My son, who will be a senior in high school next year, applied to 35+ jobs this summer. People said it should be easy to find a job since nearly every single business has a Help Wanted sign up. He finally found a job and started last week but I didn’t expect it would be so difficult. He was willing to work FT in the summer and PT during the school year and was available right away. He had references from his summer job last year. He’s a nice, hardworking kid so why was it so difficult?
After a while, it made me wonder if these companies were even hiring. His friends had similar issues. He only got 2-3 emails/phone calls and after he returned them, he never heard back from the managers. Very weird to me.
That is a relatively low number of job applications. Any individual desirable job is a high reach, so it typically takes a lot more than 35 applications to get one, unless the applicant has connections that bypass at least part of the initial screening.
Is your son going to be a senior in high school or college? Anecdotally, a lot of my son’s friends who are rising college seniors had a hard time finding internships this summer. Even one with a very employable major at a top 20 school didn’t get anything. I think the fact that so many places are still remote or hybrid may be contributing to the difficulty.
He applied to one place last summer. They emailed him, had an interview and got the job. This year, I see Help Wanted signs everywhere yet they don’t seem to want to hire teenagers (his friends have had similar difficulty finding jobs). These are minimum wage jobs and if everyone is actually hiring, something doesn’t add up.
My daughter had a similar summer experience after her first year of college. She applied to 20+ jobs. Eventually, she took a job as a camp counselor which paid $2.50 an hour, quit that after three weeks, and got babysitting jobs the rest of the summer.
We realized in hindsight that she had mostly applied to jobs where they needed part time workers, but not part time workers who would leave after a few months and return to college. They don’t want to invest the time training someone who is going to leave soon. I suspect that could be a similar thing here. Your son would only be able to work outside of school hours in the fall, so maybe it’s not worth it to employers.
Some jobs require a minimum age of 18, though of course they don’t say that on their sign. FWIW, my son worked at UPS last summer. As long as you have a pulse and don’t have a criminal record they will take you, though minimum age might be 18. It’s hard work but they payed $20/hour.
This is exactly what happens in my area. College students aren’t hired for minimum wage jobs. We have too many high school dropouts or non college bound people who are available to work full time and/or whenever needed. Unfortunately, my area also has very few opportunities for college internships. College students usually need to go elsewhere.
I just edited my original post. He is going to be a senior in high school, not college. I can’t imagine that there are lots of non-students in my area who are flocking to minimum wage jobs with variable hours. I guess businesses aren’t really that desperate if they are willing to wait for this unicorn employee who is not a student but wants a minimum wage job with no guaranteed hours.
I guess it depends on where you are. In our area, everyone is looking and you’ll see very young kids now in restaurants and retail. I haven’t seen this in many years.
Could it be something he’s doing that he doesn’t really is putting people off? Like not dressing up? Connected to a cell phone while applying anything like that? There’s got to be something. Our kids, for example, have terrible phone manners. Don’t say hello, don’t say good bye before hanging up. It’s a generational thing but still.
We have a nephew who applied to a teaching position. He sent a Thank you email that was totally casual. He had no idea. He also wore a nice tee shirt. He ended up getting a great job once he realized how to approach a job. We bought him an appropriate men’s shirt. He had no idea what was expected.
I think it probably depends on the area. My area has a lot of seasonal needs and kids as young as 15 and 16 can easily get jobs paying $15-16/hour or more in the summer. Not necessarily full-time though. My 18-year old has two jobs to get to full-time (ish), paying $16-18/hour: one that she’s had since her junior year of HS and one she got this summer. Friends in jobs where they get tips are making more. She’s only ever applied to those two jobs in her life and got both after sending a resume and having a three-minute interview. The second one she went in person, they said email this person a resume, she did and got emailed for an interview right away. Does he have a resume? Is it spell-checked & grammar-checked? Does he present well in person? Dress appropriately? Express that he’s willing to work the hours they need? Does he send a thank you note after interview, apply promptly when told to apply on-line, follow up politely when he doesn’t hear from them? It seems odd otherwise, but I of course don’t know your area.
Most of my kids had part time jobs starting at 14, working full time in the summer. My 25, 24 and 19 year olds worked at a local garden center for 8 years. All three daughters also started as hostesses, moved up to servers, and my 21 year old is currently bartending in Boston while in grad school. Another 19 year old is lifeguarding his 3rd summer in a row. The hardest is finding that first job, and I’ve encouraged them to get restaurant jobs because if you have experience you can work anywhere. I think the fact that they’ve had consistent employment throughout the years helps.
Same with my 16 year old. Help wanted signs all over town. Not a single call back. We thought that the problem was that he applied too late in the summer season. He’ll try again next summer. He’s a rising junior.
But at so many places, the hiring manager isn’t local. My kids have had several jobs over the years working in retail. It usually involves an online application followed by a phone or video interview. Both kids were hired without ever meeting anyone in person. I think the world has changed. Unless you are going into a family owned place, the hiring is now centralized.