Summer is just around the corner and your teen is hoping to find a summer job.
While he’s sort of talking about wanting to work, he is really planning to get around to it later in the spring. He needs you to sit him down and talk to him about job hunting now! You know if he waits too long he’ll be out of luck.
Let him know that it’s important for him to develop a job search plan and that you’re going to help him.
You can start by having him look online. Let him take the lead. After all, getting information from the Internet is second nature to him.
Besides what he can find online, encourage him to collect information from friends, neighbours and relatives about their job experiences.
Have him tell his friends who have good jobs that he is looking so they can notify him if a job comes available. It’s quite common for kids with jobs to recommend their friends to their managers.
You can also talk to your friends who may be in workplaces that hire summer students.
You may also have friends who would spend 10 minutes with your child in an information interview to help him determine what he would like to do. This is generally more common with older kids who will be looking not just for a summer job but for work that will help them when they are finished with their schooling and looking for full-time work. It may help them determine what post-secondary education or training that they will need.
Once they identify some likely prospects the work begins in earnest and for most of our kids, this will be a new experience. Let them know what they might expect in a job interview. Have them practise some basic answers concerning their skills, availability and experience.
Identifying their experience can be a challenge because this is their first job. But think about it – have they done babysitting, cut a neighbour’s lawn, helped dad with home repairs or been involved in a major project at school? Their experiences do not have to be paid engagements, simply times when their responsibility and accountability were brought into play.
Let your teen know that he will need to produce his social insurance number, driver’s licence number, health card number, and depending on how he will be paid, banking information. But he should not produce any of these until he actually has the job.
The most challenging role for parents is to insist that the child dress professionally for the interview. Even if the job is to be as a dishwasher or in construction, first impressions count.
If he strikes out and can’t find any work, it is time to become creative. Parents in the neighborhood will be looking for reliable teens to care for their school-aged kids. Lots of parents prefer teen sitters because they are more likely to be active with the kids taking them places on the bus or to the local park. I recall one sitter we had who loved to bike and he and my son spent some great days biking around the town, having a wonderful time. Prepare some flyers, deliver them door-to-door and ask to place them in local stores, the library and community centre.
Finding work can be a challenge, but with a plan and some forethought it can happen.
Kathy Lynn is a professional speaker and author of Vive la Différence, Who’s In Charge Anyway? and But Nobody Told Me I’d Ever Have to Leave Home. Sign up for her informational newsletter at parentingtoday.ca.
