When I was a teen there was no shame in working at Roy Rogers, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Wendy's etc..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think, over the past 10 years, so much of getting a job has come down to connections. You either have them through your parents or through an internship.

Most internships are now unpaid and uber competitive. To get a good one, you need to have experience that readily applies (or a family/friend connection). This means kids have to start taking on more "serious" jobs earlier and earlier. There is no time to wait tables or work retail because those jobs no longer are good enough to help you make your way into a serious job.

I don't think you need connections to get a job at the local movie theater or fast food joint. I think you need a parent to push their lazy kids to get off their asses and out of the house.

I get what you are trying to say but really how many kids are getting internships and building their Linked-in profiles at 16? Most people aren't doing internships until they are 20 or 21 at the earliest.

And what are your kids doing? Just mind your own business and take care of what YOUR kids are doing. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think, over the past 10 years, so much of getting a job has come down to connections. You either have them through your parents or through an internship.

Most internships are now unpaid and uber competitive. To get a good one, you need to have experience that readily applies (or a family/friend connection). This means kids have to start taking on more "serious" jobs earlier and earlier. There is no time to wait tables or work retail because those jobs no longer are good enough to help you make your way into a serious job.

I don't think you need connections to get a job at the local movie theater or fast food joint. I think you need a parent to push their lazy kids to get off their asses and out of the house.

I get what you are trying to say but really how many kids are getting internships and building their Linked-in profiles at 16? Most people aren't doing internships until they are 20 or 21 at the earliest.

NP but I got my first serious internship at an engineering company the summer after senior year when I was 18.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was here in DC area in the 1980s.
Those jobs (while sometimes crappy) were seen by all as spending money and free food.
I attended a Catholic High School where tuition was not cheap.
Whether working at the country club or working fast food. A job was a job.
Everyone was expected to have some sort of part time job.

When did this all change?

Who says it is shameful to work at the places you mention? However, when my kids go to college I want them to focus on college. Internships are fine. But, I want them to do the best they can academically and if you are working 40 hours or so than it is going to take away from studying time. And college is expensive so I don't want them to waste it.

But that only excuses some of the time kids aren't working and I'm not sure I buy even that excuse. HS and College are essentially only 8 months of the year.

And when I was a kid, as others have posted, most people got jobs as soon as they were able and that included everyone in my middle class family and a lot of the people we knew in similar circumstances.

When I was a kid if you went out in the neighborhood to a restaurant, movie theater, bowling alley or whatever most of the grunt jobs were taken by high school or college age kids from the neighborhood and that is definitely not the case around here.

Oddly the same demographic around here seem to drive cars that would appear to be out of the price range of someone who doesn't work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One good thing bout my poor hometown in flyover america is you WORKED. Turning 15.5 was a huge milestone because you could go down and get your work permit. You could even be a lifeguard at 14.5 which was another huge opportunity in my town. I didnt know ANY kids by 16 who didnt work…and we worked some major hours. 30 a week while in school was completely standard. We worked at the mall, fast food, grocery stores, lawn care, etc etc. My dad always said "the thing I miss about being working poor is everyone WORKED because thats what we did." Trust me I knew NO ONE that didn't work because of sports or travel teams or gymnastics or whatever.

Unfortunately that is what the DC area has now become sadly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think, over the past 10 years, so much of getting a job has come down to connections. You either have them through your parents or through an internship.

Most internships are now unpaid and uber competitive. To get a good one, you need to have experience that readily applies (or a family/friend connection). This means kids have to start taking on more "serious" jobs earlier and earlier. There is no time to wait tables or work retail because those jobs no longer are good enough to help you make your way into a serious job.

I don't think you need connections to get a job at the local movie theater or fast food joint. I think you need a parent to push their lazy kids to get off their asses and out of the house.

I get what you are trying to say but really how many kids are getting internships and building their Linked-in profiles at 16? Most people aren't doing internships until they are 20 or 21 at the earliest.

And what are your kids doing? Just mind your own business and take care of what YOUR kids are doing. Thank you!

Not hanging out with your spoiled and clueless kids!

[Anonymous]

My kids could not get a job in any of the nearby fast food places, too many applicants. They found jobs through friends eventually.

[Anonymous]

I don't know why, op, but I've noticed the same thing. When I go back to my hometown, the jobs that used to be done by teenagers are now done by recent immigrants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was here in DC area in the 1980s.
Those jobs (while sometimes crappy) were seen by all as spending money and free food.
I attended a Catholic High School where tuition was not cheap.
Whether working at the country club or working fast food. A job was a job.
Everyone was expected to have some sort of part time job.

When did this all change?

I don't know when or why this changed, but based on the job-hunting experiences of my teen daughter and several of her friends most of the fast food places around my NoVA neighborhood appear to have a tacit "Non-hispanics need not apply" policy.

She found other part-time work, in retail mostly, but those fast food "starter jobs?" Nope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Damn I really miss Roy Rogers. That was the only fast food I liked.

There are a handful of them still around the area somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think, over the past 10 years, so much of getting a job has come down to connections. You either have them through your parents or through an internship.

Most internships are now unpaid and uber competitive. To get a good one, you need to have experience that readily applies (or a family/friend connection). This means kids have to start taking on more "serious" jobs earlier and earlier. There is no time to wait tables or work retail because those jobs no longer are good enough to help you make your way into a serious job.

If true, that's unfortunate. Those types of jobs do more to instill responsibility, accountability, etc. than any college curriculum or busywork internship ever will. If nothing else, they provide a sobering look at the consequences of not applying oneself to higher education or formal vocational training.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was here in DC area in the 1980s.
Those jobs (while sometimes crappy) were seen by all as spending money and free food.
I attended a Catholic High School where tuition was not cheap.
Whether working at the country club or working fast food. A job was a job.
Everyone was expected to have some sort of part time job.

