<p>My rising sophomore D came home from college last Friday unemployed. She hit the pavement this Monday and got a retail job at a chain juniors clothing store at the local mall. She even told them she was going back to school on Sept. 1, and they hired her anyway. She was surprised by the number of help-wanted signs. My friends report that their own kids seem to have a slightly easier time getting work this summer. Popular jobs include parking cars at the racetrack, working for catering companies during wedding season, and the good old grocery store. </p>
<p>Can it be true? Is the summer employment outlook starting to look up where you live?</p>
<p>Seem to be a lot of help-wanted signs around here, too–mostly for retail and fast food.
My rising sophomore hasn’t hit the pavement yet. But he has been extremely helpful around the house and yard in the week he’s been home. Should I give him up?</p>
<p>(He has a full-ride and has worked hard, had a great freshman year, doesn’t need money.)</p>
<p>That is always a problem, especially if kids have to leave mid-August to go back. Our area is very seasonal (Jersey Shore) and if you can work until Labor Day weekend, it helps.</p>
<p>Both my kids are lifeguards and neither ever have a problem getting a summer job. (& youngest is only 16 - he’s set for life summers at the town pool as long as he doesn’t blow off over 3 shifts).</p>
<p>It is probably reasonable that a kid could get work over the summer in industries that are busier in the summer and don’t require much training.</p>
<p>I’m glad to hear that things are getting better, and I hope it lasts! I’d imagine it is probably pretty regional, as far as opportunities.</p>
<p>Been hard from what I hear from my neck of the woods in CT. A lot of jobs open, but they want students that live here all year if possible. Parents tell me (and this happened to my daughter last year) if the application didn’t say “summer or temp work” once they knew they were going back in late August, they didn’t want to train. It depends who you know of course, but you have to be persistent.
I told my kids if they can’t find work, always look for volunteer positions in areas they like…sure they money isn’t there, it doesn’t add to their student contribution, but it’s a good thing to do for many reasons.</p>
<p>I think we will end up trying to figure out how to hire my son for my small home based business. He can do computer support and perhaps some social media marketing for me. It’s not the same…but he needs something for his resume. He is 19 and has never had a job…maybe a mistake on our part. Hopefully, next summer he can get an internship somewhere.</p>
<p>Our kids have never had a problem finding a job. They usually land one on the first day out looking. D2 just got a job at one of the local daycares. 30+ hours a week, slightly over minimum wage, no nights or weekends. D3 has less time to look because she’s still in HS right now, but she’s started the hunt, and is also looking for a “no nights or weekends” job. It makes summer family outings much easier.</p>
<p>My son got hired by the first place he applied–an internet retailer, working in their warehouse. He just finished his first week and has loved it, even though he is often working 12-hour days. I had a bit of “mom guilt” over my kid being indoors all day but he says it’s a lot easier than doing yard work as he has done in the past. And when the heat of summer hits, he will probably appreciate the air conditioning.</p>
<p>Air conditioning when it’s 95 in the shade is a good thing. My D sought out mall work partly for that reason. But there are some kids who love the outdoors; her friend who is working as a camp counselor would never want to be inside.</p>
<p>Another thing we noticed is how many jobs require online applications. I wonder how effective online job searches really are; it’s very easy to ignore an electronic application, and I’ve always suspected that in many cases it’s just a way to meet government reporting requirements and fob off inquiries. One strategy is to apply online first and then go to the store in person and hand the manager a resume. It shows initiative.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I said the same. I don’t think college students can afford now to be idle over the summer. It looks bad on a resume. Not to mention the fact that three months of leisure gets very, very boring.</p>
<p>Speaking of summer job applications - how in this world of technology have we not been able to streamline the process of “filing out” applications for various places? Businesses/non-profits need to have access to a Common Application sort of process! Name, addresses, emergency contacts, references - repeat, rewrite, repeat, rewrite…isn’t there a better way!!!</p>
