taking an ordinary summer job

Parents Forum
1

<p>D is a junior who has been offered what used to be a very typical summer job: working at a concession stand making minimum wage for about 20 hrs. a week. She is an extremely strong student and will apply to very selective colleges. Our family background is rather privileged, two professional parents, no financial aid needed. </p>

<p>I say take the job. It is the type of thing my husband and I both did as teens (we were not privileged) and it was a growing experience, if not always pleasant. The other option is volunteering locally. </p>

<p>So, what do you CC parents think? What do you think college admissions people will think?</p>

2

<p>What does your daughter want to do?</p>

<p>Maybe a combination of both? Does she have any other outside interests? Summer sports' practices?</p>

<p>Summer reading list? Travel?</p>

<p>Kat</p>

3

<p>I would advise her to take the job. Tell her to use part of her earnings to pay for something you would normally pay for. It is a life lesson. Colleges respect kids who can show up for work all summer and earn a paycheck. Not every college applicant can be out curing cancer during their summers ... colleges need a little diversity, right? Seriously, I think it is a great idea. If you worried from an admissions standpoint, then have her take a class at the community college or volunteer at the local boys & girls club or old folks home in addition to the job. In my opinion though, a kid from a privileged background who works and then uses the money to pay for gas, clothes, or whatever is doing exactly what colleges want: becoming responsible, well rounded, and experiencing new things.</p>

4

<p>She is inclined to take it. Yes, she will have summer reading and a sports practice in mid-August, also music lessons to do and at least 20 hrs. of local volunteer work.</p>

5

<p>"What do you think college admissions people will think?"</p>

<p>Even if this is the right question (which in my view it is not) a real summer job has got to be at least as good as anything short of saving the world.</p>

6

<p>I think she should do it.</p>

7

<p>20 hrs a week volunteering or 20 hours for the summer?</p>

<p>How many hours is the job per week, is also on weekends? What type of work?</p>

<p>But if she is inclined to take it I would encourage her to do so.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

8

<p>Absolutely take the job. I feel pretty strongly that absolutely everybody should have a job like that at some point in life, for a number of reasons. You've put your finger on one of the most important already: It's a growing experience, especially the less pleasant parts. And if her background is really that comfortable and privileged, a job like this will give her a small but genuine piece of common ground with a wider group of people. </p>

<p>The bonus is that for a kid from a background like hers, it actually looks better to a wholistically driven college admissions committee (i.e., the committees at the selective schools she's applying to) than the I-can-afford-to-volunteer type of summer. </p>

<p>If there's volunteer work that means something to her, and there's time for some of that too, great, but I think the job is the best choice.</p>

<p>Ken, I disagree with the notion that she would be working to placate her parents. She may not be working because the money is essential to her, but she'll be learning plenty. Also, the OP said her D was inclined to take the job.</p>

9

<p>This question comes up periodically. This is what I say: I think it is wasting her time and talents. It doesn't teach her the value of work, since she doesn't need the money. She's not working for money, she's working to placate her parents who have lots of money. </p>

<p>Look at it another way. By taking a mininum wage job, she is keeping someone else, who actually needs the money, from geting that job. Instead, since money isn't an issue in her family, she should expend her time and talents actually helping someone.</p>

<p>If you are going to force her to do something, force her to do something where her talents are used to their fullest benefit. I'm sure she can do a lot more good helping out in a summer reading program than pouring slushies.</p>

10

<p>Take the job. When S1 interviewed for a large scholarship, the interviewer was impressed that S1 had worked at a mundane job (grocery store) all through high sch. while maintaining good grades/class rank. S1 felt it helped him get the scholarship.</p>

11

<p>
[quote]
Absolutely take the job. I feel pretty strongly that absolutely everybody should have a job like that at some point in life, for a number of reasons.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>No kidding.</p>

<p>As an added bonus, it will automatically give her a leg up in college applications and future job interviews over the rest of what are often perceived to be "silver spoon brats" who have never worked a day in their pampered lives.</p>

<p>Employers like kids who have held down summer jobs, just like the common folk.</p>

12

<p>Take the job. Placating parents does not seem to be an issue. One day real soon, she will be on her own, and the lessons learned from this type of employment is invaluable, (in my opinion).</p>

13

<p>^^Nah, they like people with relevant work experience. If she is going to get a summer job, it should be in a work environment where she actuall will learn something about something real. Not the intricacies of pouring slushies.</p>

14

<p>I'd suggest that she take the job, which would teach her a lot about herself and the work world. If she wants to volunteer, with only a 20-hour a week job, she'd still have plenty of time to volunteer. Any job -- no matter how ordinary teaches a lot about people, business, and oneself and one's strengths, talents and interests. </p>

<p>Also, the more humble and ordinary the job, the less one appears to colleges and future employers as being a spoiled, coddled, naive youth.</p>

15

<p>I say she should take the job, too, and congrats to you for raising a daughter who is ready to start shouldering adult responsibilities. A child who wants to take on the responsibility of a job and pay some of her way (whether for gas and fun during the summer or saved for college or a combination of both) ... yeah, that's what kids raised well are supposed to want!</p>

<p>Just because you are privileged now, and as a result, she is, too, doesn't mean she will always be so; I think some kids who grow up with money get hard hit as newly-minted college grads, when they try to sustain the lifestyle they are used to -- their parents -- instead of working up to that lifestyle as their parents did.</p>

