July 5 2005 - Nick.com
Beyond The Burger Joint: Landing A Summer Job
School is out and summer is here! The question remains, what is one to do with so much luxurious free time? For some kids the answer is: Get to work!
But finding a job if you're under 18 can be more difficult than solving a geometry problem.
For one thing, child labor laws can be a roadblock to young employment. The laws are there to protect kids, which is actually is a good thing. They are in place to keep employers from working kids too hard and ensuring that education comes first. But they leave room for plenty of opportunity.
The United States Department of Labor allows 14 and 15 year-olds to work during the school year, but with the restricted hours of 7am to 7pm. In addition, kids can work no more than 3 hours on a school day and no more than 18 hours in a school week.
This changes during the summer, which is June 1st through Labor Day. Then, hours are extended allowing a 40-hour week with a 7am to 9pm workday. Each state has criteria for their young workers.
Being young not only limits workable hours, but also what types of job as well. Kids who are 13 and younger are allowed to deliver newspapers, baby-sit, act, and work in a business owned by their parents. Once they reach the age of 14, kids can work in grocery stores, restaurants, movie theaters, gas stations, and clothing stores. About 50 percent of working teens toil in the retail sector of the economy.
Working as a counselor in training (CIT) is one option available to enthusiastic young teens. Urbana Park District in Illinois, offers 13 to 15 year-olds the opportunity to assist counselors at their day camps. According to Bobbi Nancy, the community program coordinator, "It's a good first job to gain experience."
Once a session the CITs have a chance to design and lead a program for the campers, giving young employees an opportunity to take charge. In Brown's opinion, the kids are "in an environment where they can ask questions, learn customer service and how to work with people." Programs similar to Urbana's exist throughout the country; it just takes a little research to find them.
If you look for a job and just keep coming up with dead ends, you can do what a lot of kids do: Make a job for yourself. A job does not necessarily mean you have a cool uniform or an official paycheck. There are many people like Kari Ornberg who, as a kid, found a job in her local community helping out.
Kari began working at her neighbor's corn stand in Cranberry, NJ when she was 14. Her responsibilities included preparing the stand, bagging corn, and working the cash register. She says that job taught her "the value of hard work and the value of a dollar." Today Kari, 22, is a business operations associate at TEKSystems and says her corn stand days helped her "develop the work ethic" she has now.
Another kid with spunk, Rob Goren, a 19-year-old Michigan native, started his own company when he was eight and says, "The key to success is having ambition." His latest business venture is a website that produces photo scrapbook videos. Goren encourages that, "In any area of interest, there is usually a way to make money. It just takes some creative thinking." Presently he is a sophomore at Michigan State University.
For those interested in starting their own business, the idea is to think beyond the lemonade stand. Feasible companies for young entrepreneurs include a cleaning service, car detailing, pet sitting, and catering. One should not be afraid to do a nontraditional job. Boys are just as able to baby-sit, as girls are to do yard maintenance.
The value of a summer job is immeasurable. To Patty Colvin a Communications Manager for Newbridge Services, summer jobs provide a "positive direction opposed to playing video games and sleeping all day."
New Bridge runs a summer employment program for at risk youth and works in accordance with companies and camps in the community to provide a summer alternative to being bored and getting into trouble. The companies that take on the kids in the program are "very pleased with the opportunity," and enjoy saving "the cost of advertising and recruitment." Colvin has had several businesses, "come back and say great job!"
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