Today I took my 16 year old daughter on a whirlwind travel of dropping off resumes and filling in applications at grocery stores. She has already dropped off a few at some other grocery stores and will be hitting a few fast food joints after school on Monday.
Her resume is pretty thin at this point with only some volunteer hours and dance competition awards.
So, what does it take? I’m sure nepotism would be hugely rewarding, but we have no family in the area.
On our first stop she actually got to chat with the manager on duty and it lasted about 10 minutes. She’s extremely confident that with 10 or 12 applications out there she’ll get a job within a week or two; I’m a seasoned and skeptical ex-high-tech worker who has been laid off three times and knows that finding another job is a fucking struggle.
I’m haven’t been one for a while, but the few I know just applied, same as yours is doing. Last one that comes to mind got a job temping at a factory over the summer. I’m not sure where the demand is for part-time teenager jobs at the moment, and it’s going to depend where you are. I imagine that if the local McDonald’s is full of adult employees, they may skip over the kids.
Unless the money is critical, I’d also keep an eye open for volunteer opportunities. I know a few who built up some pretty nice resumes for college that way.
It’s been a while, but when I was a teenager, I didn’t have to go looking for multiple jobs. My first job was when a guy from my church, an electrician, was looking for an assistant, and my mom knows everyone at church, so she put me in contact, and bam, hired. My second job, one of my friends was working as a ride operator at a local kiddy amusement park, and mentioned that they were always hiring at the beginning of summer, and it sounded like fun. Again, bam, hired.
It seems to me that if you’re not picky, there’s always some place or another with a Help Wanted sign out front.
I ran a construction business in Ft Lauderdale FL for years. I’d hire anyone who walked onto the job wanting to work, even many who didn’t have legal papers. I’d suggest talking to plumbers and electricians, laying blocks is kind of tuff for a 16 year old girl.
My daughter has done the resume thing bunch of times, with no luck at all. She did eventually find a part-time job, through a friend at school. Most of her friends who have jobs got them through some kind of social networking (except the ones that work at Maccas).
My girlfriend’s boy (age 18, just graduated from high school) got a job pretty quickly at a call center here in town. They do surveys. As far as I know the only requirement was that he be able to speak English. Both here and in Omaha call centers were great places for getting full/part time/temp jobs and require very little in the way of experience.
He had only been there a couple months when he got hired at Starbucks. So barrista is another entry level no experience needed job.
A co-worker’s daughter got on at Market of Choice as a bagger in high school and they liked her so she was able to go back every summer and pick up her old job. So grocery store is another place to look.
It’s not “these days” (it was the 90s) but when I had my two teenage non-nepotism jobs, I just put in applications. A grocery store and a movie theater.
Probably more-fun jobs, like the amusement park, requires some networking.
Getting volunteer experience/school clubs helps. This is a bad time of year for her to be looking for part time work. In October it should be easier since everyone will be looking for seasonal/holiday help.
A lot of low-paying, high-turnover jobs will go through a temp agency or recruiter (and other, better, jobs as well). Also might be a good idea to get familiar with job sites and learn what search criteria turns up interesting stuff.
I’ve never in my life been exposed to the world of “minimum wage with no experience.” I had a rather strange route to my first part time job, but nepotism was involved.
Nothing much has changed around here in the 30+ years since I was a teenager. The first jobs are at the usual places: shop assistants, take away food shops, kitchen hands at aged care homes, supermarket shelf stackers, builder’s labourers. The more academic ones still do tutoring.
I’ve noticed that my parents’ new old folks home has a TON of teenagers working in food service. (All very good workers, too.). That’s a job that would never in a million years have occurred to me as a kid.
There are plenty if jobs that don’t require experience. Ever hear of people who are “over qualified” for lots of jobs out there?
And those employers like people who don’t have rent and diaper expenses who complain about low wages, and people who can’t come in until after 3 rather than people who have to be home by 3 to meet the bus.
There are plenty of reasons why being a teen can be a plus when looking for a job. You can’t compare them 1:1 to adults looking for gainful employment.