Why can't my daughter find a job???

I don’t know where you are, but if she has someplace she can stay or is willing to work at a residential camp, the schools in Western WA don’t even get out until next week so the camps and summer programs are still hiring. I see ads every day for camp help. There are also other temporary summer-only jobs. Also check if your city has a summer youth employment program like Seattle does. Some will take kids up to age 19.

DD worked in such a program last year and went back to the organization that chose her during spring break to discuss working with them again this summer, but as a direct hire. She is working 40 hours a week and making $15/hr. But she got the original job because of her volunteer work when she was in HS. Your DD may have to volunteer, but depending on her skills there may be something out there for her. She can then use that experience to use on her applications. But she should also keep exploring summer-only jobs such as in camps and craft classes, etc.

Back in the day, I looked for any old type of summer job. These weren’t career-shaping opportunities. They were money-making opportunities. And they got me out of the house! So it went: gardener’s helper, grocery bag boy, driver for a starter-generator rehab company (“Hollywood Generator”), 1 day as deck hand on the shore boat at Malibu Pier, and driver in the motor pool at Paramount Pictures. The union wages were pretty good, as defined by Retails Clerk’s Union ($1.30/hr) and Teamsters Union ($3.415/hr).

None of these gave me any credentials, as I went into a PhD program after graduating. But I learned some things at all of these jobs, even the value of having “connections.” I got the Paramount job by chance as I recognized the dispatcher as the father of a college classmate and he offered me a summer job there, a real boost from my $1.60 base wage at Hollywood Generator. I also learned that being a hard worker could pay off, even on seemingly menial jobs. Shortly after I started as a bag boy, the manager came up to me and asked, “Has anybody told you to go to hell lately?” What he meant is that I was working up a sweat (90 degree weather outside, where I had to go to round up the shopping carts), working very hard, while many others were taking their sweet time and not working so hard. My reward? I got overtime work and Sunday pay (1.5x base pay) and 48 hours of income for the roughly 2 months I worked that summer.

I think students need to be flexible and use their connections and talents as best they can. My son used his background as a high school debater to get summer jobs in college working at a debate camp (it didn’t hurt that the director of the summer camp was his former high school debate coach). My daughter used her background as a student in industrial design in college to get summer jobs working in a carpentry shop. Neither job was exactly a stepping stone to a career, but the kids got out of the house and earned a few bucks to support the costs of incidentals at college. Neither had time for part-time work during the academic year.

While I’m sure it’s well-intentioned, the stories of how if you are willing to take anything you can get something really aren’t helpful. The job market for kids has changed. Many kids who are willing to do anything, can’t even get an interview. I have great sympathy for the OP because my D went through this last year. It’s very discouraging.

I also find it interesting to read about all the seasonal positions that seem to available in some places. I’m not sure where the OP is, but where I live it actually gets dead in the summer. Restaurants are empty, stores are empty, and hotel occupancy is down. Locals are on vacation and no one travels here except for business and business travel drops off during the summer. Camp positions are prime jobs here and are very hard to get. They want experience and you need to have them lined up during the winter. There are wait lists for counselor jobs here.

As I said before,my D did get lucky and found a job, but I don’t think it’s because she tried harder or was willing to do more. It was luck, pure and simple.

My kid had a very hard time finding summer jobs here. It didn’t help that his school, on the quarter system, got out several weeks after most other colleges. He tried to find language tutoring work, for which he was well-qualified, even sending letters to every French teacher in the area asking for referrals before the school year ended, and of course advertising in Craigslist. He got precisely one student. He applied in person and online to various places, to no avail. Ultimately, signing up with a temp agency was the best solution.

Most of the kids he knew who had jobs got them through family members, or were rehired from HS summer jobs.

In a lot of Maine, adults take the kind of jobs that teens do elsewhere.

But there have been some good suggestions, the best being (IMO) to ask friends if there are any jobs where they work. Your friends and kids’ friends. Ask.

Are there any golf courses near you? Often they have events like weddings and tournaments where they need extra hands. Catering halls.

It’s also possible to get a job babysitting for a family who is going on vacation and are willing to take someone along. Usually don’t make much but you get to go to the beach or the lake or somewhere fun.

My D is planning to study abroad next spring, in a country that has an academic schedule where she won’t get back until the end of June. She is already looking at paid internship options for next summer that will allow her to start that late in the summer.

I think that’s the real key if local jobs are scarce - to start as early as possible and be ready to not be at home, it might mean staying on campus.

@me29034 , the area we live in is a mixed bag. If she was willing to go further afield, like say a 45-60 minute drive, there would be plenty of opportunities. But she is not a very experienced driver and neither she nor I are wild about her driving home for that long in the dark where the roads are windy and not lit. Not sure a minimum wage job is totally worth the drive when babysitting locally is quite lucrative. There are summer day camps, and if she had anticipated how difficult it would be, she would have applied. There are some good ice cream stands, but they are dynastic. Once your older siblings start there, no one new gets in until all the sibs have worked through as many summers as possible. (I know this because my son’s GF is part of a sister dynasty who reigns supreme. The tips are too good to give up!)

This week she will hit up the local hotel, and there is a local temp agency, luckily. Again, lots of good input,thanks.

@OHMomof2 that’s a good point to bring up about study abroad. I’m planning on studying abroad in France next spring, and the spring semester calendar there runs from early January to June. The problem is, it doesn’t specify which part of June it ends, and I really NEED an internship next summer. I hope my study abroad plans don’t impact my internship aspirations!

@LBad96 they don’t have to, but it’s a good idea to be thinking about it NOW. IDK what your area of interest is, but my D is doing an REU - research funded by the federal govt - this summer and program dates for those are typically set for the entire group,and aren’t very flexible - everyone arrives on May whatever and leaves on the same date. Same with a lot of finance internships.

I think it’s a good idea to start looking for those that have some flexibility,and also obviously make sure you’ve been to the career center and had your resume, cover letter writing etc all looked over and polished,and know how to tailor a resume for a specific opportunity, too.

PS: Can you look at the academic calendar for the college in France? Failing that , contact the organization that you plan to study with and get the dates.

You need to look for your internship between August and october of this year for next summer.


For now, take any hour wage work and volunteer the rest of the time.

If you are going to a program through your school, look up when the program ended this year and I’m sure it will be around the same time. You need to be prepared to answer the question of when you’ll be available to start an internship.

My daughter’s program actually ended much earlier than her home school, so she was back in April. Got her job through her London roommate and has been working since before mother’s day.

Has she told all of her friends via social media that she’s looking? S got his first summer job by literally posting “Now would be a good time to offer me a job.” on Facebook. One of his friends texted him twenty minutes later with a lead. D got her local coffee shop job this summer because S knew someone had just quit. They know she’s only there for the summer so she doesn’t get scheduled for a ton of hours, but fills in for others as much as possible. Bonus is now she’s an experienced Seattle barista, she’s hoping that will payoff back at college!



Goodluck to your D, I know it can be discouraging.

Summer after sophomore year I asked my brother if my son could job shadow at his company for week. They were so impressed with him that they paid him with a gift certificate and hired him part time during the school year. He worked full time for them the following summer.

She got a job! Local camp. And she has had a few lucrative babysitting assignments so she has some cash at least. She ended up filling in more than twenty job apps and the only one that offered an interview was the camp, even though for the last few applications, she asked if they would hire stduents home for the summer. Lesson learned for my son.

Congratulations!

Congrats

Excellent! Her persistence paid off!

She can still do that babysitting too!!