<p>I’ve got a different problem. 3rd kid (each one is so different!) doesn’t want to work. The siblings both went to work as soon as possible at 15, earning money and saving for college. They knew they had to pay for their college books and needed to earn their own spending money. </p>
<p>In our area, the fast food restaurants, summer youth camps, mini-golf, ice cream stands etc. all have help wanted signs up. 3rd kid has a million reasons why she doesn’t want to work at any of the available jobs…that fast food place is known for having druggies working there…that restaurant with games for little kids is too noisy and gives her headaches…she wants to throw up when she smells donuts…she heard the boss at another place is really mean…she heard the giant gas station manager has made passes at the girls who work the cash registers… you get the idea. I paid for a lifeguard certification, only to hear that she doesn’t want to work as a lifeguard because she doesn’t think she’s a good enough swimmer and doesn’t want the responsiblity of saving lives.</p>
<p>All of her friends are now working. They went to a movie the other day, and I suggested D fill out a job application (sign in the window that they are hiring!). D’s friends said that she shouldn’t work there since they make the kids scrape gum off the chairs. But these friends are all working at the same fast food restaurants that D has already rejected as being awful. </p>
<p>D is perfectly happy never to go to the mall and to wear old jeans and t-shirts. D doesn’t spend money on hair or makeup. A $50 birthday present lasts her six months. D said that she doesn’t care about having spending money in college since she plans on studying not socializing. She does have a few hundred dollars for books put away from Christmas presents over the years, since she never spent that money. </p>
<p>How do you get a kid to want to get a job, if the kid doesn’t seem to care about having money? I know that she’s going to want money in college, for pizza and take-out Chinese if nothing else. I just can’t seem to convince her!</p>
<p>One of my daughters wasn’t quite so colorful, but had a lot of excuses not to work. She also saved money, didn’t spend things on frivilous items and didn’t need a lot. She loves books, so any birthday money goes toward that, I don’t have to pay. I had her fill out a B & N application but I doubt without experience she has a shot. She has sensory issues so working in a noisy envirnonment wouldn’t fit and she does get ill at the smell of fast food restaurants (doesn’t go to them and thinks they are unhealthy)so I respect that.
I think you have to say that some employment history will help her later when she is in college and to start on a resume. It also shows she can be responsible in another area. That said, many students go to college without employment history and get a job there. Usually they are more willing then to work. Sometimes there is a fear that is not said that keeps them back.
No matter what some workers say, I told my kids, if things get too bad, you could quit, but give it a shot. A couple of months and you can move on.
I know my parents pushed me to work in high school and I had some bad experiences including sexual harrasement that was hard for me to deal with and finally ended in a mess. My mom thought I was embellishing at first, didn’t want to work, and then felt terribly guilty.
I would gently push, give her options, maybe volunteering a bit to get out, and really listen to why…maybe she is a bit lazy or maybe she just needs some space or has other concerns.</p>
<p>First place to start would be elderly people that you know and then do a fabulous job, get ideas on how to make the service better, etc. Then they’ll refer you to their friends. People will be less leery of letting someone into their home when they come with a recommendation. After all, I’d be concerned that a stranger in my house photographing my things might just be casing the joint.</p>
<p>That’s true, I left my thinking in the 50’s for a moment. : )</p>
<p>Word of mouth for anything, sitting, etc. is paramount. I wouldn’t have wanted to find a sitter on a bulletin board when my children were younger (although they might be great) and I suggest the student have references and live in the area.</p>
<p>Another idea: if you have the equipment to convert records into CDs, you could offer to convert record collections. (Although I know records are coming back with the youngsters, there are many of us who would love to be able to put some of our records onto our iPods.) I would definitely pay for this, especially if you would pick up my records from my house!
Or convert old videotapes to DVD’s.
As for the teaching computers to the elderly, it occurs to me that you don’t have to limit that to old people, there are plenty of middle-aged folks who would like to learn photoshop, for example. of course, you have to really know your stuff.</p>
<p>For students who aren’t looking for (or can’t find) a job like retail with steady hours and can provide any kind of outdoor service like landscaping/raking leaves/mowing – I would highly recommend printing out some fliers on a home computer and putting them in all the mailboxes in the neighborhood and charging an hourly rate.</p>
<p>It isn’t just a service for the elderly. I know many in their 40s-60s living in middle/upper middle class suburbs, who constantly complain about needing outdoor help as they can’t spend hours in the yard anymore but not being able to find any help because none of the teenagers in the neighborhood do odd jobs for the money. They end up paying hundreds to landscapers for these services but would definitely hire neighborhood students if they could find any. These are suburbs in which lots of parents just pay for college outright, can afford to buy their kids vehicles at 16 etc. so lots of students aren’t inclined to work. However, if your kid is one who wants to do yardwork, they’ll likely get some business – spring cleaning, planting flower beds, mowing, can continue through the fall raking etc.</p>
<p>My D, a sophomore who will be staying at college and taking summer classes, called today to say she had found a job caring for animals used in research. Apparently they need several more workers, also. So maybe this is a possibility for students staying on, or who live near, a college. I know the kennel where she worked a couple of years always needs people. It’s dirty and hard work, but not so bad for animal lovers.</p>
<p>Neonzeus, I have zero advice on how to get your daughter to get a job, but I completely enjoyed your description of her balkiness. I laughed out loud imagining the conversation about all the different places where it would just be SO impossible for her to work. So delightfully teenagey! I feel for you, but at least it’s really funny.</p>
<p>I haven’t read through all the posts, so forgive me if I’m repeating advice from someone else. Last year, a high school guidance counselor with whom I work suggested temp agencies. It worked for my S last summer - he got placed in a company doing telemarketing. It was full time job and he made better than minimum wage. He’s called them back this year, with no response from them. I’m worried that with this economy, he’ll be out of luck.</p>
<p>As someone who was been lucky enough to get hold of a good, steady job (with decent pay) a couple weeks ago, here’s some reiterated tips:
If your D isn’t 18 or over, she’s going to have a heck of a time finding a job. There’s no way around that, so she’ll just have to try 10 times as hard as the above-18s she’s competing with.
