<p>My child has never worked, and he’s getting ready to finish his freshman year of college. He is pretty introverted and is not good at small-talk. He is very smart, but not very social. He is polite, can write well, and is a math major. He will have taken 3 400 level math classes by summer, and he’s got enough credits to be consider a junior. He is not lazy scholastically, but is perfectly happy playing video games all day, every day, but I will not be happy with him doing that all summer. We live in the suburbs, and have a mall close by. Other than stores at the mall, does anyone have suggestion for first time, tempory employment for someone like him. I’ve though of Costco, a bank, the grocery store, and places like thar, but I’m looking for suggestions that might not be immediately obvious. He did apply for a couple of internships, but I will be surprised if he gets one. Also, I would not be opposed to something where he’s volunteering a substantial amount of time, if it helps build his resume, but I would prefer he get a paying job.</p>
<p>Not really going to get you too many hours but maybe umpiring? When I umpired, I would get around $20-50/game depending on the age group. At six games + a week, it added up quickly.</p>
<p>How about him tutoring or working with kids? My math/sci S enjoyed working with a summer science program for kids. Initially he volunteered but he was paid in subsequent summers. Our friend’s S works at BestBuy, where his tech knowledge is handy, another works st Appld and another at GameStop. All of those work well for geeky youngsters. </p>
<p>Depending on your S’s interest and skills, he could volunteer and eventually get paid tea hung computers to SRs, perhaps at retirement community. He might check local U to see if he could work at math dept over the summer. If he is good at stats, he could probably make himself useful at many nonprofits.</p>
<p>He might want to try listing with a temp agency. They would consider his abilities and match him to openings. My husband’s company often gets misc. temp help this way in areas like data entry, shipping, packaging, etc.</p>
<p>If your HS has a summer continuing ed program, he should apply to be a teacher’s aide. My S2, also a math and science geek, helped teach math and physics for a few summers and enjoyed it very much.</p>
<p>He might try contacting Kaplan and other SAT prep companies if he aced the math SAT. They might be interested in hiring him for tutoring.</p>
<p>I’d also suggest he talk to his math profs and ask if they have any ideas. Ditto re high school teachers: send them emails asking if they know of anything. They might be able to refer struggling math students to him. Any community colleges near you? Contact the chair of the math department. </p>
<p>Finally, if he hasn’t already been to the campus career center, INSIST he go.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. Temp idea sounds really good, plus places like Kaplan/teaching assistants. He did ace the SAT IIs for math and physics, so maybe that will help with the tutoring places. I’ve told him MANY times that he needs to go to the career center, that he should apply for summer research positions, etc. But I can’t go for him… I want to have some ideas so if he comes home with nothing, I can get him moving quickly.</p>
<p>Agree with having your S reach out to teachers who really liked him. Sometimes they’re happy to match kids to students needing tutoring or other opportunities.</p>
<p>FYI, Kaplan has an application, audition, and five-week training period. He can train at school and then work over the summer, but if he starts training over the summer, he will not earn anything beyond the minimum wage they pay for training time.</p>
<p>I know you are looking for suggestions out of the norm, but I’m a real believer that every one learns a lot by working retail or in a restaurant. Makes you a better customer the rest of your life.</p>
<p>I’d suggest that he look into the tutoring center at his school before he leaves for summer break. My son tutored and it provided much needed social interaction and him learning that people have all different levels of skills and abilities. He also had to figure out efficient ways to help people. His tutoring center also held training sessions and threw parties for the tutors. I think that it’s a great job for kids that aren’t the strongest socially but that are strong academically.</p>
<p>One job I really enjoyed when I was younger was bussing tables. Sounds trivial, but there is a lot of exercise and decent money to be had. We were into competitive bussing…who could do the best job the fastest, we had those tables done within seconds of people walking out. Great exercise, and actually fairly good for social interaction.</p>
<p>Don’t know if I could talk my kids into that, though. The youngest has been a YMCA camp counselor for years. Loves it, and there is always a need for male counselors. Money is bad, but the female counselors are plentiful. Huge amount of responsibility and social interaction.</p>
<p>Oldest always got internships. Tech companys, political internship (unpaid, of course). Plenty of opportunities to not get paid for working! He was very introverted, and I think it would have been useful for him to get a service sector job, where you are forced into small talk and asking people if they need help. Learning to converse on a surface level is something that everyone assumes is easy, but not so for the introvert.</p>
<p>Seconding rom828. Never appreciated the work employees do in stores or in restaurants until I worked in one myself.</p>
<p>With that said, I think bussing at a restaurant would make a good job. Depending on which state you live in, you’ll be paid minimum wage or more and receive tips. Working in something like retail (not just mall stores, but game stores, electronics stores, and book stores count) will also probably help with his social skills, which I know that you know will come in handy in life.</p>
<p>Did your son ever go to camp? Summer camps need college students as counselors. If he is smart and polite, he could probably be a counselor even if he has never had another job. He won’t make much money but it will help him with his social skills in lots of ways.</p>
<p>It’s too bad that your S has never worked at any job of any kind. That will put him at a disadvantage even at the bottom level jobs like bussboy. BUT, it was what started as a summer job in a restaurant that propelled my older D into deciding food service was her chosen career. Restaurants have VERY high turnover-it’s hard work, and it MIGHT be easy for your S to get a position this summer.</p>
<p>He could look at waitstaff or hosting, bussing or dishwashing, depending on the type of restaurant. At many places everyone shares the tips, even if they don’t interact with customers. They get different percentages depending on the job. Even if a restaurant is not officially hiring (say, though Craigslist), he could stop in and fill out an app. This is how my D got her first restaurant job.</p>
<p>Summer camps DO need young adults to work-go beyond the obvious sleepaway camps-lots of programs have summer camps too-Boys and Girls Clubs, after school programs that have a FT summer session, and community centers. They LOVE kids who are good with academics because a lot of these programs have a classroom component. BUT, it might be hard to grab a spot with no experience of any kind. The program my younger D works with as a volunteer has college students teaching the classes and running things, but the assistants are high school kids and even middle schoolers. Some of the teachers started out as assistants. But it would be worth a shot.</p>
<p>If he can’t find a paying job, he could also look into his local library system-ours has classes on various topics and I’d bet they’d snap up a kid with perfect SAT scores for tutoring sessions. </p>
<p>I really wanted him to get a job before now, but for various reasons he has not. At this point I’m pretty insistent that he have a job this summer. He seems to have his sights set a little too high… But hopefully he will realize that sooner rather than later and get going towards a “less than ideal” job.</p>
<p>OP here. Just figured I’d let people know my son got a job as a resident assistant for a “smart kid” program at a college. He is living there for 6 weeks and will be in charge of a bunch of 5th and 6th grade boys. Hopefully he will do a good job, have some fun, demonstrate his leadership potential, and learn from the experience. It sounds like they work long hours, but the pay is not terrible.</p>