By: Miranda Vogel
As the 2022-2023 school year comes to a close, teenagers want to have their own money to pay for gas, a car and countless other adventures so a job becomes a necessity.
Getting a job as a teenager can be a tough endeavor. Many teenagers juggle a lot at once with school, a social life, sports and clubs; it can be overwhelming. When teenagers want to add a job into the mix, most don’t know where to look, what to look for in a job besides pay-rate, what jobs are available or how to even write a resume. When faced with this new territory of becoming like adults, many teenagers need help.
Larry Holeman, “Larry The Internship Guy,” works for EDCO (Economic Development for Central Oregon) in a program called Youth Career Connect. Holeman works with students and businesses to help facilitate opportunities for students to get real world work experience through internships. Holeman visits each highschool in Central Oregon weekly to give all students a chance to learn about EDCO internships and offer help developing work skills. Holeman helps teenagers get internships from a range of areas like computer science, real-estate, graphic design, social media, journalism, medical, law, businesses, architecture, woodworking and more. Many students that Holeman works with have never had a job and have had no prior work experience, so he helps students in a range of ways in order to get the best jobs suited to them as possible. In an interview, Holeman gave great insight on some of teenagers’ largest questions on the job world.
How to Write a Resume
Many students have never had jobs so they don’t know how to write an effective resume to portray themselves. Holeman talks about other subjects you can add to your resume like volunteer work or community service, any type of events or projects you’ve done with your school, any relevant roles and responsibilities you’ve had and any type of work you’ve done (like doing yard work for your parents or babysitting). Also students can add types of classes they’ve taken and interests they have, what you are passionate about.
“There are a few main points of a resume,” Holeman explained. “One, you want to have an objective. Another is what you are looking for in a job. That can be specific for the job you are applying for.” This allows your employer to know what you want in a job, what you want to achieve and what you have done so businesses can assess who you are and determine if you will fit well into their business.
Preparing For an Interview
“A resume gets you in the door, the interview closes the deal,” Holeman stated. You have to be prepared, you need to know the company you are interviewing for, who is interviewing you, what the job you are applying for entails and most importantly come with a lot of questions. Coming with questions shows the employer you care and you want to know more about the job. Teenagers need to learn to take the interrogating questions from the employer into a conversation. Make sure to show up early and to relax before your interview so you can come in with an open mind.
More tactics you can apply to sway your interviewer is to visit the company’s website, print out some pages and highlight and create notes on the pages to talk about in the interview. This will show that you have taken the time to study their business and what they do. You could also write a cover letter to demonstrate your writing and communication skills. It also introduces who you are and states your desired outcomes from getting the job in depth and how you can help.
What to Look For in a Job
While most focus on the pay rate of jobs, there are other aspects teenagers should be aware of when looking for a job. If a teenager is only looking for money, then they could work anywhere like McDonalds or push a shopping cart around at the store. But that isn’t career based work experience, it isn’t something you can bring with you to other jobs and to look more desirable for future careers. Teenagers should look for meaningful and enjoyable work to set them up for their future.
If you get an internship, you gain real world experience you can use to apply to colleges and put on a resume to give yourself more value to companies. When you have prior work experience you also will be set up to make higher wages when you are older. No matter what you do, you have to start from the ground up so internships allow students to get into the door early.
Getting an internship also can help teenagers figure out what they want to do for a living. Holeman and others at EDCO will talk and ask a lot of questions to students individually to figure out what each person enjoys so the student can find the best internship that suits them and their desired future. Students’ hobbies are a great basis for a job they will enjoy.
Whether you’re looking for an elite internship, or a laid back job, these tips will help you bolster your resume, and bank account.