Having just recently finished up high school, and worked in several different fields, I thought I could share some of the crucial insights I’ve learned.
There isn’t just one path.
A lot of teenagers feel limited to a very small pool of jobs that is deceivingly, and incorrectly, limited. I hope that by reading this, you can gain perspective that this is not the case. McDonald’s is not the only option.
Firstly, you need to be honest with yourself. What kind of person are you? Can you self motivate and make money if you’re the one creating your schedule? Or do you work best when someone else sets the schedule? Do you thrive in talking to people? Or would you rather do something mindless while listening to music or a podcast? Is your schedule have inflexible cracks? Or can you commit to working full time?
Working Hourly
I know a lot of teenagers who are exactly cut out for hourly work. If you don’t like to make decisions, aren’t good at self motivation, having a set schedule, and set wages may be good for you! There is lots of availability for hourly workers, lots of different avenues and opportunities it could open up, and many different jobs to choose from.
If being introverted is your thing, and you enjoy music, podcasts, and time to yourself, there are opportunities with packing warehouses, construction, restocking etc. that provide menial, repetitive tasks that are a great opportunity to earn money while being able to enjoy the sounds of your choosing. Personally, I’ve worked for a painting company that offered $12/hour in which I sanded, spackled, calked, and occasionally painted. This was a great opportunity to learn and perfect many relevant skills, while enjoying my time listening to Dungeons and Dragons podcasts. I will add that a construction route may be significantly more physically draining, but has the potential to pay better sooner.
For some, working on your own is rather draining. The opportunity to talk to converse with coworkers and customers is the only thing that will push you through the day! There are many companies in need of capable and charismatic employees to man the endless phones, cash registers, and orders. Any public place that is in need of workers could be a great option for you.
Working off of Commission
I was definitely not gifted with a golden tongue, but there are absolutely those who are, and have a lot of potentials to earn money now and throughout life. There are many call centers and sales jobs that are taxing but can equate to a significant amount of money. We have all heard of the arduous pest control summer trips, but some are very good and very successful, which can relate to a summer well spent. I also have had many friends try selling Cutco knives online. This was a very mentally draining practice but found some people very successful and others discouraged and worn out.
Working for Yourself
There are the select people out there who are simply cut out for entrepreneurship. Whether it is owning a business of simply being a private contractor, some people thrive on independence and excel with the sheer purpose of excelling. The main key way that I have seen teenagers excel in fields of their own labor is filling needs in their local area, but I absolutely encourage rising to the competition as well. In my area, there was already a group of brothers who had a monopoly on the lawn-mowing market, and I didn’t have the reputation or personality to rise to the default babysitter, so the two most obvious choices were out, but fortunately for me, I was able to identify a different need in my area. Due to the stringent HOA in my community, fences had to be up to a certain standard of quality and resulted in fines for those who didn’t qualify. Due to my former experience at the painting company, I rose to this occasion. This job was very fruitful in a very fast amount of time, and worked for me, as long as I worked for it. This required many hours of advertising, and making sure my customers were satisfied with the product, as well as buying my own equipment, and setting my own schedule. The major caveat to this was that if I didn’t advertise, I didn’t have work for the week.
This route is not for everyone, but for those who look for challenge and excel at things they put their mind to, I highly encourage it, and will provide a few tips that I’ve learned along the way:
- Don’t put off advertising. Time is money, make it work for you.
- Check the competition’s rates. Have a competitive price, but don’t undersell your time.
- Bid, don’t work hourly. It makes for faster results and a higher quality product(along with more money for your time).
- Never tell them a price on the spot. Always be polite, but do the bid in your own space.
In Conclusion, and Warnings:
There are many different avenues of making money as a highschooler, and absolutely a kind that will suit you, but you need to be careful. There are a lot of big businesses that are looking to take advantage of you. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of my friends joined a company that sells Cutco knives. They advertise a promising $17/hour or commission, whichever is higher, along with flexible hours, which is quite incredible for a teen job. What they don’t tell you is that there are daily, unpaid seminars, 20+ mandatory hours of training, each call is an hour, but you have to have a half-hour buffer between calls($11.33/hour), and you only get commission pay based off of the week performance, not per each call(much harder to receive that sweet commission pay). After all of these misconceptions, I had a lot of friends drop out during or soon after the major amount of training time, resulting in the loss of time and money, as well as a consistent job. These are all good things to look out for when reviewing a job’s potential. In essence, make sure you know EXACTLY what you’re getting into before committing your time. I hope this has been valuable to you in your job search, and I wish you the best of luck.