Jobs as EC that get unhooked into T10

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jobs are the new "volunteer in Africa". That worked for a while when it is new. AO's got wised up. Needed something else. Now jobs it is to show lack of privilege. You take your $1200 iphone and $300 ipods and $200 sneakers to do a job, thereby showing your humble down to earth, lack of privilege, etc.

Give it a couple of years, AO's would wise up to this. Then to something else.

It does sounds and smells like building huts in Africa.

What's everyone's prediction of that "something else" in a couple of years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jobs are the new "volunteer in Africa". That worked for a while when it is new. AO's got wised up. Needed something else. Now jobs it is to show lack of privilege. You take your $1200 iphone and $300 ipods and $200 sneakers to do a job, thereby showing your humble down to earth, lack of privilege, etc.

Give it a couple of years, AO's would wise up to this. Then to something else.

They are not. Teenagers have been getting summer jobs forever. It was the most normal thing in the world before all the pre-college, academic camp, internship hysteria hit. Nobody gets into a top college because they had a job busing tables. But they do grow up, Manage responsibility, deal with all kinds of people etc and these are all important things to be able to do if you expect to be successful in a profession someday. Colleges aren’t giving medals for kids having grungy summer jobs, they want future graduates who will be leaders and make the school look good.

[Anonymous]

I don't know why people get such ruffled feathers about this, or attack other parents for gaming the system or "fooling AOs". College admissions *is* a system; it's a numbers game and you are playing to win, i.e. get a spot in the class of 20XX at whatever school may be your dream.

Kids can set goals and lay out a plan to achieve those goals -- kind of like you might in planning for retirement. If you were trying to get a particular job, you might engage in a little bit of keyword bingo with your resume -- to become or otherwise show that you're the person for the open spot. There is no shame in this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paid jobs are becoming popular because they lessen the stench of economic privilege.

As my son said on Monday when I dropped him off at his volunteer orientation:

"Oh look, a Tesla here to drop off another volunteer!"

well also AOs have woken up to what parents and also anyone who was formally a teen who had a job: you learn and grow a lot more working a job than being a volunteer with Tesla kids. You gain soft skills. You might work for one summer to the next for promotions. I learned as a teen manager how to deal with other teen employees, including one who was stealing. I managed schedules and dealt with public complaints. I managed a social life with a 40 hour a week job. My kid volunteered for a while but it's a whole different thing. As soon as they were legal, they got a job

Agree with all this but are AOs actually looking at this kind of thing now? Genuine question.

Yes. 💯
My kid’s Ivy admit letter came with a note about how impressed they were about his four separate part-time jobs (3 were summer and 1 school year service job). We are extremely high income and he is in a private prep school.
All jobs were somewhat related to his niche (or could be tied to it).

Ideas to combine with a regular retail or service gig:

- Music major, working in a guitar store or piano store, helping with sales or tuning of instruments

- CS major, working in some sort of hardware support role whether in sales or retail. Similarly working at a technology summer camp for kids.

- archeology major, working as a cashier or guide or similar at a popular history, museum or other type of museum and helping out with the kids summer camp at the same place for three weeks

Great job fooling AO's. That is a fantastic approach.

Oh come on. You're not fooling AOs. It's just refreshing seeing people being more normal instead of expensively manufactured candidates. After all, low wage teen jobs have bad stuff and don't suck up to you like you're an elite. At my only normcore teen job, I worked at a Macy's equivalent. I got yelled at by customers, spent hours organizing a bathing suit section, got hangers thrown at me by the department manager, got my hours regularly cut in favor of another worker with a connected parent, was asked to dust the bottom of the clothing racks in the entire department twice while a stonecutter continued to replace marble tiles, and was asked to smile more while standing in heels for 8 hours passing out free shopping bags. That was better than my friend's jobs at fast food. One of them even got burned cleaning a machine that he wasn't supposed to be working with due to age. Expensive iPods, sneakers, whatever...there's still some real life to be lived doing these jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paid jobs are becoming popular because they lessen the stench of economic privilege.

As my son said on Monday when I dropped him off at his volunteer orientation:

"Oh look, a Tesla here to drop off another volunteer!"

well also AOs have woken up to what parents and also anyone who was formally a teen who had a job: you learn and grow a lot more working a job than being a volunteer with Tesla kids. You gain soft skills. You might work for one summer to the next for promotions. I learned as a teen manager how to deal with other teen employees, including one who was stealing. I managed schedules and dealt with public complaints. I managed a social life with a 40 hour a week job. My kid volunteered for a while but it's a whole different thing. As soon as they were legal, they got a job

Agree with all this but are AOs actually looking at this kind of thing now? Genuine question.

Yes. 💯
My kid’s Ivy admit letter came with a note about how impressed they were about his four separate part-time jobs (3 were summer and 1 school year service job). We are extremely high income and he is in a private prep school.
All jobs were somewhat related to his niche (or could be tied to it).

Ideas to combine with a regular retail or service gig:

- Music major, working in a guitar store or piano store, helping with sales or tuning of instruments

- CS major, working in some sort of hardware support role whether in sales or retail. Similarly working at a technology summer camp for kids.

- archeology major, working as a cashier or guide or similar at a popular history, museum or other type of museum and helping out with the kids summer camp at the same place for three weeks

Great job fooling AO's. That is a fantastic approach.

DP. There's nothing here to fool anyone.

This game theory on admissions is silly and misplaced. PP is finding ways to show a connection between interest and work ethic. That's about communicating strengths, not "fooling" people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paid jobs are becoming popular because they lessen the stench of economic privilege.

