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Getting a Job

Mighty oaks spring from tiny acorns, and so it is true that most adults started out at your age by working minimum-wage day jobs that required no skills and no experience to get. Some of us cringe when we remember those jobs; some of us look back with fondness and gratitude for the experience; and for some of us, it is a mix of both. Any job—no matter how gross—has a nugget of sweetness, even if it is simply that it motivates you to push hard to break out of it. And for the lucky ones, these first jobs are the cradle that rocks us into our future. So don’t get down on yourself about working a day job. Make the most of it. And if you are doing it to support your family, or yourself, or to finance a different dream, more power to you. That’s the stuff of character, and many a memoir has been written by people who are famous now but started out right where you are.

Day jobs generally pay by the hour and exist all around you, in every store, restaurant, retail establishment, mall, and entertainment complex across the nation. In high school, I worked the following day jobs in no particular order: babysitting, scooping ice cream, washing dishes, retail sales, aiding a catering company, baking cakes for a café, and checking out and bagging groceries at a natural food store. None of these jobs paid more than the minimum wage, and most (except babysitting) were an exercise in looking busy in between customers. I lost money baking cakes, and washing dishes was by far the worst job I ever had. But nonetheless, all these jobs had their benefits. I grew my people skills (bagging groceries), used math skills (close-out a register), and was exposed to all kinds of different managerial styles and unforeseen learning opportunities. For instance, on my second day working at the natural food store, I was trusted to close up shop—only the boss forgot to tell me where the light switches were. I didn’t want to leave the lights on all night, so ended up flicking a big switch in the back that seemed to do the trick. I got a call at 6 a.m. the next morning: I had turned off the main switch and overnight all the ice cream and frozen food in the freezer had spoiled. A very ugly morning followed. The boss didn’t end up firing me, and I learned to ask a lot of seemingly stupid questions right off the bat, like “Where’s the light switch?”

Making your own money, even a small amount, will buy you so many more choices in life. It is the seed of independence, the jet fuel for your rocket into adulthood. So whether or not you plan to go straight to work after high school, it’s a good idea to get some kind of hourly job as soon as you can (age sixteen, or fifteen with a parent’s permission), part time or during the summer. If you need to work full time or part time after you graduate to support yourself, having previous work experience and references can only help you land a better position and better shifts. Work is going to be part of almost any equation after high school, but the best part about a day job is that it is usually temporary. It serves a purpose. And at your age, quitting these kinds of jobs is easy, especially if you are using your earnings to study or follow other dreams.

image  The Benefits of a Day Job

A day job will teach you many things:

  • How to apply for and land a job
  • How to work for a boss
  • How fast a reliable, energetic person can gain responsibility and status
  • How to work with the public
  • How to show up when you say you will
  • How independent you can be with a regular paycheck
  • How to complete tasks that you don’t like
  • How easy it is to make money if you work hard
  • How one job leads to another leads to another
  • How a bad job can tell you a lot about what you really want to do with your life
  • How to quit responsibly

WORK TOWARD A GOAL

Working a day job can be a responsible way to support yourself, or the means to a different end, especially if you’ve gone through this book and figured out a more inspiring plan you want to achieve (eventually). Once you’ve done that and zeroed in on the specific schools or programs you want to apply to, calculate how much money you will need to make the plan work (see page 193). Then, calculate how many hours you will have to work at minimum wage—in 2013 Federal Minimum Wage is $7.25 hour, although some states are higher and some are lower and some don’t have a minimum wage law at all—to achieve that sum. (Don’t forget that taxes and federal deductions will be taken out of your paycheck.) If you are using your day job to support yourself while you pursue other (unpaid) passions, know that you are already in the process of achieving your goal. Award-winning actor George Clooney sold men’s suits and cut tobacco before becoming famous. Brad Pitt wore a chicken costume to advertise a local restaurant in LA and Ralph Lauren worked the floor at Brooks Brothers. Ellen DeGeneres had a job at a car wash. Working a day job lays down a good foundation for any future.

THE BASICS

What:

You’ll need the following to apply for and get a day job:

A résumé, or curriculum vitae is, in plain English, a list of stuff you’ve done. But trust me, unless you are Mozart, it is not going to sizzle at this stage of the game. What you can do is make a nice, neat list of all the activities and any work (paid or volunteer) you’ve done so far. Word-processing software generally has a résumé template built in that you can use, or go to gfclearnfree.org and follow their tips. Just remember that a lot of résumé advice is geared to experienced workers. Take it easy on yourself and follow these basic rules:

If you have done absolutely bubkis up until now, don’t worry. Plenty of day jobs require nothing more than your contact info and a list of personal references on a standard application. If you want to build your résumé, go to Chapter 23 and read about different volunteer opportunities right in your backyard that might give you a leg up. It’s not hard, I promise. You just have to do something. It will lead to other things, which will lead to a robust résumé down the road.

Where:

No one expects you to have any previous experience at this point. Don’t be intimidated by the application. Just fill it out and leave it with the manager. These entry-level jobs have high turnover rates, so chances are you will hear of an opening soon if you get out there.

If you need more ideas, here are various areas of opportunity available to a high school graduate (or anyone over sixteen) with no previous experience or training, culled from Harlow G. Unger’s excellent reference book, But What If I Don’t Want to Go to College? To get ahead in any of these fields—in other words, move up to management—you will need more on-the-job experience and often some kind of certification or training, but you have to start somewhere.

You can also apply to work for the government as a postal clerk or mail carrier, school crossing guard, firefighter, corrections’ officer, police worker, teachers’ assistant, or EMT—but not right away. Government jobs usually require a high school diploma, six months’ experience, and passing the appropriate service exam and physical fitness requirements.

And one last thing about looking for a job: Don’t just take any job, unless you are flat-out busted broke. Go back to the first section and revisit all the work you did learning about yourself and your dreams. Search for a reasonable job that has something to do with what you like, or at least suits your temperament. If you are an extroverted party person, you are not going to like a job that keeps you disconnected and in isolation, like shelving books or working the night shift at a laundromat. You’d be much better off using your social skills in retail sales or in a restaurant. If you go against your grain, there’s a real chance you’ll end up quitting after only a few days, which means you won’t get a good reference. If you can, stay at a day job at least for a summer or a six-month period before switching; that way it doesn’t look like you’re job-hopping. Employers value reliability.

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“In 2010 I moved to Portland [Maine] to be a student in the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies semester-long radio program. Following the semester I took a job as a customer service associate at Whole Foods Market, in order to pay the bills. After six or seven months I yearned to feel creative in my work and advance my career. I looked into jobs and found an AmeriCorps position at the Telling Room, a nonprofit writing center for kids. The position was for a volunteer and program assistant. I applied for the job and got it after a competitive interview process. I also began training and coordinating a corps of over three hundred volunteers. I had taught in the past, but had never managed and overseen a group of adults in the way the volunteer coordinator job required. I learned on the job and also found a lot of support from my peers in the AmeriCorps group—many of whom were also coordinating volunteers.

Over the course of my two years at the Telling Room, my management and leadership skills grew immensely. I became a confident professional. My employers noticed my talent in multimedia and allowed me to start new programs in documentary studies and also begin a podcast. Toward the end of my second term, the Telling Room was financially secure enough to offer me a job as director of multimedia, having created the job description around my strengths and talents.”

—M. Haley, director of multimedia, The Telling Room