Teen Employment Highly Beneficial

As any well–to–do adult over forty will tell you, a good, young, enterprising teen needs a job. It’s vital. Once you get a job, you’re suddenly responsible. Credible. Vindicated. It’s your first step on the long road to adulthood.
But no one really wants a job, do they? Jobs are the main things that adults complain about. Coming home only to hear someone groaning, “The office sucked today!” doesn’t motivate a teenager to join the ranks of the workforce. Unfortunately, in most cases a job is necessary.

Jobs mean money. Money is essential. Whether you’re trying to woo women or buy the latest Pokémon game, you need money. And, unless you’re lucky enough to have generous neighbors who pay you to watch the kids and feed the cats or have parents nice enough to pay you for mundane tasks like washing the dishes or cleaning your own room, a job is something that will come in handy.

But who has the time? As teenagers, we’re all grappling with school, sports, extracurricular activities and homework that drags on into the night. There are things we’d rather be doing (or not be doing) than roaming Shattuck, peeking into windows and trying to secure a position behind a grease stained counter.

Sure, jobs are going to be an integral aspect of all of our lives. But right now, there are so many other tasks piled on our plates and we’re lucky enough to have our parents handling necessities like food and shelter. Most of us are also fortunate enough to not consider money a personal issue. Some teenagers have added financial responsibility, but the majority of high school kids are blessed to not have to cultivate their own income. Running back and forth across town during the school year in order to make a few extra bucks can really detract from time spent studying, or even just chilling and recuperating for the next day. Also—especially in this economy—many employers will not be willing to give jobs to unskilled teenagers. To inexperienced kids just entering the workforce, these stinging rejections may exaggerate the harshness of the real world, making them hesitant about job hunting in the future.

Maybe teens need to bite the bullet and start working now. After high school, throughout college and especially after college, we’ll all be looking for work. Creating a resume, following up with potential employers and making a good impression in an interview are all lifelong skills one needs to be equipped with. When you’ve left the nest and have no safety net to fall back on, you want to be supremely confident in your own competence. In the future, having a few successful job endeavors under your belt could do no harm.

Basically, there are two sides to this issue. On one hand, trying to get a job right now is a distracting frivolity, potentially taking away from studies that could better your chances at employment in the long run. Conversely, looking for jobs now in this relatively risk–free environment bestows invaluable experience that should not be missed. Both sides definitely ring true, to some extent.

Personally, I feel that one should pursue jobs at this stage in life. Not that it should be highly prioritized, but that one should not vehemently oppose employment. I’m a lazy guy, but even I can recognize the significance of work experience. If an opportunity for a job or an internship floats your way, you had better hop on that!

Since I owe my mom a lot of money—money that she’d like to see repaid—she’s really been nagging me to get a job. And in my searching, I’ve found that it’s not actually that difficult to find jobs. If you lack a lot of self respect—as I do—there are some fast food places that accept online applications, places like McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Taco Bell. I’ve also found that online there are all these great job search engines specifically for teens. Finding a job is as easy as typing “local teen jobs” into a Google search.

However, I wouldn’t advise getting a job during the school year. It seems like having a summer job strikes that happy medium between making money and not being overworked and overstressed. Now, it may seem like getting a summer job squanders all the potential freedom that summertime represents. But a summer job is definitely not as bad as school. Not all jobs are boring; some jobs can be sort of fun and … unique. Last summer, I had a job at the Berkeley Animal Shelter and I have to say, using a high pressure hose to blast logs of dog poop out of cages, while wearing a flattering baggy blue jumpsuit and rubber boots was definitely worth eight dollars an hour. It was also definitely preferable to a summer of being broke or spending hours learning about tri–coordinate vectors in school without getting paid at all.

That’s the cool thing about jobs, they give you actual skills that are applicable to real life situations. Who knows when I may need to call upon my mastery of cleaning and feeding dozens of savage canines? Whereas, vectors? Cellular biology? Persuasive writing? What? … Am I going to grow up and be some type of scholar?