Finding Work Is Hard Work

A lot of people my age generally don’t like the work that is available to them. What’s more, a lot of them don’t have work available to them. I talk to a lot of my friends in the states and they tell me how hard it is for a teenager to get a job. And it’s true. There is a pretty big difference between how teenagers get jobs and how ‘adults’ get jobs. The adult route is pretty straightforward, submit a resume, talk to people, get a job. The shitty thing about trying to get a job as a teenager is that we don’t have a whole lot of stuff on our resumes, and we generally aren’t allowed or trusted enough to get the jobs that adults do. What’s more, our social skills can sometimes be lacking when it comes to talking to our potential employers.

It’s a rough system. After a couple of weeks of job hunting the adult way, it’s easy to get downtrodden by douchebags who don’t want to hire teenagers.

Nevertheless, once you’ve got one or two jobs on your resume, it becomes obvious that you have a decent work ethic, know how to take orders, work with others, that kind of thing. References are a bonus as well. I’m pretty lucky that I was able to sneak my way into a dishwashing gig while my brother was working counters. The first job is the hardest one, but after that, getting jobs gets easier and easier.

I think it’s important to have dream jobs, that way, even if you have a totally shitty job, you don’t just think to yourself “this is all there is”. I have a separate life goals/bucket list, but this is my ‘dream jobs’ list.

– A worker at either the Landyachtz Longboard Factory, or the Rayne Longboard Factory
– A Bricklayer (my grandfather is a retired Bricklayer and there’s something romantic about continuing the family trade)
– A grave digger
– Lighthouse manager (you live in a lighthouse far away from civilization for at least a year)
– Trip leader or Trip staff for a Unschool Adventures trip
– Manager of a successful online T-shirt business (in the works)

Maybe one day I’ll look back and find this post and realize that I’ve done all of these jobs. God I hope so. In the meantime I’ll just keep dishwashing.

-A