Who should read this chapter? All parents of teens who are fortunate enough to have a choice in deciding on their first job experience.
Summary: Should your child's first job experience be an entry level job, a volunteer, a job in a family business or no job until completing their education? Most teens have only a few opportunities to sample employment prior to looking for a real job. This chapter discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each type of job experience to get the most of their first job experience.
Working on the job is a first experience that we all remember. Is there a best job for a first job experience? I think this simplifies to four different options: 1) a volunteer job, 2) an entry level job, 3) a job with the family, 4) no job until after college.
A volunteer job is easy to get and teenagers younger than the minimum age are eligible in most instances. There is no pay of course so there is no financial experience gained here. Unlike a regular job for pay, the "boss" has little leverage over volunteers, so there is very little incentive to work hard. Volunteer work can be a valuable experience, but it really depends on the degree of dedication to the job. The more dedication that is demonstrated, the greater the responsibility given to the volunteer improving the quality of the learning experience. Peace Corps jobs are usually overseas and more than full-time. The quality of such an experience and the educational and growth potential are immense. Service to others teaches one to appreciate the virtue of giving and the value and fortunes of their own lives. This should be embedded into everyone.
Unfortunately, most volunteer jobs aren't like this. Hospital youth volunteers often spend only 4 hours a week volunteering for a summer. They are usually used to file paperwork, transport samples and supplies, change linen, deliver flowers, push wheelchairs and answer phone calls. This type of volunteer experience is almost useless, other than to say, "I was a volunteer." I've seen volunteers sit around waiting for 4 hours, then disappearing immediately when their shift time has ended.
A more serious volunteer effort would bring out the benefits of a volunteer job, but this requires a greater time commitment. Volunteers are needed at universities, museums, parks, recreation programs, health care facilities, schools, food programs, government offices, fund raising organizations, politicians, etc. Youths active in school and extracurricular activities may not be able or willing to make such a large time commitment. If your teen is thinking about a volunteer job that will have value, may I suggest that they make a serious commitment to the job, if they expect any value to result from the experience. Basically, you get out of it what you put into it.
An entry level job such as flipping burgers, packing groceries, food processing, agriculture maintenance and harvesting, janitorial services, newspaper delivery, housekeeping, stocking store shelves, reshelving library books, lawn and garden care, etc., are usually subject to minimum wage requirements set by the local labor department. Most minors will need a youth work permit. Newspaper delivery seems to be exempt which is why children are often paid to deliver newspapers to homes. My first job at age 16 was a job in a fruit processing and canning plant. I spent several summers there and like most entry level jobs, I earned some money and I learned how to operate, clean, and troubleshoot a few fruit processing machines. How valuable is this experience? There are a wide range of answers here. Entry level jobs give teens the opportunity to experience taxes and money management. But this experience can probably be gained in other ways such as an allowance and reviewing the math of taxes with your teens around tax time. I don't believe that my personal experience with the fruit processing machines was of much value. This is typical of most entry level jobs since the actual work involved is usually simple and repetitive.
However, there is value in experiencing a blue collar job for those teens who have not been exposed to it. If a child's parents both work in an air conditioned office, such children may not appreciate the value of physical labor typical of entry level jobs. If teens are thinking about their future careers, starting off in an entry level job may help them decide on a career path. I also learned that the factory workers worked very hard for many years for a level of pay that I did not feel was good enough for what I wanted in my future. I learned to respect them because they were my first bosses and they treated me very nicely.
Some entry level jobs introduce youth to the importance of people skills. Through their interaction with customers (eg., as grocery bag boys, food service, etc.), teens learn to sharpen their personal interaction skills.
A job with the family business is certainly logical. Why not keep the money in the family? There are many benefits of such a family arrangement, but there are a few negatives. The role of the "boss" is more like the role of a parent (or aunt, uncle, etc.). Discipline may be difficult since the threat to fire this worker who is a family member may not be credible. Family members as employees may not work as hard since they have special relationships with the bosses. The work experience gained from working for a boss who is unknown to the employee is very different from working for a relative whom the teen has known since childhood.
What about no job until finishing college? I used to think that this was a bad idea and that ALL teens should have some type of job experience prior to graduating from high school. I have heard an alternative view on this that makes this option a choice to consider. Compare the benefit of a summer job canning fruit and taking a college preparation course such as calculus, chemistry or foreign language. The benefit of taking the college preparation course is clear. The benefit of the summer job is a practical one which is difficult to compare. During the college years, summer students take more college credits getting a jump on graduation or they can work to help pay for tuition. This can also be done during the school year. This becomes a tradeoff between education time and money.
Some experts feel strongly there is nothing to be gained from sweeping floors, waiting on tables, flipping burgers or canning fruit, since these jobs bring in minimal income and no useful job experience. I would disagree with these experts since there is some value to entry level jobs as described earlier in this chapter. Therefore, it is not a simple comparison. Perhaps the best choice would be to spend one summer in an entry level job to gain the benefits of this, but the rest of the summers and extra hours available could be spent on more academic pursuits such as college preparation or college credit classes, research or training fellowships, help with a family business, etc.
I know of a young adult who never worked in an entry level job. He currently has a very good job but he is rather spoiled and wasteful. He focuses excessively on material goods often over family, and he is somewhat disrespectful of those who work in blue collar jobs and others who are less fortunate. Perhaps this is due to the lack of experiencing an entry level job or perhaps this person was just destined to be this way.
Like many decisions in life, there are advantages and disadvantages to each of the decisions we make in our education, career training and life experiences. This chapter is not designed to determine which choice is best. In fact most of us are not fortunate enough to have a choice among all these options. Rather, the information presented here will hopefully result in a more informed decision of how their time can be best spent.
Whatever your child's first job is, it is a good idea to take advantage of a Roth IRA once your child has a job. The Roth IRA allows your children to invest their salary to grow tax free. This is an incredible advantage if they begin investing at an early age. For example, if your child makes $2000 (after taxes) every summer for just 6 years from age 16 to 22 and this $2000 was invested every year at an 8% rate of return, at age 60 (38 years later), this savings would have grown to $273,000 and it can be taken out without any income tax. It would be unusual for a teen to want to bank away the entire amount for their retirement. Encouraging them to do this could be coupled with a parental incentive such as matching the amount that they save in a Roth IRA; they put in $1000 and you match another $1000 (total $2000) allowing them to maximize their tax advantage.