job hunting tips

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I see in a couple threads and in newspaper articles, teens are having difficulty finding work. </p>

<p>I think that school/sports/friends should be their primary occupation, but many of us find the need of a little money every once in a while ;), and it can be pretty hard to start cold and expect to find a summer job in June.
So I wanted to share some things that have worked for us over the years- and hopefully others will add to it.</p>

<p>When I was 15- I had to work to buy myself school clothes, many of my friends worked fast food, ( well local fast food, like the Burgermaster where Bill Gates forgot his wallet many years later), I really didn’t want to work where my friends were working- ( I was actually trying to make new friends, hard to do in a small town), so I worked up a one sheet resume with basic references from babysitting and relatives and dropped them off at area businesses.</p>

<p>A nursing home was the first place to call me, several months after I had applied, but they had kept my resume on file. ( Places that have heavy rotation of workers, are good to look at to start- retail- fast food-)
So I got a job working in the kitchen that I kept for almost a year until I couldnt’ stand it anymore. ( very very hectic)</p>

<p>Then I started working at a dog kennel, cleaning runs, bathing the dogs, learning how to groom them- jobs that few people want to do- particulary smaller type places- this was for a handler who was based out of her home- smaller places can’t necessarily pay minimum wage- but they can get your foot in the door of the work force.</p>

<p>However- she was using me more and more to take care of her kids as well, and those were the kind of jobs that I was trying to get away from. NOt that I didn’t like kids- but at 17- I wanted to develop different skills.</p>

<p>Another route that may be more appealing than taking very menial jobs, is volunteer work. Both of my daughters started volunteering at the zoo, where they worked with the ponies- groomed and exercised them, took money and led small children around the ring on pony rides, learning in the process a lot about working with animals, and working in a group situation where you depend on others and they depend on you.</p>

<p>Volunteer jobs can be available for more interesting positions, obviously they dont’ pay anything, but my older daughter never had any problem finding a paying job once she started looking, and for work that she really enjoyed.</p>

<p>It can seem pretty frustrating to find a job , but when you are a teen is a great time to practice your interview and resume writing skills when you don’t have any thing to lose. You hopefully don’t have huge bills over your head, so you can take a chance at something that is even halfway appealing, and see if you can make it work for you.</p>

<p>Its a good time to get started now, so that by the time summer comes, you will have even a few references under your belt and maybe some connections for longer term work.
<a href=“http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/archive/03jan/CARE.htm[/url]”>http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/archive/03jan/CARE.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>My younger son also worked in a dog kennel for a couple years. The owners were great people who were good to their workers. They scheduled around school and all the kids’ outside activities. My son loved the people, but got headaches from all the barking dogs. And the cleanup…well, not the most fun in the world. It was kind of funny–there are several teenaged+ boys on our little street, and almost every one of them worked at this kennel at one time or another. I think they liked having workers close enough to walk to work. (The kids on this street were the only ones who could make it to work when we had a horrendous ice storm a year ago.)</p>

<p>His first summer job, however, was typical fast food. He applied all over town, always taking his resume in and handing it to the manager in person, when possible. He finally happened to hit one place when it was actively looking for help and got on. He spent the summer there, then moved on to the dog kennel when school started, since it was more flexible and just down the street from us.</p>

<p>He also gave trumpet lessons to middle school students, beginning as a sophomore. The first year he started this, he volunteered with the middle school band. He picked up a couple students from there, as well as the goodwill of the band director, who continued to recommend him to students the next two years. That was probably his favorite job, and definitely his best paying for the short amount of time he spent on it a week.</p>

<p>My older son didn’t work during his high school years, except for a brief stretch at a computer company, which had requested names from the high school computer teacher. He was able to get an internship at a computer chip producing company the summer after graduation. (One hint here: They said one reason they picked him from the applicants was that he called back a couple times after the interview to find out if someone had been chosen, so they knew he was really interested in the job.)</p>

<p>The next two summers, once he was 18, he worked for a temp agency. Not the most interesting or well-paying jobs, but they kept him busy most of the summer, and he did get some variety. My younger son also worked for the temp agency last summer, because with them, he could take time off when he needed it for a summer music program and had some choice in what jobs to work.</p>