CurrySpice

To the person with a teen working as a lifeguard... that is indeed how the job is! I love it, but I'm thinking that I'll be spoiled for when I get a "real" job that requires me working for the entire shift. I work either 30 or 45 minutes out of an hour and a quarter depending on how crowded the pool is. Sometimes my breaks are even longer if we get extra guards working due to lots of kids. I get to read, swim, etc.

I think that I have a pretty good work ethic (teen speaking. this topic came up under "today's posts" before I realized it was "parent cafe), but so does mostly everyone on my job. I suppose I'm lucky. I called in sick today for the first time all summer, but I feel really guilty about it. I'm supposed to leave for vacation tomorrow, so I'm sure they think I'm leaving early, but I am actually ill.

I am currently really angry at one of my managers for taking advantage of my work ethic. He's commented before that he thinks I'm a great worker, and so because I don't do a shoddy job cleaning the bathrooms, I get stuck doing them. I've been there 15 minutes past the end of my shift for the past two days. Argh!

thumper1

cpn...my DS applied for jobs. Not only did he have a resume, he had letters of recommendation (and contact information) from his previous employer doing the same kind of work. He went from establishment to establishment...spoke to managers when they were available, was dressed in nice clothes, followed up by phone, etc. He was astounded at how many folks never got back to him, how many places couldn't seem to even tell him when the manager would be there, etc. He DID finally (after looking for a month) find a job which he hopes to continue when classes start in the fall (reduced schedule..and they KNOW that). But for this job, he had to take an online psychological test, interview with one manager. Then got called back and interviewed with a second manager. Then one day of orientation, two days of training, another test about menu and procedures, three days of shadowing and then he could work on his own.

DS is very happy to have this job. He is enjoying the place, coworkers and working in general. But he did say...he had four years of experience doing similar work (different establishment) and never thought it would take this much to get another similar job.

emeraldkity4

When I was a teen I had crappy jobs for the most part.
Babysitting which didn't pay well, working in a nursing home kitchen, which was so busy I never even got to take a bathroom break, & working at a kennel, which ended up to be a general grunt job of babysitting the owners kids, & running errands for her. Which wouldn't have been bad, if I had liked her, but she didn't respect that I was picking up her kids and serving them dinner etc- If you don't respect the person who is caring for your own kids- what does that say about your values?

I went through a period of time when I did similar things for young divorced mothers, until I realized that it wasn't my responsibility to help them out, when they couldn't pay me, or get home on time.( once or twice would have been one thing- but they took advantage)

I had my nursing home job, during the school year- which was a bad idea. I didn't have a car, I walked about 3 miles to school one way, walked 1 mile farther to work and made friends with one of my coworkers so I could get a ride home as it was usually 10 or so pm. ( I didn't graduate from high school, in retrospect- I shouldn't have been surprised I was too tired in the morning to do well). But I got the job, by having a one page resume that I asked several businesses to hold on to, and they called me when they had an opening. Many businesses go through employees and it is only a matter of time before they are hiring again.

Both my kids began volunteering when they were young teens and that gave them both skills and references to use, when they started looking for summer work. Something to think about.

cnp55

muzicgirl ... that's exactly why I wrote the post! I hope it helps!

And re post #74 ... hear hear!
I have one friend that tells her applicants to take their very own money and go to --- lab and get a negative drug screen. When they bring in the paperwork, she'll refund their testing costs and they're hired. (They've passed all her prescreening prior to the drug test.) She says that she only gets about 30% coming back.

mom60

The drug test- My D said when they were hiring at her job they also were amazed at how many made it through all the hoops and later disappeared when sent for the drug test.
Many of the chains require drug testing. What I find amazing is that most of the teens and young adults know this and you would think they would plan accordingly. According to my son it takes about 2 weeks to have a clean urine. If they use hair or saliva I think it might be longer.
Cnp55- what I realize is that what we take for granted as common sense is not. Yesterday I stopped in at Starbucks. A young man was asking for an application. Granted he did ask when he might speak to a manager and when he might hear back. But the glaring mistake was his friend standing next to him in a Corona beer t-shirt. Friend was not applying for a job.
My spouse was telling my son that the calling back to show interest also works when you want something. We rent out apartments and if there are multiple applicants often the person who is persistant and proactive gets the apartment. Like Thumper points out already having paperwork with you. In the rental case, a filled out application, recommendations from previous landlords, proof of employment.

StickerShock

30+ years ago I applied with two friends to work in a brand new dollar type store. There was still construction going on. My friends got the job. I didn't. I think it was because I stepped on some flourescent light tubes laying on the floor.

