what would you tell a young person seeking work

[Zoe Girl]

I have kids in that age of getting jobs, planning to move out, etc stage. I know in better economies we would be doing more school and less work, or at least they would be able to get jobs easier and take care of themselves. In any case one has a job at a movie theatre and is doing well there, the other is looking.

She had an interview with noodles and company that seemed to go well but she never got a call back. Then she told me they asked about her speaking Spanish, even just a little. She has never taken any Spanish (japanese in high school). Then at the dentist office they said something about if she wanted a job and she said she didn't want to work in any health offices. I told her there are Spanish classes I am taking and she can meet me there and take the same class, she doesn't feel like learning Spanish.

I think when my mom visits we are going to have a serious talk. My daughter has a great personality and people really like her but she needs to have some skills or willingness to take anything. what i would tell young people is to take ANYTHING, and work up or out from there.

[reader99]

I have nothing encouraging for work seekers. I;ve been out of work two years myself, with plenty of education and experience. Often it isn't what qualities the worker has, so much as who they know or just being luckily in the right place at the right time.

[Lainey]

Best advice I've heard is to have multiple types of skills and many social contacts. Never turn down an opportunity to learn something, and keep as wide a network as you can.
This year my son got his best job ever due to a friend advising him of the opening.

[Aqua Blue]

I would tell them what my Mom told me. She and her siblings were teenagers during the depression when 25% of the nation was unemplyed and when more than 25% were unemployed in the small town she lived in.

She said they all had after school jobs all through the depression, when many others didn't and she felt it was because they were willing and hard workers, always going the extra mile. She instilled in us working hard, doing even the most menial task well, being willing to do extra, and being respectfull. I think that still holds. Sometimes you have to do something that is "beneath you." to get the next job up.

Reminds me of going into a fast food restraunt recently with my brother. There was water on the floor, and no one mopped it up, even after many people pointed it out to the young staff. When we got out to the car, we both said together, If we were working there, we would have cleaned it up, whether it was our job or not.

[fidgiegirl]

I echo Aqua Blue. I was thinking about your question this morning on the way to work and basically thought of the same thing, but with a caveat - that if the young person scores a job that wouldn't have been her/his first choice, to keep discreetly looking. At one point when I was a teen, I had a cashier job at a grocery store. I was offered a job at a greenhouse and was super interested in plants/horticulture type endeavors at the time. My parents advised me not to take the nursery job because they'd "been so good to me" at the grocery store. I kept going at the grocery store and missed out on a fantastic opportunity. Years later my mother told me she regretted advising me not to do it. I wonder what I would have learned at the nursery. Anyway, I think get what you can and do it the best you can, and what you WANT to do will come along.

I would also advise students choosing post-secondary training to go in with their eyes wide open and to do their research. I am a teacher and I know you are trained as a teacher, too, Zoe Girl. I am going to use teaching as an example because it's what I know, not as any commentary on your situation. I hear of people who say they are going to school to become teachers. They think teachers are always in demand. Not always, and not in all areas. One woman I met told me her daughter was training to be a music teacher. I pooh-poohed the idea (poor woman, I was a stranger to her and here I was pooh-poohing her darling daughter's life plans). The mom told me that the daughter planned to just teach in a regular classroom if she couldn't get a music job. I hope it was the mom who misunderstood this and not the daughter. 1) Music teachers are not in demand. 2) In MN, I know brilliant elementary ed people who have fought tooth and nail for a job every year, sometimes with success, and sometimes not. So falling back on a general classroom job is not the way to go even if it were possible, because 3) You can only teach what you're specifically licensed to do, unless you get a variance, which NO ONE is going to get to teach in a general classroom because of #2. So either this girl had NOT done her research or mom was very confused. The end result, I hope, wasn't a highly trained and not-so-employable person. So my advice to a young person would be that if you know you want to do X and that the job market is bad, go in, like I said, with eyes wide open. But don't invent some nonsense scenario that isn't going to happen.

[leslieann]

Work leads to work opportunities. I have had my best job offers when I was already employed. A young person needs work skills, not just skills for a particular job. Work skills include getting there on time, listening well and following directions, getting along with other employees, having good habits of work when on the job. Many jobs that might be "beneath" someone can provide opportunities to learn the above skills. Also they are places to meet other people. Whenever you meet the public, you are meeting people who might have a job to offer you. Health care offices are great places for learning, and even though I hate to say it, food service can be, too, especially if you are young and have not had a job.