Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing wrong with a regular summer job. I wish we could go back to the days when summer job meant lifeguarding, babysitting, working in amusement parks, camp counseling, etc.

These summer jobs are filled with mostly middle and lower class kids like mine. My friends who are UMC look down on these types of jobs which is unfortunate. My DS has enjoyed all of his varied summer jobs and they were what he talked about in internships interviews in college.

Most of the kids we know are UMC doing lifeguarding.

Same. Chads lifeguard. Chuds work fake internships set up by their parents.

Love that OP's kid will be day camp counselor. Good summer job. I have four kids. First three all worked in dining services at assisted living complex in our hometown, both during the summer before senior year and during senior year. Oldest attended HYP, second is at top 10 LAC, third is at top 30 LAC. Fourth and last kid just started in same job.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:to be fair, nobody is pushing paper in internships anymore.

my kids are not the kids who had internships at Blackstone during HS bcs of their parents, but those kids made a ton of connections and had interesting projects. often for like 6 weeks and then went to Montauk for the rest of the summer. nice work if you can get it.

Please do tell…what substantive work are high schoolers doing at their non-STEM, six week internships?

with Claude, the same thing half of us are doing at work.

plus having lunch with people who will hire them again in 5 years.

I'd be more worried whether Claude will replace them in 5 years...

all the more reason to make as many connections as possible.

my own kid's first job was for the guy he worked for as a caddy in junior high.

I got no issue with working in a camp or at a pool or at mom's firm. I only sort of object to the OP's premise that all jobs gained via mommy and daddy are a waste of time. that's just not really true. depends on the job and mommy and daddy. I wish my own kids had more of those opportunities tbh

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:to be fair, nobody is pushing paper in internships anymore.

my kids are not the kids who had internships at Blackstone during HS bcs of their parents, but those kids made a ton of connections and had interesting projects. often for like 6 weeks and then went to Montauk for the rest of the summer. nice work if you can get it.

Please do tell…what substantive work are high schoolers doing at their non-STEM, six week internships?

with Claude, the same thing half of us are doing at work.

plus having lunch with people who will hire them again in 5 years.

I'd be more worried whether Claude will replace them in 5 years...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:to be fair, nobody is pushing paper in internships anymore.

my kids are not the kids who had internships at Blackstone during HS bcs of their parents, but those kids made a ton of connections and had interesting projects. often for like 6 weeks and then went to Montauk for the rest of the summer. nice work if you can get it.

Please do tell…what substantive work are high schoolers doing at their non-STEM, six week internships?

with Claude, the same thing half of us are doing at work.

plus having lunch with people who will hire them again in 5 years.

He's absolutely fine without an internship in high school. My kids all had regular teen jobs. Many, many kids don't do a true internship until the summer between sophomore and junior year of college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years of real summer jobs helped my son get a real internship in college. The recruiter said that they rarely consider students who have zero work history.

+1 my kids worked "regular" jobs during HS summers and first college summer. Did well with college internships.

Also, as someone who hires interns, I only really consider someone who had some experience like retail/camp counselor/food service. If you've only done "internships" since HS, I'm going to assume most of those weren't real jobs and that you just have well connected parents.

Or those are left off the resume for room for more
Meaningful experiences and to keep it short and uncluttered

That would be bad resume advice. Retail/food service/camp counselor are definitely meaningful experiences at that stage of career. It tells me you can deal with people, customer service, stressful situations, and aren't too good to do grunt work.

Anonymous wrote:to be fair, nobody is pushing paper in internships anymore.

my kids are not the kids who had internships at Blackstone during HS bcs of their parents, but those kids made a ton of connections and had interesting projects. often for like 6 weeks and then went to Montauk for the rest of the summer. nice work if you can get it.

Please do tell…what substantive work are high schoolers doing at their non-STEM, six week internships?

to be fair, nobody is pushing paper in internships anymore.

my kids are not the kids who had internships at Blackstone during HS bcs of their parents, but those kids made a ton of connections and had interesting projects. often for like 6 weeks and then went to Montauk for the rest of the summer. nice work if you can get it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years of real summer jobs helped my son get a real internship in college. The recruiter said that they rarely consider students who have zero work history.

+1 my kids worked "regular" jobs during HS summers and first college summer. Did well with college internships.

Also, as someone who hires interns, I only really consider someone who had some experience like retail/camp counselor/food service. If you've only done "internships" since HS, I'm going to assume most of those weren't real jobs and that you just have well connected parents.

Or those are left off the resume for room for more
Meaningful experiences and to keep it short and uncluttered

"Top" college coaches also say construction jobs help a lot. Again, this requires seriously parental connection to make it happen. No construction job is willing to consider a teenager to do the work as there are strict legal compliance issues.

OP here. Sorry if my wording rubbed some people the wrong way or came off as entitled. DS is working as a day camp counselor for the first half of the summer, as he’s done for the last two summers. He’s looking to do something different in July, and feels pressure to get an internship b/c many of his friends have them. My only point was that these internships mostly seem to be something set up by his friends’ parents and not actually that illuminating or substantive. By “life changing” I guess I meant something that involves traveling to a new place or meaningful local volunteer work that can bring new life perspectives, etc. I spent a month living with a family abroad one summer in HS, learning the language, gaining independence, and it was totally life changing.

In terms of what he wants, that’s the problem, I don’t really know. He feels pressure to get an internship, and I guess I was just looking for some reassurance from parents who have BTDT that an internship is not necessarily helpful for college. He should focus on living his life instead of building his resume.

Anonymous wrote:top college coaches say retail/fast food will get you better results then pay to play

This is just so not true.
They say if you made it to management positions at retail/fast food as a high schools, you may get good results.
It almost certainly requires some parental connection to make management positions at retail/fast food at the age of 16, as it requires years of devotion to the job. As far as I know, no retail/fast food is taking 12 years old kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing wrong with a regular summer job. I wish we could go back to the days when summer job meant lifeguarding, babysitting, working in amusement parks, camp counseling, etc.

These summer jobs are filled with mostly middle and lower class kids like mine. My friends who are UMC look down on these types of jobs which is unfortunate. My DS has enjoyed all of his varied summer jobs and they were what he talked about in internships interviews in college.

Most of the kids we know are UMC doing lifeguarding.

top college coaches say retail/fast food will get you better results then pay to play