As my son said on Monday when I dropped him off at his volunteer orientation:

"Oh look, a Tesla here to drop off another volunteer!"

well also AOs have woken up to what parents and also anyone who was formally a teen who had a job: you learn and grow a lot more working a job than being a volunteer with Tesla kids. You gain soft skills. You might work for one summer to the next for promotions. I learned as a teen manager how to deal with other teen employees, including one who was stealing. I managed schedules and dealt with public complaints. I managed a social life with a 40 hour a week job. My kid volunteered for a while but it's a whole different thing. As soon as they were legal, they got a job

Agree with all this but are AOs actually looking at this kind of thing now? Genuine question.

Yes. 💯
My kid’s Ivy admit letter came with a note about how impressed they were about his four separate part-time jobs (3 were summer and 1 school year service job). We are extremely high income and he is in a private prep school.
All jobs were somewhat related to his niche (or could be tied to it).

Ideas to combine with a regular retail or service gig:

- Music major, working in a guitar store or piano store, helping with sales or tuning of instruments

- CS major, working in some sort of hardware support role whether in sales or retail. Similarly working at a technology summer camp for kids.

- archeology major, working as a cashier or guide or similar at a popular history, museum or other type of museum and helping out with the kids summer camp at the same place for three weeks

Great job fooling AO's. That is a fantastic approach.

Oh come on. You're not fooling AOs. It's just refreshing seeing people being more normal instead of expensively manufactured candidates. After all, low wage teen jobs have bad stuff and don't suck up to you like you're an elite. At my only normcore teen job, I worked at a Macy's equivalent. I got yelled at by customers, spent hours organizing a bathing suit section, got hangers thrown at me by the department manager, got my hours regularly cut in favor of another worker with a connected parent, was asked to dust the bottom of the clothing racks in the entire department twice while a stonecutter continued to replace marble tiles, and was asked to smile more while standing in heels for 8 hours passing out free shopping bags. That was better than my friend's jobs at fast food. One of them even got burned cleaning a machine that he wasn't supposed to be working with due to age. Expensive iPods, sneakers, whatever...there's still some real life to be lived doing these jobs.

I worked in a small trendy clothes shop in the mall -- same grueling routine. Later, I worked at Macy's, but I got a gig being a demo model for liqueur cakes. Let's just say a lot of the sample pieces were poorly cut and had to be disposed of. 😉

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paid jobs are becoming popular because they lessen the stench of economic privilege.

As my son said on Monday when I dropped him off at his volunteer orientation:

"Oh look, a Tesla here to drop off another volunteer!"

well also AOs have woken up to what parents and also anyone who was formally a teen who had a job: you learn and grow a lot more working a job than being a volunteer with Tesla kids. You gain soft skills. You might work for one summer to the next for promotions. I learned as a teen manager how to deal with other teen employees, including one who was stealing. I managed schedules and dealt with public complaints. I managed a social life with a 40 hour a week job. My kid volunteered for a while but it's a whole different thing. As soon as they were legal, they got a job

Agree with all this but are AOs actually looking at this kind of thing now? Genuine question.

Yes. 💯
My kid’s Ivy admit letter came with a note about how impressed they were about his four separate part-time jobs (3 were summer and 1 school year service job). We are extremely high income and he is in a private prep school.
All jobs were somewhat related to his niche (or could be tied to it).

Ideas to combine with a regular retail or service gig:

- Music major, working in a guitar store or piano store, helping with sales or tuning of instruments

- CS major, working in some sort of hardware support role whether in sales or retail. Similarly working at a technology summer camp for kids.

- archeology major, working as a cashier or guide or similar at a popular history, museum or other type of museum and helping out with the kids summer camp at the same place for three weeks

Great job fooling AO's. That is a fantastic approach.

DP. There's nothing here to fool anyone.

This game theory on admissions is silly and misplaced. PP is finding ways to show a connection between interest and work ethic. That's about communicating strengths, not "fooling" people.

Agree. Glad everyone has found something productive to do that doesn’t involving flying to a fancy college campus.

[Anonymous]

Whether or not working crappy job has any meaningful value in college admissions, most teenagers would never consider that a top choice for how to spend their summers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whether or not working crappy job has any meaningful value in college admissions, most teenagers would never consider that a top choice for how to spend their summers.

Mine absolutely did consider that a top choice

[Anonymous]

Is a camp counselor an ok job for a rising senior?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whether or not working crappy job has any meaningful value in college admissions, most teenagers would never consider that a top choice for how to spend their summers.

Mine absolutely did consider that a top choice

What were the other options? Did any of them involve not having to work at all?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whether or not working crappy job has any meaningful value in college admissions, most teenagers would never consider that a top choice for how to spend their summers.

Mine absolutely did consider that a top choice

What were the other options? Did any of them involve not having to work at all?

Sure we all want to not have to work.

What does that have to do with anything.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think my kid’s retail job helped her get into UVA. Maybe it did? But I don’t buy it.

[Anonymous]

DD graduated from an EC math program and started working as a math instructor there when she turned 14. Her essay was about her job, and the center director who had observed her since the age of 7 wrote a recommendation letter. Accepted by a T10, CS and math majors, no hooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whether or not working crappy job has any meaningful value in college admissions, most teenagers would never consider that a top choice for how to spend their summers.

Mine absolutely did consider that a top choice

What were the other options? Did any of them involve not having to work at all?

Every single teenager they know has a summer job. To not have a job would frankly just be bizarre. And this is a UMC town where nearly everybody goes to college.