<p>I've seen conflicting media reports about the availability of summer jobs for high school and college students. What have you seen in your region? Have your kids had success? What kinds of work will they be doing this summer?</p>
<p>Several of the college students I’ve heard about who have found jobs above minimum wage, have done so through family connections. One girl is working in the lab at the chemical company where her father works, and a boy is working in the office of the financial company where the dad is a upper level manager. My D and a friend’s D both landed research assistant positions at their universities. The rest we know who have found jobs are working at Target, Rita’s, the health club, and the mall. But yes, there seem to be jobs out there in our state in the NE.</p>
<p>My kids caddy at a country club. It’s a nice job for many reasons but one in particular is that they don’t have to go out and look for a job each summer. The pay is fantastic and the work suits them fine. They can start in middle school and keep the job through high school and some even in college. They have seen more and more college kids keeping the job wherein the past they would have moved onto something else. Some of the college kids will do an internship and then caddy on the weekends.</p>
<p>My younger son, a rising college junior, who is an undergraduate business major, applied to scores of positions across the country. He started his search over Thanksgiving and kept applying to jobs through Christmas break. It was like applying to a black hole. Of the many applications, he heard nothing back. He found a few new positions while home over Spring Break to apply to and lo and behold, one of these set up a phone interview. Three more phone interviews later and he was offered a paid internship in his major with a Fortune 500 company! Whew!</p>
<p>I will concur that ‘connections’ play a huge role in landing good paying summer jobs…our children both have FT summer jobs that pay double minimum wage…we also insisted they keep their PT jobs,even if it is a few hours a week, this way when summer ends they can return to their pt jobs…this is even better for our college daughter,as this will alow her to get some hours when she comes home on breaks…our other D,in HS, doesn’t quite ‘get it’ that the wages she will be getting this summer is farily significant,particularly for a HS student… ;)</p>
<p>Extinct, here. One child is working in college town this summer & living in an apt.
Other child may end up interning at Dad’s office for a while, good experience, non-paying.</p>
<p>Seems like many jobs kids used to have around here now go to unemployed adults.</p>
<p>Connections have always played a role in finding a summer job, probably in finding any job. That being said, there are summer jobs to be had in the heartland. Last summer, d1 found 3. 'twas a lot of running from one job to another, but she made it work. This year? City is begging for lifeguards. Lots of openings for summer camp workers, parks and rec, seasonal stuff at mini and regular golf places, and the ever popular detasseling. College kids can often come back and pick up hours at places they worked in high school</p>
<p>I have to agree with qdog, though. It’s easier to pick up extra hours during the summer at a job a kid’s held during the school year. We’ve insisted d1 take a job junior and senior year in hs, even if she only works a few hours a week. D2 may try detasseling this summer, but she’ll have to start looking for a regular part-time once she turns 16 (unless she wants to lifeguard, too).</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1144204-summer-jobs.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1144204-summer-jobs.html</a></p>
<p>My rising college sophomore will spend his summer interning (aka, working for free) at 2 different companies. For better or worse, both internships were the result of Dad’s connections. </p>
<p>My rising HS senior got an unpaid internship at the local hospital. By their policy, she’ll be limited to 60 hours this summer. She got this work on her own. (It’s what might have been called “candy striping” back in our day.) She probably won’t seek a paying job. They’re too scarce, and the rest of her summer is jam-packed already.</p>
<p>My kid really needs the cash. He did find a job, but it is very strange. He does not even know the hours that he is getting from day to day. </p>
<p>He also had one interview elsewhere and got a call back for a second interview…this is for what used to be a “dime a dozen” type of min. wage job that college students did not particular want in a better job market. Now, you get called for more than one interview!! I think that if they are going to commit with a work schedule he will say good-bye to the first job, which he actually likes. He does want to know how much money he can earn though, and they just won’t spell it out. The other day he was supposed to work only 3 hours, but they ended up asking him to stay for 6 hours. 3 hours is just not enough. Today they want him again for 2-3 hours only.</p>
