Hey all! I’ve been applying to jobs for the summer and next year. I intend on just working part time for some extra spending money.
See, the thing is, I want to do some extracurriculars next year, too. I have a gameday internship with a pro sports team in my city. I want to do the play. I just applied for student council. I intend on doing Spell Bowl, DECA, Speech, and the academic team. I also want to spend some time managing a community I run. My friend wants me to do bowling with her. Another friend wants me to do bass fishing with him.
How do I balance all of these?
First, you might want to consider different ways you could make the money besides having a scheduled job. That would be baby sitting, dog walking, yard work, etc. Yard work can be pretty profitable, I have some friends that do it during the summer. It would give you more flexibility with your extracurriculars.
If you do want a normal job, try to find somewhere where you might only work one or two days a week, and it can stay that way. Try to prevent getting a job where you’re constantly going to get roped in for more hours (even though that’s more money, it’s less time).
Ask around to your friends, especially upperclassmen, about where they work, how often, what’s the pay, do they like it etc. There are three places in my town I won’t work (I’m very vaguely looking for a job lol) because I’ve heard that they overwork employees, the managers are cruel, and that they’re late on paying you. Other students are a great source of information.
@Qipsoma I’ll take this into consideration while looking for a job! Thank you 
Most people I know who employ high school kids expect there to be scheduling conflicts, and are willing to work around them-- within reason.
So my 15 year old was on stage crew of their one act play, and took all of last week off-- absolutely not a problem. But she’s working this week, with open availability (within reason, of course…) Her sister worked all last week, but is taking off Weds- Saturday afternoon for Friday night’s prom… But she’s worked Easter, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, and every major summer holiday for the past 3 summers.
I’m not sure your expectations are reasonable; you might want to scale them down. For starters, even without a job, I’m not sure you can contribute significantly to so many activities. Let me pick just one activity off your list: Speech. I coached it for 18 years. In my school ,that means practice pretty much every single afternoon from October to March if you want to be competitive. Throw in the play and in internship, and I can’t see how you can possibly add in anything else, even without a job.
Life is very often about compromise and priorities, and I think you’ll need to do a bit of both.
If you’ve got all of those other commitments to balance, I second Qipsoma’s advice of finding a job without a strict schedule such as babysitting or dogwalking. If you have credentials I recommend tutoring - I do it, and because professional adult tutors go for upwards of $90/hr where I live, I charge $20/hr/kid and so far nobody’s batted an eye.
Even working a few days (maybe some weekends) a month can help you earn some money, but still give you some free time. I worked from 1pm to 4pm about 3 days a week almost all of junior year. I still had the time to take 4 AP classes and 1 honors class and end each class with an A. Balancing that, I still had time to hang out with my friends and relax. Just set realistic expectations for yourself and for your employer. Don’t be afraid to say that you want small hours. If they can’t agree with that then maybe the job wasn’t for you. Keep looking for what fits best.
My son had a 40 hour a week summer job. He worked a half day a week on the weekend during most of the school year. (They worked around games, for example, but it was a regular commitment. ) The employer liked that he was trained and that she could give her year round employees a weekend off from time to time.
But you will need to decide what you want to prioritize.