<p>I want to pursue a career in business so I would like to do a job somewhat related (if possible). The problem is that I am only 16 so I can't work anywhere impressive. I am okay with that but I figure since I am working anyway I might as well try to work somewhere that is somewhat business related. Any ideas or suggestions of places along those lines that would hire 16 year olds? I don't care if I am paid or not -- I just want to have some work experience in the field. Thanks a lot! :)</p>
<p>Honestly, there’s really no need to get a job specifically in business. 1) There aren’t many, if any, impressive business jobs for kids your age. And 2) Its pointless. </p>
<p>Now if you started your own business, thats a whole other story. For now, just find an EC that you’re really passionate, and do that. Thats the best way to help you get into a top college.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response Pixels. I agree with all you’ve said. I was just wondering if I am missing something haha. I want to get a job anyway so was just curious if there’s anything I haven’t thought of that is somewhat business related. Would love to start my own business but can’t think of a product to sell!</p>
<p>Look…I know I’m the last person to be telling you what to do in regards to jobs, but there’s really not much for a 16 year old to do in the JOB market. Simply too many laws and regulations about school hours to allow it. Plus, you really should just focus on school and whatnot.</p>
<p>Now, you could still make your OWN business. I used to browse el-cheapo forums of slickdeals and cheapassgamer to find bargains and resell the items back (sometimes stores, othertimes community sales booths). I also went to cheap used bookstores and bought off books I thought had market value.</p>
<p>You can start any form of business you think would be successful…just don’t think about going to the bank for collateral, so do something small.</p>
<p>You can even make apps for iOS or Android. Start watching some online lectures from university. I would suggest picking one, since each uses a separate language (C# vs Java). </p>
<p>You could also do things outside school: volunteer at local charities and programs. You can make a lot of connections early at Habitat for Humanity, since businesses usually get involved.</p>
<p>Also, there’s nothing wrong with having a small part-time job. Even something like working at Target stocking shelves would be helpful when finding an internship in college.</p>
<p>Another note: Check for internships during senior year. I didn’t know until recently that they had such a thing. Its hard to find, though. I would certainly not recommend paying for such a thing. I think its bad enough for firms to expect not to train employees anymore, and rely on free labor from students. Paying for the ‘privilege’ of experience is pretty demeaning. More than enough time to pursue internships in College if you can’t find any, though.</p>
<p>Uhh, what?</p>
<p>As long as there are restaurants and retail establishments, there will be jobs for 16-18 year olds. I bussed tables, ran food and washed dishes when I was 16, and there’s nothing stopping anybody from doing that now. If you go to Starbucks or Abercrombie, you will probably be helped by somebody in their late teens.</p>
<p>The idea that you can just start a business out of the blue is ludacris. First of all, you need to have an idea for a product that you are passionate enough about to dedicate a LOT of time to it. Then you need the skills to actually make this product and the ability to market it. Iameggman, you suggest creating an app; while it is not terribly difficult to do this once you have a solid programming background, it is EXTREMELY difficult to do it when you have had no college level programming courses and done no programming whatsoever. But, putting aside the obvious problem of being able to create the app, once it is created, do you really expect somebody to know how to market the app on his own? By this point, the simple app market is saturated, and the major players dominate the market: even if you knew how to market your app, how would you make money off of it? How could you justify to advertisers to pay you to put ads on your app, or how could you justify charging potential users?</p>
<p>Business doesn’t work because you just “feel like” starting your own business… if it were that easy, there would be a LOT more millionaires than there are.</p>
<p>If you actually have an idea, go for it! A kid I went to college with started his own bottled water business (in a clearly saturated market) but was able to differentiate himself enough that he was able to sign a nationwide contract with Whole Foods, and his business is doing quite well. That said, it took two years and a LOT of capital to get to the point of signing that contract, and five years later, the company is close to but not quite at a break-even point for its lifetime.</p>
<p>Now, this idea of “business-related jobs” … what, exactly, do you consider a business-related job? If it is a job in the private sector, it is related to business. Every aspect of a business is important, from sourcing to manufacturing to transportation to retailing, and they all need people to support their processes. If you are talking about the administrative side of businesses or about highly specialized/advanced industries such as finance, however, you are going to have a lot of trouble getting your foot in the door as a high school student. Why? Because people don’t get those kinds of jobs as a part-time thing to look good on a college resume. </p>
<p>When you get a job as a busser at a restaurant, a lifeguard at a swimming pool, a sales associate at a clothing store or a clerical assistant at an office, you need a few hours of training and a couple of test runs before you’re ready to be a productive employee for the business. You don’t need any special skills, and you don’t need to have a college degree to be qualified… that is why so many high school kids get these kinds of jobs. When you get a job in business administration, you need a few MONTHS of full time training on top of potentially specialized skills and critical reasoning ability that the vast, vast majority of high school students do not yet have. As a result, companies do not hire high school students to do those kinds of jobs.</p>
<p>What I’m saying is that you’re barking up the wrong tree. Don’t bother looking for these mystical “internships for high school students.” They look no more impressive on a college application than any other jobs you would ever have, and they will probably be a lot less fun than a job that your peers would also have.</p>
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I didn’t mean go out and create a multimiliion dollar franchise. But the kid can sell stuff and scavenge. Maybe I’m talking here as a lower-class kid, but I remember making some quick dough being a scavenger. Even do something small locally. As long as there’s community events, there’s cheap ways to start a ‘business’ (granted the term business is very loose here).</p>
<p>
You don’t need a college degree to create apps nowadays. There’s a plethora of ways to learn how to code, especially Java. I learned when I was a kid, and that was without all the incentives of today: Standardized languages and easily accessible marketplaces. </p>
<p>
How to market an app?</p>
<p>First, there’s the first few days of free purchases: People frivolously purchase new apps, especially if they cost practically nothing. </p>
<p>As for why someone would purchase one…just think of a need. A simple college guide app, maybe… Even something already done, but poorly implemented.</p>
<p>How to post an app?
