<p>Is it impressive (not just in a college admissions standpoint, but in a broader view) if a sixteen year old snags a sales associate position in retail without any prior work experience and is paid better than minimum wage? This sales associate position requires researching the esoteric products the store carries, educating and informing customers and helping them make choices, manning the register, providing all aspects of customer service, fulfilling all stocking, reshelving, product quality arrangements, and other remedial tasks such as taking out boxes/waste. Time commitment during the summer is greater than in the school year, but the student finds time to spend 10 or so hours a week working part-time. Also, this person comes from a privileged background but doesn’t want others to think he takes everything for granted and is spoon fed his way through life. He also has no connections to the company he works for and did everything independently to find a job. Thoughts?</p>
<p>I’d think it would be impressive, depending on the reputation of the establishment.</p>
<p>I’d just wonder why they hired a sixteen year-old with no work experience. This could easily be answered by your resume though (extracurriculars, grades, awards).</p>
<p>This job description seems like a generic cashier job at Walgreens or Target or Walmart. It is definitely noteworthy, and by wording it the way you have, it sounds impressive, but in reality I don’t think it is. Not having connections to the company is actually extremely normal, and your statement “this person comes from a privileged background but doesn’t want others to think he takes everything for granted and is spoon fed his way through life” is not supported by this job or the way you got it. </p>
<p>No offense intended 
just trying to be helpful</p>
<p>Your being privileged yet independently obtaining and being willing to work an ordinary job could make you stand out at schools that consider factor for admission things like jobs and ECs. This particularly could make you stand out if you focused your essay on your job.</p>
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<p>Really? Because customer service at those establishments is terrible and they only have to be VAGUELY FAMILIAR with the products they’re carrying. Not to mention they’re generally incredibly apathetic and unhelpful employees who absolutely hate their job and are only doing it for the minimum wage. At my job, there are only two sales associate each shift and it’s at a store that’s privately owned, but well known in the area, and is constantly frequented by tons of employees, bordering incessant, who have myriad demands and requests. Customer service is considered to be TOP PRIORITY in this store; you physically have to go out to every customer and ask them how they’re doing frequently and man the cashier and reshelve and take out trash and greet incoming customers and carry out heavy bags and keep a smile at the same time. This isn’t PetSmart; it’s a demanding, taxing, and rewarding position in a store that prides itself in its quality, appearance, and products (which are esoteric, thus requiring tons of knowledge). I do not mean to insult any member of Target or Walgreens but quite frankly after viewing their jobs and seeing how well they treat their customers, I believe there is a big disparity between my job and theirs. They do not develop a consistent relationship with the customers or the four-legged friends that eat the food they’re buying. If you still think there is nothing different between our jobs, then I’m clearly too ignorant to understand anything in life.</p>
<p>In addition, I was chosen because of my extracurricular involvement and skills I have developed in those activities.</p>
<p>I just noticed how bitter I sound in this post… just excuse me. I just had to sit through 2 hours of Julia Roberts have a mid-life crisis and eat food I wanted in my mouth. EXCRUCIATING PAIN IS UPON MY MIND.</p>
<p>I agree with Northstarmom, write an essay about it if you feel that is what makes you unique. But I don’t know if any college besides a regional one that would know this particular store, would give any weight to this beyond a generic cashier job. You have to demonstrate to the college why this particular job is different from any other one, and that is a very tall order.</p>
<p>Ahem, you just sound high on yourself, like calling a garbage collector a “sanitary engineer”. Now being a garbage collector is a very important, thankless, difficult job, as you would know if you ever lived through a garbage strike, but it’s hard to glamorize it all that much. Don’t expect people not to see through your attempt to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Not to mention that your hint that the job is below your social status would be utterly insulting to many people. Advice: don’t go there.</p>
<p>there are a lot of people who get jobs who are from privileged backgrounds. what about tis job is special? i don’t really see it.</p>
<p>Most people from privilege backgrounds don’t bother doing jobs of any kind when they are in high school. If they do a job, it’s some kind of cushy “internship” arranged through family contacts.</p>
<p>Admissions officers know this, and that’s why the OP’s job will reflect well on his character. The OP’s choosing to work this kind of job shows a great deal of independence and responsibility. He’s also probably learning more about himself the world and business than he would have by attending the kind of expensive summer volunteer or educational program that many affluent kids go to.</p>
<p>Thanks. To comment, I don’t have any connections. While my parents are educated, they don’t necessarily socialize with other people as often as others do (i.e. we pretty much never throw parties and most of the time the only adults that come over to our house are my aunts and uncles) Pretty much everything I have worked for in my life is a product of my determination. Granted, my parents paid for my tuition for private school but I took full advantage of many academic and extracurricular opportunities that my school provides, whereas 85% of the other students finish their “rigorous” course load of 2-3 honors/AP classes and go home at 3:30.</p>