If she’s not 18 or over, you probably shouldn’t waste time looking into restaurants or grocery/convenience stores. She can’t serve/sell alcohol and cigarettes, and those (along with lottery tickets) are the three major sellers at most convenience and general stores. She’ll also have trouble with any deli-like places because she’d probably have to use a slicer (for meats/cheeses/veggies), which she’d need to be 18 for. Except for maybe coffee shops (but those will want experience) or bussing positions, don’t waste your time.
APPLY EVERYWHERE. Anyway she might have a chance, APPLY APPLY APPLY. It’s all a numbers game - for every 10 or 20 applications she fills, she’ll get 1 phone call (if she’s very lucky). I filled out 8 applications a few weeks ago and got one call (which luckily led to the job), and I’m 18 (and in an area that hasn’t yet been hit terribly hard by the recession).
HAVE FORMER EMPLOYMENT REFERENCE NUMBERS READY FOR THE APPLICATIONS. If she doesn’t put down the numbers for her previous employers as references, she might be shooting herself in the foot. If businesses even call the references, they usually go straight for the former employers.
DON’T rely merely on newspaper/online ads. Drive around. You’re almost certain to see Help Wanted signs that will never make it to a newspaper ad. Often these signs (either traditional orange signs or hand-written pieces of paper taped onto the door) are only up a few days (until the position is filled by a friend-of-the-employer and/or a lucky walk-in).
Generally, I found that online applications don’t usually lead to jobs. I think they’re largely a waste of time, but I’m sure someone on this thread will contradict me. Anyway, don’t put your faith in them.
When she’s filling out applications for a certain position and she has relevant job experience, put down her job title as something similar to what the needed position is called. In a hypothetical example, if she’d worked at a deli and as part of that cleaned tables/done dishes, if she was applying for a busser position at a restaurant, she’d want to put her former job title as something like “Deli/Busser”. Employers look for those kind of key words similar to the job they have in mind.</p>
<p>My son also found the online apps fruitless. He would go into Staples for example to inquire and they would tell him to fill out the online application, but it seemed to get lost with thousands of others. CVS was the same way, although a manager told me later, it really is “who you know”, they still have to dig out the app, but they have a name.
The cashier job he did end up getting was a fluke, he walked in a store, the manager seemed overwhelmed and they didn’t have online applications…he told him to fill one out and called him a week later. My son always dressed well, gave a good impression which helps and he never called in sick or was late, that helped with return stints during breaks.
It really is luck and perserverance, he almost didn’t stop in that store, he was tired of going everywhere and being rejected, but it paid off. Of course it was 8.00 an hour at the time, but he saved 3,200 that summer and that was better than nothing!</p>
<p>One useful thing that my kid did last summer was go through our book collection and list valuable books that we were willing to get rid of on Amazon. We just sold one old dust-collector for $25 yesterday.</p>
<p>I was at a job seminar back in the 1980s and the mantra was network, network, network. For a high-school or college student, asking your friends that have jobs and your parents about their network and maybe your teachers, professors and department heads may turn up something. There’s nothing wrong with going after every help-wanted sign that you can find but it’s hard to be a referral and personal recommendation in a tough market.</p>
<p>Son went to the engineering company to discuss the contracting work and got most of it done last night. So it looks like he’s off to a good start there.</p>
<p>How is the job hunt going these days? Have any of your kids had any nibbles/results? I’m sending the boy out today for round four of job applying.</p>
<p>Three teenagers here and two jut got jobs, one at the zoo and one as a caddy at the local country club. None of them were able to find jobs last summer, so I think we’re just lucky this summer.</p>
<p>I am getting slightly unnerved. My son has now been to about 80 places and only a handful would even let him fill out a resume. Nobody seems to have anything.</p>
<p>Son received an email from either Americorps/Vista or something related. Pays $15K/year + health benefits as fulltime work for maintaining their webpage. It said that it was a subsistence job for those that couldn’t find anything else and wanted something on their resume. My current take on the job market is that anyone with decent web skills should be able to get at least $35K + benefits without too much trouble unless you’re in a very depressed area.</p>
<p>When I was in college I worked four summers at a guest ranch. It was hands down the best job I’ve ever had. </p>
<p>Guest ranches are all over the west. Here in Colorado you can find a list of ranches at:
[Colorado</a> Dude Ranch Association | Home](<a href=“http://www.coloradoranch.com/]Colorado”>http://www.coloradoranch.com/) I know that the C Lazy U where I worked has a couple of Facebook Fan pages. </p>
<p>Typically, ranch staff is made up of college aged kids from around the country. Jobs include:</p>
<p>wrangler (require that you know how to ride)
kid counselor (require that you know how to ride)
wait staff
ranch hand
dish washer
pool king/queen
housekeeping</p>
<p>25 years ago when I worked, I came home at the end of the summer having saved $3000. You might not make a huge ammount of money, but up in the mountains, you don’t have any place to spend it. </p>
<p>Ranches start hiring in February so he may be a bit late but it wouldn’t hurt to try.</p>
<p>As a high school student, my suggestion is find out if there are any youth employment services where you live. They’ll help a lot. Otherwise, apply to every store in the mall and you’ll probably get a position. During the summer, they want tons of people working, and even inexperienced people generally get jobs. The best places for teens are teen clothing stores. Places like Aeropostale, Pac Sun and the like. They don’t really want older people except as management.</p>