This is why I wish I was a kid today. Just sign up to be an app developer, submit it for approval, and viola!</p>
<p>How to advertise?</p>
<p>Go to related forums.
Show it to friends, relatives, people in the community, etc…
Blog about it.
Make a blog about “My 16 year old adventure in the ways of being an app developer”.
Give advice to others about creating an app, while advertising it at the same time.</p>
<p>Its amazing how easy it is today in advertising anything. </p>
<p>It was more of an example of things a kid his age can do on his own.</p>
<p>And, in the end, its something to do that is far more productive than sitting around and waiting for life to start itself. I remember being 16. Bored of school due to slow material, and little in the way of things to do. I wish I sought out advice back then as opposed to wasting my time until I could venture onwards to college. Life doesn’t start magically at the onset of Freshmen year. </p>
<p>I think kids should be encouraged more to start something new on their own, as opposed to waiting for whenever society dictates to them they are ready. Even if doing whatever he would do isn’t amazingly successful…so what? Its still a learning lesson. Its still being productive.</p>
<p>Honestly, I find your view a bit too narrow-minded. From reading your post, unless you’ll make millions of dollars pursuing a business, such a venture is no longer worth it.</p>
<p>What about the thrill of doing something new or creative? Isn’t that truly enough on its own? Not everything in life is about materialistic success…</p>
<p>Doing an internship in HS is a good way to find out early if that’s the career path you want to take. It also can be good experience, depending on what you’re doing…</p>
<p>If you want a basic job you could consider General Nutrition Center (if there are any hiring near you). Minimum wage, but they’re usually a nice place to work if you like quiet places. They recommend a high school degree but it isn’t required. Politics between corporate and the individual store can sometimes be quite heated however.</p>
<p>Since you’d be a retail sales associate (presumably) this is Semi-business related I suppose although certainly not something like a cubicle job.</p>
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<p>This relies on being able to get people to visit a website that you’ve created or to somehow stumble upon the app in an App store for iOS or Android… with so many apps already out there, you will probably get pushed to the very bottom of a very long list. In order to be successful by any measures, you need to know how to get people to download that app. It doesn’t matter if it’s free if nobody can find it.</p>
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<p>I agree that your idea is theoretically possible for a high school student to accomplish, but there are many more things that a high school student can do that are likely to make him satisfied/happy and unlikely to set him up for failure. I also think you mischaracterized what I was trying to get across. Starting a business is NOT easy and a great many businesses - even including long-running, proven successful businesses - will fail. However, if you look at every successful business in America, you will see that its founder had a passion for the product he created or service he offered.</p>
<p>You are correct, that everything is not about material success; the pride of accomplishing something is quite an amazing thing. I am not saying that you need to be certain that your business will succeed, for if everyone had said that, no businesses would have ever been created and innovation would have died millenia ago. What I am saying is that if you go into it with the thought, “I want to start a business doing something,” you are far more likely to fail (and to give up) than if you go into it with the thought, “I have an idea… I want to make a business around it.”</p>
<p>As a personal example, I have been interested in starting my own business for quite a while, now, but I have had nothing for which I had enough passion that I would actually see it through. On a seemingly unrelated note, in 2009, I created a basic spreadsheet to track my finances while I studied abroad (didn’t want to be caught off guard if I spent all of my money!). Since July, 2009, when I had a very basic spreadsheet (name of the expense - for example, McDonald’s Purchase - along with date, amount and the amount I had remaining in my bank account), I have developed it further and further. Now, I have an Excel program that offers an extremely user-friendly way to manage personal finances. Every day, I develop it a little more, and it gets a little better - more useful, easier to deal with, more powerful. When I showed it to a friend in December, he asked when I was going to start selling it, and I was caught off guard. The more I thought about it, though, the more it made sense to start selling it. So I shifted gears from making something exclusively for myself to making something that others could find as useful as I do. However, even with what I believe is a good and useful idea, a business I do not have! There are still dozens of logistical things I would need to accomplish before being able to start a business. </p>
<p>My point is that an IDEA must be the foundation of a business, and that idea shouldn’t be, “I want to start a business.”</p>