselor Interviews

The goal of these hiring interviews is to learn about the potential camp counselors, determine if they share the same values as your camp, and gain insight into their experience working with children. Essentially, you need to decide if a parent would feel comfortable leaving their child with this counselor.

Beyond the general questions that are important to ask in all hiring interviews, you should also ask questions specific to your camp and the role. For example, if counselors at your camp typically sing and dance at meals or at other points throughout the day, you might want to know if the candidate feels comfortable with that type of performance. Likewise, if you are hiring an art counselor or a tennis coach, they need to have experience teaching and coaching. Make sure to include questions about the role as well as the general camp culture so you can get a well-rounded view of the candidate and their ability to fit in at your camp.

Here are some of the recommended questions to ask during camp counselor interviews from ACA and our many Sawyer camp providers.

Introduction

1. Tell me about yourself.

Experience Working with Children

2. Talk about your experience working with children. What do you like most about this work? What do you like the least?
3. Give an example of a difficult situation you’ve had when working with children. How did you handle the situation and what was the outcome?

Experience with Camps and Camper/Counselor Situations

4. Tell me about your experience with camp. Have you ever gone to camp or worked at a camp? If not, what do you know about camp from friends and/or pop culture? How do you think your experience working at camp might be similar or different?
5. What do you think the best part of being a camp counselor is? What do you imagine is the worst?
6. What are you hoping to gain from your time as a camp counselor?
7. What would you do with a group of campers on a rainy day?
8. A camper is struggling with homesickness. What would you say or do to help them?
9. Campers in your cabin are arguing. Do you step in or let them figure it out? If you step in, what would you say or do?
10. A parent is upset about something that happened with their child that day at camp. Role play the conversation with me.
11. A camper is refusing to participate in an activity. How would you convince them to try it? Role play the conversation with me.

Teamwork, Leadership, and Problem-solving

12. Talk about a time where you had to be a team player. What about a time where you had to lead? How do you deal with conflict when working on a team?
13. Tell me about a time where you had to remain calm under pressure or stress. What happened? How did you handle the situation?
14. Tell me about a time when you made a big mistake at work or school. What happened? How did you resolve the situation?
15. Talk about a time where you anticipated a potential problem at work, school, or with friends. Were you able to prevent the problem? If so, how did you do it? If not, what could you have done differently?

We hope this article has provided you with helpful information and guidance as you plan your camp counselor hiring process for summer 2026. Did you know that successful camp owners start planning at least nine months before the start of camp? Use our printable summer camp planner and toolkit to stay organized and on track as you get ready for the best summer yet!

This article was sponsored by Sawyer. Sawyer is an all-in-one camp registration and management software that helps camp owners and children’s activity providers efficiently run their businesses so they can spend more time doing what they love. 

Lizzie is the senior manager of content marketing for Sawyer. She helps connect camp owners and educators with the resources they need so they can spend less time on administrative tasks and more time working with children. A lifelong lover of camp as both a camper and counselor, Lizzie is thrilled that she gets to spend her days helping providers discover and use Sawyer to make camp more accessible.

Periodically, the American Camp Association (ACA) makes timely and relevant information about products and services available to its members so they can make informed decisions for their camps. However, ACA does not endorse products, services, or companies.