Your Teenager Needs a Summer Job — Preferably a Crappy One
Why job experience before entering the college years can be more important than getting accepted to the best university.
My first job was in 8th grade pushing a cart full of snacks around a school gymnasium serving coffee, tuna salad, pizza and more to Bingo patrons. I was paid in tips, and made most of my earnings in dimes and quarters. Throughout high school I held a variety of jobs, including dishwasher, waitress, cashier, swim instructor, and lifeguard. What I know for sure is that from 8th grade on, I was not without employment. And, with each job switch, I moved up the pay ladder and found better working conditions. In the late 1980’s in the suburb of Detroit where I lived, it was the same for most of my peers. A summer job was the rule for teens, not the exception. Fast forward to the 2000’s and times have changed. According to this Pew Research Center article, in the summer of 2018 only a third of all U.S. teens held a job. I find this statistic staggering and am forced to wonder if there is any correlation between lack of a summer job and the lack of motivation by teens to explore careers, declare a major, and find a way to exit college in 4 years.
Ask around about why there is a drop is teen employment and you will quickly find sympathetic, anecdotal stories about how teens today are under more pressure than ever. As early as high school freshman year, guidance counselors will start talking to them about their “college resume”. These counselors will help them understand that getting into the best colleges will require them to have an entire portfolio of experiences — volunteer work, leadership roles, sports participation, etc. In addition, they need to push to attain their best possible grade point and an exceptional ACT score. They should also load up on Advanced Placement courses to get college credits early. Mind you, these AP courses come with a load of summer homework. In the effort to get this amazing, well rounded resume, teens and parents quickly find that teen schedules are too demanding to also include regular shifts of work.
Under all of this pressure, teens often start to reject the idea of getting a job by saying, “My job right now is school” or “I need my summer to recharge”. Since this posturing isn’t uncommon, I think we might have our wires crossed about the exact end goal of the college path they are on and how teen activities support that goal. Plain and simple, we send our kids to college so that they can land a professional, career-oriented job which pays well enough for them to support themselves. It would seem that we have started overlooking the fact that job experience might best lead to seeking and sorting out career goals. In regard to all the activities done in the name of getting into the best college, getting into a good college is important but getting into the best college is not entirely critical — and chances are you can not afford that best college anyway.
I’ve seen extremely bright kids build these incredible portfolios of experiences, grades, and scores only to fail to get into anything other than the typical public universities. Institutions, such as Notre Dame, Duke, Vanderbilt, Northwestern and other schools are so far out of reach for the majority of kids that I think we can afford a bit of a balance back toward prioritizing traditional teen job experiences and position some of the extracurricular activities as a secondary endeavor. By concentrating primarily on achieving solid grades and a decent ACT score, and participating in other activities to the extent that it it manageable while still holding a part time job, your teen will likely get accepted to all the colleges that you can actually afford. Plus, they will have some money to contribute to the cause.
I truly believe that the harder you work earlier in life, the more choices you have later in life.
When I say that your teen can hold a summer job and still get into a “good” college, “good” does include the big brand names that play football on national television on Saturday. Did you know that colleges such as Ohio State, Texas A&M, University of Florida, and Oregon State are land-grant colleges? In fact, there is at least one land grant university in every state. If you are unfamiliar, being a land-grant college means that these universities receive support from the federal government under the Morrill Acts. The original intent of the Act was to commission these institutions to make specific areas of study available to all — especially working class individuals. Today, land-grant universities still value inclusion and generally make pathways for all students from their home state. Let me repeat that, land-grand colleges often accept all students from their home state. These institutions can force students to a satellite school for the first year to prove themselves, but in year two those students are generally invited to attend at the main campus if they want to go. As an example, Ohio State’s admission criteria for in-state students at their regional campus is a simple high school diploma or GED and their “campus change program” allows students in good standing to move to the main campus after achieving 30 credit hours.
Why am I such an advocate for teens holding a steady job? Through my summer jobs, I learned how hard it was to make a dollar, get a raise, respect my boss, and serve my customer. Most importantly, I learned why I wanted a college degree — so I could get a nicer job where I was the boss and made a living wage. The crappier the job, the faster your teen will find real motivation to pick a major rather than spend their first years of college finding themselves. My early work experiences also drove me to want to major in something that translated directly into a job. We can argue the value of a liberal arts degree, but I didn’t have the time and my parents didn’t have the money to support that sort of venture. When my four years of college were spent, I would have no one to lean on financially except myself. If I didn’t want to go back to washing dishes at the nursing home, I’d better have some credentials that could translate into a better employment offer. I took the path of getting the hardest, most employable degree that I was capable of attaining. I graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Computer Science from the College of Engineering. When I graduated, I already had a year and a half of work experience at IBM via the cooperative education program option at my university. Employ-ability from that time forward has been a breeze. I truly believe that the harder you work earlier in life, the more choices you have later in life. Greater success and drive toward gainful employment will come more naturally to teens who are motivated from within based on an initial first-hand exposure to the world of work. I think a summer job is the minimal start to finding that motivation.