<p>There seem to be jobs in my area (minimum wage +) in retail and customer service positions and my daughter will be applying for these next week. This is Southern NH but I’ve also seen job postings in the areas Northwest of Boston. This is anecdotal evidence but I’ve noticed that the mall parking lots seem quite crowded in the evenings and the weekends and I’ve noticed a lot of cars in restaurant parking lots. If you look at earnings for tech companies along with shipment rates for products, you’d have to determine that there are an awful lot of people out there doing reasonably well financially despite far more having a tough time.</p>
<p>I’ll hopefully have additional news when she actually lands a position.</p>
<p>My D and her roomies have been really lucky/fortunate. Four received job offers/internships – not retail – that they found on their own. Three had ‘daddy’ make some calls, and one is still looking. (They are completing Soph year.)</p>
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<p>That is the case here. A few years ago, the minimum wage sort of jobs that young people worked, in the summer and otherwise, became nearly impossible to get and this was a big part of why. I am under the perhaps mistaken impression that things have improved, my sister seems to be getting more opportunities now with less experience than I did when I was trying a couple years ago.</p>
<p>For the last two summers my daughter worked for a home health care agency. She made about $15 an hour about 30 hours per week and could have had more if she wanted. I got one of her friends a job in the agency I moonlight with, and made 25 cents for every hour she worked - and she worked full time, so it was a bit of change for me by the end of the summer. But other than the health care field, there isn’t much around these parts for sumer employment.</p>
<p>College D applied for many paid internships. She is a great student and I think interviews well but was striking out. Most of the people she talked to with paid internships got them through family connections. She didn’t give up. Kept putting herself and resume out there. Two weeks ago she was rewarded with two offers. both paid.
HS child has a 3 hour a week job during the school year. H wants her to get another job this summer. She works long hours at her EC but she isn’t paid for that. We will see what she finds.</p>
<p>My rising college sophomore has a job this summer as a counselor at a performing arts camp a few hours from home. D is a musical theatre major and this is the kind of kids the camp was looking to hire. She will live there 9 weeks and gets room and board plus her salary. With only one day off a week she won’t have time to spend much money so she hopes to save all she makes for her spending money next school year.</p>
<p>My rising hs senior has had a pet sitting business in our neighborhood for many years and she already has several long term jobs lined up for the summer. Her EC takes up most days in the summer, but she has been applying for retail jobs and told them she can work evenings. She has her first interview today.</p>
<p>Try per-diem work for a local moving company; packing for girls, lifting/carrying for boys. S-2 is small and wiry, but moves fast, takes direction well, has great work ethic, and shows up for work rested and sober. Thus, he always found work on a team. </p>
<p>Word to the wise: Another college friend found similar work but didn’t last a week because he said something snooty to a teammate about being in college. Show respect for other adult workers on your crew. Don’t yammer on about how this is just for the summer for you (because they know they’ll be at it for the remainder of their lifetime.) Snobs don’t last in blue collar jobs. I’d give the same advice to office workers.</p>
<p>My son applied for three summer jobs, was offered two jobs and accepted one. He applied to the camp he was a counselor at last year (they offered a job) and applied to two programs at his university (one did not offer a job, one did and he accepted that one.)</p>
<p>I consider us lucky. My son goes to school in Boston but we live in South Texas. Friends of his from high school who have stayed local are having a hard time finding part-time jobs and full-time jobs are even more scarce. These are smart, hard working kids. I worry about them a lot.</p>
<p>Neither D nor her friends have had trouble landing p/t summer jobs - - lifeguards, babysitters, servers, etc. - - earnings from which will underwrite each girl’s unpaid internhip.</p>
<p>D1 found not just one job but 2-3. One full time job, 2 gigs(independent hours), 2 part-time. The trouble is deciding what part time job to keep.</p>