Since the beginning of high school, having a part-time job has been one of my primary goals. Finding myself with extra time during weekends, I began job hunting during spring of my freshman year and ultimately narrowed my list down to lifeguarding and a boba barista job.
Not scoring either job left me with one abundantly clear takeaway: the school curriculum provides insufficient support for students navigating the job application process. While school is designed to prepare students for the real world, so far, I haven’t learned how to craft a strong resume, how to handle interviews or any other practical skills for this process.
With the lifeguarding job in particular, the hiring process was tedious, including an in-person swim test and interview, among other requirements. Due to this intense effort, during my job hunt, I wished school provided greater support like additional resources and advice.
At the end of my search, I narrowly snagged an audiovisual job at my local church, purely because of a social connection. Having the AV worker job taught me valuable lessons in time management, work ethic and collaboration, and these values have, in turn, helped me navigate my school work. With the added bonus of making money, having a part-time job ensured that I could manage transactions by myself without the guilt of burning through my parents’ money.
The job hunting process is often a convoluted and daunting process to undertake. As such, school administration needs to be more supportive in the job search process for high school students.
Because the College and Career Center is mostly oriented toward community events and volunteering roles, adjusting its scope to be more inclusive of the workforce can help students succeed in their prospective interests. For example, it can start by reaching out to local businesses to curate a job list of recent openings, cutting down the length of the job search and promoting student proactiveness while supporting the community.
Despite attempts to make the job market more accessible through the annual career fairs, the lack of direction on how to receive credentials and apply for these respective roles shows a major fallacy within admin’s approach. Through the implementation of job roadmaps rather than presentations made exclusively for bragging during these events, HHS can better bridge the gap between students and the workforce.
Ultimately, teen jobs are an excellent opportunity to receive enriching life skills. If school administration is able to help nurture this sort of growth in students through a more comprehensive approach, it would be an excellent chance to help shape students into workforce-ready adults.
