Attempting to Get a Summer Job

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I'm trying to look for a summer job that will hopefully support me when I go to college. I am currently 18 years old right now, but I don't have much experience. Being held down by my Asian parents who were always like "study, study, study," I don't have much of the "street smarts."</p>

<p>Though I decided to look into summer jobs since I'm not the perfect student that can easily get a bunch of scholarships (or if I wasn't searching for the right ones for me...) but also I need some way to support myself financially as well.</p>

<p>So, getting a first job. How difficult is it? Especially with barely any experience. I'm typically the "shy, quiet" guy who joined a few clubs (such as an awareness club, some volunteering, culture club, music), but I haven't done really anything significant. I'm pretty much the "follower" of the group who is willing to help our at any event.</p>

<p>I was wondering, since you guys might have experience and it's better for me to listen from actual people rather than tips on the internet, just to get the feel of it. Like what did you have to do? How did you search for a job? How did you make your resume significant or "sparkly?" Basically everything for applying to a job.</p>

<p>And basically, what should my first job be with someone who doesn't have much experience "out on the street?"
I believe I can handle anything, as long as I try and persist. I've always wanted to look for a job, but was too shy...</p>

<p>Thanks :)</p>

<p>Other information about my: I'm taking quite a lot of honors and AP classes, with a 3.77 GPA (unweighted). If that counts for anything.</p>

<p>It depends on what you want to do. Your first job could be rewarding and memorable, or it could be terrible and still memorable. It could be similar to your first love, the thing that you may remember for life. Experience is what you are looking for or need to get. Since you don’t have any experience right now, but all the time you are spending online searching for a job, or going to different places trying to apply for different jobs, asking people, etc., all of these things that you do counting toward your life experience, this is how you got street smarts. So I encourage you to go out, and apply for any jobs that you can. Don’t mind too much about the pay at this time. You may or may not like your first job, but from it, you would learn which job would suite you better next time you are trying to look for a job. Does it make sense? Life is long series of learning. It doesn’t matter if you learn it from school, from someone on streets, or just an experience from life, these are lessons that you are learning that you don’t even know about them. You don’t have to be in schools to learn. Getting your first job could be very easy or very difficult. What happened to someone may or may not happen to you. It depends on your luck, your own efforts in searching for a job, how prepared you are. If you are going in for a job interview, put yourself in the shoes of the interviewer, the person who would decide to hire you or not, and ask yourself these questions: why should they hire you? Because of your knowledge, experience, talents, skills or simply hard working. How would the company benefit from you? If there are multiple people who apply for the same job, why should the owner hire you instead of other people? If you are the owner, certainly you would want to hire the best person, wouldn’t you? So how do you present yourself as the best person in front of the owner? Dress appropriately, speak loud and clear, be courteous, last but not least, research about the company in details, what the company is making or doing, the strengths and weaknesses of the company, and how you can contribute to the company success. Learn about the potential questions and try to answer them in advance. Just like how you prepare for your driver license exam. Ask your parents. I assume they are working, and if so, ask them how difficult or easy it was for their first jobs. Did they like their first jobs? Why or why not? How did they get their first jobs? These are real life experience, and you may learn from them.</p>

<p>If you need any more advices, don’t hesitate to contact me. Good luck. </p>

<p>

What kind of jobs are you looking for? I work at McDonald’s and you don’t have to submit a resume…you fill out an application and they hire you if they need to hire someone. (Fun fact: we don’t flip burgers; the grill cooks both sides at once.)</p>

<p>Yeah thank you :)</p>

<p>Yeah, I’m trying to get some experience like SkyOcean said, but I think I want to start off something simple first. Get in the experience of working, how to receive pay checks and such. </p>

<p>Like something what halcyonheather was saying. About working at McDonald’s and submitting a resume. I wasn’t sure if you needed at least some experience on how to make the food, unless they also hire people to clean and do other stuff. But yeah, something that may not require a resume, but maybe it’ll give me some good experience as well. Though I’m not sure if I’m capable of interviews right now until I build up the confidence.</p>