Finding Your Teen a Career in a Tough Economy
During their teen's tenure at home, the typical parent is focused upon helping the child center their attention on school as well as beginning their life in the workforce.
It can be heard quite often in the halls of any high school, "My mom said I have to get a job in the next month or she'll take my car away until I do.
" Frustration builds between the parent, who has been taxed for 16 years paying for the teen's activities, and the teen who wants only to go to school, be with friends, and play video games.
The parent has the best of intentions: to help the child learn about the economy, about work ethic, and about responsibility to self and family.
In today's troubled economic times, jobs have become scarce or even impossible to find in the city.
In the country or more rural areas, jobs are almost always hard to find due to lack of employers in the area.
What is the child to do in this situation? In following two teenagers for three months of summer, we have researched the devastating effects of teens being turned away from job positions.
In each case, these two boys were taken to (at minimum) 10 workplaces in a large city to request an application or inquire about job openings each week.
From gyms, to book stores, to restaurants, the answer was the same: fill out an application and we might call you eventually, but right now we aren't hiring due to economic downturn.
Each boy was excited about the earning potential at the beginning of the summer, however, after each week of constant phone calls to managers, repeated trips to places they had been before, and cramped fingers from writing the same information on 40 applications a month, their excitement soon withered to loathing.
Each week after the first month became a battle, as these two youth were asked to put on their business attire, get in the car, and drive around town in what seemed like a never ending battle.
The question begins to arise in the parent's head: "with all these rejections, what is this doing to my child's self esteem and how can I expect him wanting to go through this again after he graduates?" It almost seems as though we are moving our child backwards in motivation towards beginning their life outside our home.
Does the teen begin to think that they may not have what it takes to make it on their own? And yet, we find there are teens that are making it in this economy.
Some are flourishing beyond adults with their mind for entrepreneurship.
Take for example Fraser Doherty, a 14 year old entrepreneur from Edinburgh Scotland whose sales are at between 1-2 million dollars at the age of 19.
His success was made with his grandmother's homemade jam recipes.
He started with selling to his neighbors and members of his church, and he now sells to a major supermarket chain.
His story is not uncommon among millionaire teens.
They begin small, and with their drive to succeed, they move to great heights.
Although it is unlikely that we will become millionaires ourselves, or that our children will become teenaged millionaires, it is likely that they can make money without dependence upon a corporate world.
Take for example a teen who loves basketball.
Through elementary school to middle school, and now in high school, this child has learned and played basketball and has now become very good at the sport.
It is very possible that she could become a teen coach, or tutor, to children who could benefit from her skills.
Why not use the skills she has spent thousands of hours on to make money? Could there be a benefit in this type of career? The odds are in her favor of becoming an entrepreneur now more than ever, as she is still open to new experiences and has not yet learned the corporate way of doing things.
In discussing the two teenage boys who looked for, and failed at, finding a job for three months of a summer despite their best efforts, we find that they had excitement at the beginning because their thoughts were on economic potential.
In a comparison, we can see that asking for applications and calling managers in a corporate environment is about the same as finding customers in an entrepreneurship.
However, at the end of three months of asking, the entrepreneur would likely come out with many more customers than these two boys came out with jobs.
If your teen has had troubles because of hard economic times or possibly because of the rural area in which he lives, the parent has a perfect opportunity to teach him the beginnings of entrepreneurship and help him find an avenue in which he can make money without depending on a company or corporation.
It can be heard quite often in the halls of any high school, "My mom said I have to get a job in the next month or she'll take my car away until I do.
" Frustration builds between the parent, who has been taxed for 16 years paying for the teen's activities, and the teen who wants only to go to school, be with friends, and play video games.
The parent has the best of intentions: to help the child learn about the economy, about work ethic, and about responsibility to self and family.
In today's troubled economic times, jobs have become scarce or even impossible to find in the city.
In the country or more rural areas, jobs are almost always hard to find due to lack of employers in the area.
What is the child to do in this situation? In following two teenagers for three months of summer, we have researched the devastating effects of teens being turned away from job positions.
In each case, these two boys were taken to (at minimum) 10 workplaces in a large city to request an application or inquire about job openings each week.
From gyms, to book stores, to restaurants, the answer was the same: fill out an application and we might call you eventually, but right now we aren't hiring due to economic downturn.
Each boy was excited about the earning potential at the beginning of the summer, however, after each week of constant phone calls to managers, repeated trips to places they had been before, and cramped fingers from writing the same information on 40 applications a month, their excitement soon withered to loathing.
Each week after the first month became a battle, as these two youth were asked to put on their business attire, get in the car, and drive around town in what seemed like a never ending battle.
The question begins to arise in the parent's head: "with all these rejections, what is this doing to my child's self esteem and how can I expect him wanting to go through this again after he graduates?" It almost seems as though we are moving our child backwards in motivation towards beginning their life outside our home.
Does the teen begin to think that they may not have what it takes to make it on their own? And yet, we find there are teens that are making it in this economy.
Some are flourishing beyond adults with their mind for entrepreneurship.
Take for example Fraser Doherty, a 14 year old entrepreneur from Edinburgh Scotland whose sales are at between 1-2 million dollars at the age of 19.
His success was made with his grandmother's homemade jam recipes.
He started with selling to his neighbors and members of his church, and he now sells to a major supermarket chain.
His story is not uncommon among millionaire teens.
They begin small, and with their drive to succeed, they move to great heights.
Although it is unlikely that we will become millionaires ourselves, or that our children will become teenaged millionaires, it is likely that they can make money without dependence upon a corporate world.
Take for example a teen who loves basketball.
Through elementary school to middle school, and now in high school, this child has learned and played basketball and has now become very good at the sport.
It is very possible that she could become a teen coach, or tutor, to children who could benefit from her skills.
Why not use the skills she has spent thousands of hours on to make money? Could there be a benefit in this type of career? The odds are in her favor of becoming an entrepreneur now more than ever, as she is still open to new experiences and has not yet learned the corporate way of doing things.
In discussing the two teenage boys who looked for, and failed at, finding a job for three months of a summer despite their best efforts, we find that they had excitement at the beginning because their thoughts were on economic potential.
In a comparison, we can see that asking for applications and calling managers in a corporate environment is about the same as finding customers in an entrepreneurship.
However, at the end of three months of asking, the entrepreneur would likely come out with many more customers than these two boys came out with jobs.
If your teen has had troubles because of hard economic times or possibly because of the rural area in which he lives, the parent has a perfect opportunity to teach him the beginnings of entrepreneurship and help him find an avenue in which he can make money without depending on a company or corporation.
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