My son is between his junior and senior years of high school. He has his driver’s license, access to the family car, and a whole list of wants that will cost him money. He also wants his own car before he heads to college and to have some money saved up.
One of his plans this summer was to get a summer job. Several of his friends are gainfully employed, and he wanted to start making some money as soon as he was done studying for finals.
But it hasn’t gone well. The problem is, no one is hiring him to earn that money he wants so badly.
I thought it would be easy for him to find a job
At the end of April, he applied to our local parks and recreation department as a summer camp counselor. His sister worked there and assured him they needed employees. But they turned him down.
From there, he spent the summer applying in person and online at various businesses, from fast-food to retail, with no luck.
I was baffled. I feel like I’m always seeing signs in store windows saying that hardware stores, ice cream shops, and other places are hiring.
When my son applied at one fast-food place, the manager told him that he didn’t want just summer workers. He wanted people who could commit for longer, and he was wary of teens getting too busy with school.
He applied to jobs online, and we’re a little suspicious that his application was lost in the internet maze.
While he had some friends who were able to find jobs, he had several others who had the same experience he did. It seemed like no matter where they applied, they didn’t get hired.
We both don’t understand what went wrong
For some jobs, he’s worried that they rejected him because he didn’t have work experience. But how do you get work experience for a first job? He listed volunteer work, but it didn’t seem to be enough.
We’re also not sure if he was skipped over because of his marching band commitments. The band schedule wasn’t too rigorous over the summer, but there were some small blocks of time when he wasn’t available. I’m not sure how to navigate that. Should he not do extracurricular activities so he can have a job?
The most frustrating part is that we just don’t know what happened. He and I have no idea why any of these places traditionally known for hiring teens didn’t hire him this summer.
I had to stifle my helicopter-parent urge to call them up myself and demand to know why they weren’t hiring my son.
As the summer ends, things are finally looking up
On the plus side, we were able to take our family vacation without worrying about whether he could get that time off from work. I don’t know how many more family vacations we have left before he begins making his own plans, so I’m happy that we were able to make this one work.
While time is running out on working during his mostly free summer, my son did finally manage to find a job that will start around the time that school does. He’ll be waiting tables at a local restaurant. Because he’ll be doing this during school, he won’t be able to work as much. He won’t make the money he could have when the whole summer stretched out before him.
But I’m glad he’ll be getting the experience. I think he’ll learn a lot, and even though his savings plans were delayed, I’m excited for him to start working toward his goals. Even though his summer job didn’t work out the way he wanted, I think he got a lot of practice at bouncing back from failures and persevering toward a goal.
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