<p>^I know. And some of them “time out” quickly, requiring the applicant to reenter the information if he/she doesn’t save it while entering the fields. This happened when my son was filling out an online application for a grocery store job in high school. The application also included a lengthy psychological profile questionnaire he had to fill out, with statements like “Sometimes I feel like there’s nothing to live for” and “I often get angry with authority figures.” (He had to answer never/seldom/sometimes/frequently/always.) That was when he decided he would never be a bagger.</p>
<p>D2recently got a summer job working at a retail women’s clothing store. I was surprised because she has to be back at school just before mid-August. The manager said she chose D2 because of her “persistence.” D2 has always been that way, so we weren’t surprised at that comment.</p>
<p>The personality questionnaires are ridiculous, in my opinion. I am a well-rounded, hard-working adult and I can’t figure out how to answer many of the questions. I think they end up screening out some good workers because the questions are confusing.</p>
<p>The online applications are ridiculous, taking hours to fill out. Some of them, you can’t save info, so over and over again, you have to fill out job experience, recommendations, academics. Son developed word documents that he could just copy and paste in the applications, but still, hours spent on online applications that do not even get an acknowledgement.</p>
<p>Gone are the days when you could walk into an office with a resume and a handshake, sell yourself, and walk out with a job. Even if you try this, you are directed to go online and fill out the online app, which swallows you up in anonymity.</p>
<p>Most frustrating, as a consumer, is to shop at these places that my son applied to, yet didn’t even get a call back, only to be waited on by a gum snapping young girl who is talking on her cell phone while she rings up your purchase. And when they talk to their coworkers over you, complaining about how they have to work a certain shift, I want to slap them, as I know one young man who would have been happy to have their job.</p>
<p>We did encounter that personality questionnaire on one of the applications. It was for a very innocuous job, so I was quite puzzled why it was there.</p>
<p>Good luck to all the kids looking for a job this summer.</p>
<p>Montegut that sounds like what my son went through. He was a great student, great work ethic, would fill out pages for a store like Borders or Target, psych tests that went on forever and you couldn’t save it, never to hear anything. We would see some horrible employees also and never understood the process.
The one job he did get as a senior, was in retail, he walked in this store, (smaller than Target) the manager was aggravated someone didn’t show up (again) and my son asked for an application. He said to come in the next day and it helped him save a few thousand for a couple of years. No fancy application, just basics and <em>gasp</em> in person!</p>
<p>I’ve heard different scenarios about the personality tests, if you are too good, even if it’s true, they think you are lying, if you are too honest and don’t have good habits, it flags you in another way. An employee said it’s very impersonal, no one really looks at them, it’s on a computer.</p>
<p>D2 walked into a retail store she wanted to work in (over spring break), asked for an application, met the manager, and proceeded to call at intervals to ask the manager if she had decided on summer help. As said above, the manager told her she got the job because she was so respectfully persistent. </p>
<p>She had the opposite experience last year. Many applications placed, and no success. She wasn’t quite as assertive, though, as she was this year.</p>
<p>Yes, I have a daughter that thinks “being a pain” is wrong, there is a fine line between being obnoxious and letting them know you are still interested. They know some students fill out tons of applications and maybe got another job in the interval.
She had one manager, 2 years ago call her just as she was packing to go back to school…she didn’t look at the “when and hours you could work”. I said, try again this year and make note that she called you, etc. It can’t hurt.</p>
<p>Way back in the late 70"s when jobs were hard to get for college kids I applied for a factory job by telling them I was dropping out of college for full time work. I even got promoted during the course of the summer.</p>
<p>When I gave them notice I told them I had been offered a job at one of the big companies along the highway. Everyone at the factory was trying to land one of those jobs so they had no problem that I was leaving. No harm no foul.</p>
<p>The companies all the factory guys wanted to go to along the highway were Exxon, Merck, GM, Public Service Electric or Gordon Liquors.</p>