When did this all change?

I don't know when or why this changed, but based on the job-hunting experiences of my teen daughter and several of her friends most of the fast food places around my NoVA neighborhood appear to have a tacit "Non-hispanics need not apply" policy.

She found other part-time work, in retail mostly, but those fast food "starter jobs?" Nope.

Try Chik Fil A.

It is packed with smiling, hard working, middle class older teens of all colors.

[Anonymous]

Don't know when it changed here or anywhere, but all of this is directly correlated with parents' income - always was. Grew up in the 1990s in a well to do southern NJ suburb -- lots of kids of doctors, lawyers, business owners. Even then it was looked down upon if you "had to work." To some extent other kids found it cool bc they were fascinated that your money was yours and not conditional on your parents who could withhold it to punish. But not all the looking down upon was by your peers, it was their parents looking down upon your parents -- i.e. aww soooo sad that Johnny can't play travel soccer and chill at the mall like my Christopher, it must be soooo hard on him that he has to work 15 hrs a week at CVS/Pizza Hut/wherever. It was the type of suburb where you were given a car when you turned 17. No one much cared about education so Rutgers it was for most people -- unless your parents were Penn State loyal, then they paid OOS for PSU. So point is, even in the 90s if you were working back there for your spending money, to save for college, or a car/car insurance, people ran around implying that your parents just weren't good enough providers.

OTOH -- lived in Richmond for a few yrs in the early 2000s and EVERYONE worked. Every teenage kid had jobs at the grocery store, fast food, retail etc. including the children of well to do law firm partners. I remember having a discussion about that with one such partner and his view was -- no 16 yr old boy should be without a job, doesn't matter if his parents have money or not. So they viewed it more as a rite of passage/responsibility thing vs. necessarily needing the money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't know when it changed here or anywhere, but all of this is directly correlated with parents' income - always was. Grew up in the 1990s in a well to do southern NJ suburb -- lots of kids of doctors, lawyers, business owners. Even then it was looked down upon if you "had to work." To some extent other kids found it cool bc they were fascinated that your money was yours and not conditional on your parents who could withhold it to punish. But not all the looking down upon was by your peers, it was their parents looking down upon your parents -- i.e. aww soooo sad that Johnny can't play travel soccer and chill at the mall like my Christopher, it must be soooo hard on him that he has to work 15 hrs a week at CVS/Pizza Hut/wherever. It was the type of suburb where you were given a car when you turned 17. No one much cared about education so Rutgers it was for most people -- unless your parents were Penn State loyal, then they paid OOS for PSU. So point is, even in the 90s if you were working back there for your spending money, to save for college, or a car/car insurance, people ran around implying that your parents just weren't good enough providers.

OTOH -- lived in Richmond for a few yrs in the early 2000s and EVERYONE worked. Every teenage kid had jobs at the grocery store, fast food, retail etc. including the children of well to do law firm partners. I remember having a discussion about that with one such partner and his view was -- no 16 yr old boy should be without a job, doesn't matter if his parents have money or not. So they viewed it more as a rite of passage/responsibility thing vs. necessarily needing the money.

It was never about the money in our family except my parents limited how much money we could have - if we wanted money to date, get a car, travel, buy anything frivolous we had to earn it. Otherwise we were out of luck.

[Anonymous]

My friend and I walked into a Taco Bell to visit one of our classmates who had just recently started working there.

Right as we walk up to the counter to say hello he hands us 2 large empty plastic cups and points his finger in the direction of the soda machine.

"Are you sure this is OK?" I asked.

"It's cool. Go ahead. Knock yourselves out. On the house." He said.

Right in front of the manager. Manager said nothing. He turned around and went back to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't know when it changed here or anywhere, but all of this is directly correlated with parents' income - always was. Grew up in the 1990s in a well to do southern NJ suburb -- lots of kids of doctors, lawyers, business owners. Even then it was looked down upon if you "had to work." To some extent other kids found it cool bc they were fascinated that your money was yours and not conditional on your parents who could withhold it to punish. But not all the looking down upon was by your peers, it was their parents looking down upon your parents -- i.e. aww soooo sad that Johnny can't play travel soccer and chill at the mall like my Christopher, it must be soooo hard on him that he has to work 15 hrs a week at CVS/Pizza Hut/wherever. It was the type of suburb where you were given a car when you turned 17. No one much cared about education so Rutgers it was for most people -- unless your parents were Penn State loyal, then they paid OOS for PSU. So point is, even in the 90s if you were working back there for your spending money, to save for college, or a car/car insurance, people ran around implying that your parents just weren't good enough providers.

OTOH -- lived in Richmond for a few yrs in the early 2000s and EVERYONE worked. Every teenage kid had jobs at the grocery store, fast food, retail etc. including the children of well to do law firm partners. I remember having a discussion about that with one such partner and his view was -- no 16 yr old boy should be without a job, doesn't matter if his parents have money or not. So they viewed it more as a rite of passage/responsibility thing vs. necessarily needing the money.

It was never about the money in our family except my parents limited how much money we could have - if we wanted money to date, get a car, travel, buy anything frivolous we had to earn it. Otherwise we were out of luck.

That's the thing -- in some places like here, my southern NJ town -- parents didn't limit how much $$ kids could have. I mean there's some outside limit of course, but parents act like they MUST provide for their DS to start dating, must provide brand new cars + car insurance etc. And if they see other parents setting such limits -- bc their kids tell them that so-and-so has just picked up a job -- they look down on that family and act like oooohhh that family must not be doing as well as they act bc if they were, what's another 25k for a brand new car + $100/month for insurance + $200/month to let their son date?? We're doing better than them bc we don't NEED TO make our DS work.