I am amzaed at the teens in retail jobs who move at the speed of tree sloths. I took my son & his friend to a skating rink last week. His friend's skate lace was unravelling at the tip & he needed some tape & a pair of scissors to get the lace into the hole. The teens behind the counter just stared at me for a moment until one started looking around desks in a slipshod manner. Ten desks, but not a single pair of scissors to be found. Yeah, right. One teen took the skate & spent a long time trying to jam the lace through the hole. I kept asking if there might be a paper clip or some instrument we could use. Two other slack jawed teens watched the teen with the skate try again & again to jam the lace through the hole. All the while ignoring customers. I had to tell the kids, "This person needs your help." I really fear for these kids. How will they function in life????? At this same rink, I once asked a teen to turn on the lobby lights so we parents could read while our kids played hockey. He shrugged & said he didn't know where the light switches were. I suggested he ask his manager. He stared blankly & shrugged again. I had to find a manager myself. These stories are not as dramatic as an employee falling asleep on a bag of dogfood (LOL) but the pattern is widespread.

mom60

One of my D's first jobs was in a pet store. They had a large pile of dog food in the center of the store. When she started there was a male employee who often napped on the pile. He didn't last long. The owner said that the napping on the dog food was much more a male employee trait. He found the female employees on average to be better employees.
The best one recently was when I needed a dog tag made. I went to a large pet store. The employee told me the machine was broken. Returned later in the week and asked if the machine had been repaired. That person told me it had not been broken. The employee was just to lazy to make the tag.

galoisien

Personally I think the drug test is a bit of a concern. If your applicant is doing hard drugs like heroin now that's a bit of a concern, but if your applicant manages to successfully separate his or her private and professional life, why not?

Now even though I haven't touched the stuff myself, can a person who shows up positive for cannabis defend his use of it, and assure his employer that it would never affect work?

Lafalum84

I needed this thread in May! DS did the whole "pick up applications, bring them home, fill them out, drop them off" thing, didn't speak to any managers, thought I was nuts when I told him to go back and follow up ("What am i supposed to say? If they want to hire me, they'll call!"), never did speak to any managers and ended up getting one job which will require him to work at most a dozen days all summer. And he got that job in a "cattle call" where he spoke to a decision-maker and they hired about 3/4 of the people who showed up.

Last year he was hired at the second place he applied, I think because his EC was an exact fit with what that store sold (unfortunately, the store closed over the winter). If I could have shown him all your hints to teens who are job-hunting for this year, maybe he wouldn't have thought I was crazy and would have had a more effective job search. I don't think he learned anything about his methods being ineffective either; I think he's pretty much blaming it on the economy (which frankly was 50% of his problem).

northeastmom

Lafalum, I think that this summer it was a bit tougher to find a job. My son filled out a lot more apps. BTW, many apps. are only currently accepted online. He filled out tons of the online apps. and nobody contacted him for an interview. He felt a bit discouraged, but I just gave him some encouragement, and then he found a job. The nice thing about it is that it is close to home, so he is not spending his earnings on the commute.

anxiousmom

My son went looking over his spring break, which happened to be one week earlier than the local flagship U's spring break. It was great timing; he saw a sign for the job, called, went in for interview (bringing his past employment information with him) and was offered the position on the spot - all in one day. I couldn't believe that his job search began and ended on the first day, no fuss, no muss, and the whole spring break to enjoy without any stresses! Several of his local friends waited to apply for jobs until May, then had difficulty finding decent jobs. This is one case of the early bird getting the worm.

galoisien

Does anyone know about transfers within national chains? That is, is it easy to continue working for the same "family" even when you go OOS for college?

kathiep

Galoisien, I'm sure this would depend on the individual stores. You may be promised that you can work at a store in your college town, but it's doubtful that the college town place is going to hold slots for new people if they have the people they need or have hires from the year before coming back or maybe have multiple people being promised jobs from their hometown stores.

I know a girl that works at a chain in her college town and was told that she would be able to work at the local store here, in her hometown. When she got home for the summer and went to that store, they told her that they had no hours for her. My thought is that you have a leg up on another applicant coming in off the street but not to expect guaranteed employment, unless you hear it from the college town store manager.

Lafalum84

A friend's son worked at a chain near college, and asked about working this summer at his hometown store. They said he could work as a sub, then later they asked if he wanted a 4 hour shift every Saturday? Then the 4 hour shift evolved into an 8 hour shift, plus sub hours during the week. So it worked out for him.

cnp55

On the theme of advice for the new employee ...

I'm writing the evaluation for my now-ex-intern. What I am coming up with is that I should have just fired him when he overslept on the second day of work, and claimed he was sick. I thought he was faking then ... I still do. I should have just fired him then and not put myself though this *bleep*.

So ... basic advice

Start off on the right foot. Be earlier, stay later, work harder, keep your eyes and ears open and LEARN LEARN LEARN.

And, I ran across this quote yesterday ... and it's so applicable in this and many other situations:

"Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and the only thing that's wrong is to get caught.
J. C. Watts