<p>Very sensible of her to be inclined to take that job!</p>

16

<p>It's a whole lot less about slushies and a whole lot more about the intricacies of working with people - bosses, managers, and the thirsty, hungry public. </p>

<p>I've hired plenty of people for both internships and real jobs, ken, and I would always pick a kid with an experience like this over a kid whose experiences indicated that they should only work when their "talents" were put to use.</p>

17

<p>There are three separate questions. Whether it will look good to college admissions or scholarship people. Whether it will look good to future employers. And whether it would actual be beneficial to the child in the long-run, aside from the previous two.</p>

<p>As far as college admissions and scholarship people, it might help to signal (falsely) lack of privilege. I can see how that might work in some cases. But three months pouring slushies part-time is a far cry from working at a grocery store all through high school. Let's be clear about that.</p>

<p>As far as future employers go, employers, above all else, value related work experience. If you get a big pile of resumes, it is the people with directly related work experience that will float to the top. That's just how the world works. I've gotten my fair share of jobs, and I've sorted through my fair share of resumes, and the #1 reason I got jobs, and the #1 criterion in sorting resumes, has ALWAYS been related experience. </p>

<p>Let me give a very relevant example. In high school, someone I know (well) got a job at a french fry store. He lasted 2 days and was fired. He sucked at making french fries, apparently. He then got a job selling newspapers on the phone, did that for several summer. That was relevant work experience, I'm sure that experience helped him get his first sales job, which involved phone-selling. That lead to a second job in a related industry. Many, many years later, he is now CEO of that second company. He got real experience in a summer job that helped him get a related first-out-of-college job that led to a wildly successful career. </p>

<p>The third question is what is best for the child in the long-run. My main point on this is that the incentives are all screwed up in a situation like this, it is unnatural, and so the proper lessons are not actually going to be learned.</p>

<p>You don't prepare people for the real world by creating completely artificial situations. It doesn't teach them the correct lessons. That's my main point.</p>

18

<p>Take the job. I am trying to say this without being too impossible and insulting, but: lighten up on the implied condescension, as if she's slumming, to stand on her feet and work like most of the world. </p>

<p>I am sure she'll learn about things she doesn't even know she'll be learning about yet, for example: how people make choices when resources are limited, how people come to work when they don't feel well. She might be criticized for performance in ways that are initially uncomfortable for her, but that she can improve even if someone doesn't say "Great job!" every l0 minutes.</p>

<p>She certainly has time to also volunteer this summer. I would suggest that she not only spend on some necessities but consider donating a small piece of that salary to a charitable cause that moves her heart. Some day, when her talents are fully developed, you'd want her to help others less fortunate, so this can be a time to begin. </p>

<p>I think the experience will speak for itself to her. Whether or not there are messages relevant to college essays is something she'll only know after she's lived and worked all summer. </p>

<p>If all she gets out of a tedious, brain-numbing summer of Slushies is to always thank people in the retail environment, she'll be a better person for it. </p>

<p>The best tippers are always former table servers, even after they become very successful in business.</p>

<p>As for relevant summer reading, try Barabara Ehrenreich, "Nickel and Dimed" which was assigned to incoming freshmen at Amherst College in 2003. Also, look up columns by Connie Schultz, pulitzer prize winning columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, about the invisible working people in the retail, mall, hospital and factory settings. Her mom basically scrubbed hospitals or hospital patients as a nurse's aide. She has a book out called "And His Lovely Wife" (based on her experiences as the wife of Ohio's senator). Her address to the 2007 graduating class at Oberlin College was unforgettable and moving to all the students there.</p>

<p>The question is: what is the value of taking a summer to be downwardly mobile?
I don't know the answer, but I don't think it's "creating an artificial situation" to spend 3 months as a teenager just to find out.</p>

19

<p>
[quote]
The question is: what is the value of taking a summer to be downwardly mobile?
I don't know the answer, but I don't think it's "creating an artificial situation" to spend 3 months as a teenager just to find out.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>But pouring slushies isn't necessarily downwardly mobile. Lots of teenagers do that, the stand will probably be staffed entirely by teenagers of the middle class working for gas money and primo weed. If she is going to get a job picking fruit with migrant workers or cleaning offices at night, that might actually teach her something about how people work hard to feed their families.</p>

20

<p>I think it's a good experience, but it's not one that I would force a kid into every summer. It can also be valuable if some high school or college summers are spent on other experiences, such as volunteer work, summer courses, internships, or travel.</p>

<p>In my opinion, summer experiences are just about resume building. They're about trying different things and seeing what you like and don't like about them. My daughter once worked at a day camp and learned that she really dislikes working with children. I consider that a valuable lesson. </p>

<p>Summer work (or part-time work during the school year) is also valuable in teaching responsibility and in teaching a kid what it's like to spend time in an environment that's not about the kids who are there. My son worked for two summers and part-time during his senior year in high school in a party supply store. He did it because he wanted to spend more money on software and computer equipment than my husband and I were willing to supply, but I think he learned a lot about what it takes to be a good employee. He noticed how quickly the uncooperative people and those who didn't show up on time got fired, and he learned not to be that kind of employee. Although he is planning a career that will have nothing to do with retail, I think his time was not wasted (even if he did have to wear a bright purple shirt and blow up helium balloons).</p>