Should I Get a Job as a Highschool Student?

Author: Austin Fern, Junior, NHS member

Throughout high school, you face many situations that require leadership, responsibility, and integrity. Fortunately, all of these skills can be acquired through a job! As a high school student, you can work for a variety of businesses: grocery stores, fast food restaurants, clothing, shoes, etc. Working a job not only teaches you valuable skills that are necessary to become successful, but can also give you financial freedom from your parents. And I know from personal experience!

I worked as a busser. Here were the biggest benefits of the job. I figured out how to manage my time and money in an orderly fashion. I also learned how to be extremely patient with people. ( Sadly, not all customers are particularly nice. )Another positive about working as a teen is that you can usually get benefits. These benefits include free or discounted food, flexible hours, and vacation days. And arguably the most important and yet not-so-obvious benefit is that jobs look especially good on your resume & for college applications. Having a job can show colleges that you do other things besides school. And also,, job experience may enable you to get hired for another job.

So, how should you go about finding a job? Here are the 5 steps I followed to find my first job:

1. I thought about what type of activities interested me/ what I would not hate doing for 6 hours + a day.

2. I narrowed my choices down to realistic jobs in my area.

3. I picked out the top store that I was interested in working for and reached out to see if they were hiring.

4. Once I received a response, I submitted my application and followed up with the store owner.

5. Finally, after a few short conversations, and an interview, I had a job and was ready to start working.

Working as a teen can ultimately set you off on the path towards success. Getting a job is relatively easy and work is work, but the pay is worth it. Just think of all the money you can make. The minimum wage in Arizona is $11 an hour, multiply that by a 6-hour shift and you just made $66 in one day. Now take the $66 and multiply that by 8 days of work (4 days a week) and in just two weeks theoretically you have $528 (before tax) in your pocket. This is not including possible tips, which many jobs include in your pay. Now, who doesn’t want that??

All in all, I strongly recommend every teenager have at least one job throughout high school in order to further learn and grow. There are so many positives that come from having a job and taking early steps to start your future career. Therefore, having a job as a teenager can benefit you in many ways, leading you to a successful future.

Thank you for taking the time to read this far, and those were my two cents about the benefits of getting a job.

-Comment below what type of job you want to get.-

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