Tips for Getting A Summer Job

Advice and Tips for College Students Seeking A Summer Job

By
Relationship Advice Expert April Masini

Q: Dear April Masini,

I am a freshman in college and already feel the pressure to add more jobs to my resume. With summer coming up, I am looking for summer jobs, but it seems there is a lot of competition. What tips do you have for finding the right job? And are there more students going after summer internships than before?

Sincerely,

Interested Intern 

A:

Dear Interested Intern,

It's true, that there is a trend of students doing more summer homework and competitive league sports, but what's underlying this trend is really interesting. 

Parents push kids more than ever to do more, better, faster. Childhood is lost, and lazy summers where kids made some money at a job and did some community swimming and hung out with friends are long gone. The pressure teens feel to achieve has led them to take college courses and AP courses in high school that are so rigorous, the summer prior to the September starting classes are expected to be spent doing course work in preparation for the course!  

Educational competition has hit a new high starting in pre-school and grinding up through high school -- and in all of these years parents now commonly hire academic career counselors to help their children get into pre-school, elementary school, high school and college -- at several 1,000 dollars a pop. And you can bet that parents are caught up in the frenzy of getting their child into the best school -- and forgetting what is really best for their child as an individual. 

It won't be until parents say no to their minor children that the children will start saying no, and this trend will slow down and even reverse. But with all the pressure and the lack of self esteem and leadership that pervades, that reverse in the trend is probably some time coming. 

What types of jobs should students look for? 

1. Age appropriate. For many students, age matters. Some places won't hire you unless you're 16. Some 15. Some 17. So your age will limit your job in many cases.  

2. Career or fun or money? Decide if you want to take a job to see if you like a particular career path or if you want to make the most money or if you want to just have fun. If you want to pursue a career path, you can try to get a job typing, messengering, go-fering or some other lower level rung of a career. If you want to make money, you might do better collecting tolls on the turnpike or working in a restaurant. If you want to have fun, you might consider a camp counselor job or a job in a clothing store if that's your thing.  

3. Time. Decide how much time you want to spend working. For many students, a full-time summer job doesn't give them enough time to relax before school starts. Consider a part-time job that is four hours a day every day or eight hours a day three days a week or else full-time for four of your six weeks of summer vacation. Whatever you need, figure out how to get it.

Advice for first time job applicants:

1. Be professional. Show respect in the way you dress, in the way you speak, and in the way you show up on time and leave on time. 

2. Be honest. Don't say you have lifeguard experience if you can't swim just to get the job. It's wrong for so many, many reasons. 

3. Follow through. Don't quit for little reasons. If the job doesn't turn out to be what you thought it would, as long as it's not illegal or abusive, follow through. Having a job you don't love is part of life. It won't be your first or last. See what it's like to show comitment. 

What Every High School Student Should Know Before Starting Their First Job

1. Your boss is counting on you. It doesn't matter that you're a teen. You're being paid for services. Take the job seriously. 

2. Don't party and spend late nights just because it's summer vacation if you have a job. If you need to party for part of the summer, allow yourself a few weeks to do so when you're not working, or do it on weekends when you're not working. 

3. Ask your boss for a general letter of recommendation at the end of the summer. A "To Whom It May Concern" letter from the boss, will look good in your file that you may want to use next summer to get a job, or the summer after that. 

Job situations to steer clear of:

1. If anyone asks you to work in their home, and they're the only other person with you there, and you get any kind of weird vibe about them, trust your instincts. 

2. Dancing. Most dancing jobs where the pay is good turn out to be exotic dancing jobs. Run, don't walk. 

3. Don't take a lifeguard job if you don't have lifeguard experience. There are too many water accidents and you will be responsible. That said, if you're qualified, go for it!

April Masini -- nicknamed "the new millennium's Dear Abby" by the media, is author of the best-selling books Date Out Of Your League and Think & Date Like A Man, the two (just released) step-by-step dating and relationship manuals, Ideas for a Fun Date and Romantic Date Ideas, and the critically acclaimed dating and relationship online magazine www.AskApril.com.

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