Our town is very small (and we live 11 miles from it so the job has to be worth driving in for). The main options are the dairy sweet and the grocery store. DD’19 has a job at the dairy sweet which she put on hold over soccer season and now she is probably going to work at our church camp this summer. The paperwork is going slow, but I still think she will be hired and start a week from now. It’s three hours away so I guess good practice for living away at college.
When she gets back she’s going to check at the library- someone is retiring in August and they had asked my mom to work some afternoons but she declined. So DD is going to see if they can use someone after school come fall. If not, she will have to decide whether to return to the dairy sweet which she hates.
She also cleans the office where I work. She can do it any weekend evening, it takes an hour and she gets $35. When she is busy with school and activities this is really about enough work to fit into the schedule.
"When she gets back she’s going to check at the library- someone is retiring in August and they had asked my mom to work some afternoons but she declined. So DD is going to see if they can use someone after school come fall. "
Might be worthwhile for her to reach out to them now rather than waiting. Early bird and all that.
Both of mine lined up their lucrative summer work in Feb/Mar. But they also kept their lifeguard standing and did a lot of hours subbing. None of this was brilliant on our part. It was just going for it and luck.
D2 did apply for some summer internships, got far, but not the nod.
Banquet catering staff is another summer biggie because of weddings. Golf course caddies is another seasonal job and one with good tips even though these days caddies generally just greet and load and unload bags.
@doschicos Oh when they asked my mom, she was under the impression it was to start in the spring so DD went in and asked already a couple months ago. They told her to come back in August.
some places that use to hire teens, libraries where i live, don’t have to hire as they have enough teen volunteers who are either building their resume for college applications or doing required volunteer work for HS graduation.
My neighbor works at a country club and he has soured on hiring high schoolers. One reason is that over the years, the school break has been shortened to June- mid-August. He said that could work except the potential employees want time off for family vacations, sports camps or the like, and then they want time off before starting back to school. He’s been frustrated by many applicants over the years who would lie to him. Before offering a job, he would tell them he needed somebody who could work the entire school break. He would ask if they had any plans that would keep them from doing that. They would swear they didn’t, but they would work for just a month before taking off to climb Kilimanjaro or something, leaving him short handed for six weeks.
Years ago the club had mostly neighborhood teenagers as employees. Now the golf, tennis and food employees are almost all adults. The lifeguards are recruited from a high school not too far, but in a lower income area, because they have been more reliable. I know my neighbor gets a lot of flak for not hiring the local teens, but he said he gets way more flak when he’s under staffed.
We also live in the NE. Youngest DD had been a camp counselor in the past, but due to funding they closed it. They reopened it but cut down on scope of the camp and also the staff. That was a fabulous job. She recently got a job at Dunkin Donuts. She will work the entire summer and they have already asked if she would work during her breaks, so some money there. That is how many of them are here. Kids who had the jobs during the school year, come home on weekends or breaks and work them.
I think the economy is booming in pockets. it is not booming where I am, with a state wide unemployment rate of 3.8 but a metropolitan unemployment rate of 8.3%. It is probably higher than that for teenagers with little to no work experience.
I live in the northeast and many of the traditional teen jobs are taken by adults who are working 2 or 3 jobs because the cost of living (especially housing) is so high. Most summer positions are taken by teachers such as myself (including food service, and other minimum wage jobs) in order to support our families.
My college kid is doing an unpaid internship in Boston which doesn’t start for a couple of weeks so she signed up with Care.com last week and within a couple of days had already been hired for two nights of $20/hr. babysitting. She was already CORIed so that probably helped speed things up.
“Sue22: My college kid is doing an unpaid internship in Boston which doesn’t start for a couple of weeks so she signed up with Care.com last week and within a couple of days had already been hired for two nights of $20/hr. babysitting. She was already CORIed so that probably helped speed things up”
Wow, is she getting $20 an hour for babysitting? Yikes! That is awesome pay! Or is that the cost to the consumer and then after Care.com takes a cut, she gets less?
Curious, if you don’t mind my asking, because I had some ladies (former caregivers) tell me some interesting stories about that (not babysitting, but elder care).
My son is 19 and going back to college in the fall. I think it is a summer job vs year round employment. Places just do not want to hire kids for 3-4 months out of the year. I get that- but it is frustrating. That must be the difference. I had a job at a grocery store that I worked at through HS and all thru college. I was able to give them about 30 hours a week. Maybe if I could only work in the summer it would have been different. Back then grocery stores did hire HS kids to bag. Maybe they are being taken by older workers now. A sad commentary if you ask me.
It would have been nice for him to gain some experience and also help us out with gas money/car expenses or spending money. It’s hard enough paying for his college and books so he will have no debt. MA is an expensive place to live and every little bit helps.
Just seems like such a waste of time to spend the whole summer with nothing to do.
Have him offer up his services for hourly work. My kids did that during high school - babysitting, petsitting, pull weeds, small household chores/maintenance. They hung fliers on the local library bulletin board, the kind with the pull tabs. If they were doing it today I would add local facebook groups like town yard sale pages, etc.
I’d also have him keep looking, especially at seasonal places. Sometimes the employees hired don’t work out and replacements are needed.
Absent that, he should get a volunteer job at the very least. One idea - with mid-term elections approaching, candidates and politically affiliated groups on both sides of the aisle are looking for volunteers - both for more formal internships and more casually.
Just hanging out would not be acceptable in my house.
Do you have a neighborhood FB page? Ours very often has people posting either services offered (like Doschicos mentions above) or people looking for people to do work like the above.
Has he tried either Care.com?? I think people post there also looking for things like someone to take people to doctors appointments or pet walking in addition to babysitting. Don’t know what your son things about babysitting (call it something else if you like!) but there can be some $$$ in this especially for a family with more than one child or a family who needs someone to drive their kids to activities (thus wanting someone more mature or experienced in the car than a 16 year old). My D just made $90 (side job in addition to her day summer job) babysitting for a 7 and 9 year old boy for 8 hours, 1/2 of which they were asleep. Not bad cash!
I think any of my kids would go stir crazy not doing something structured all summer!
Could he babysit? Offer to drive kids for folks? Run errands? Mow lawns? Help teach computing to folks who need a little help? Offer to help an office scan docs so they can have electronic records? Scan photos?
She recently got a job at Dunkin Donuts. She will work the entire summer and they have already asked if she would work during her breaks, so some money there. That is how many of them are here. Kids who had the jobs during the school year, come home on weekends or breaks and work them.