I think there are reasons why a student might not have paid employment or an unpaid internship -- perhaps they are volunteering, or perhaps they are assisting with childcare or eldercare in their own families. Maybe they are taking some additional classes or working on a longer-term project. But not doing *anything* any summer is a bit of a red flag.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:big red flag. but for law school lsat and gpa are king. But the summer before law school is key: huge leg up to those with some type of legal experience.

What? I read through law school applications when I was a law student as a “student screener.” Lite legal work was not interesting or impressive. I mean, neither was the kid who watched Netflix all summer.

PP said the summer before law school. I think they were talking about for law firm summer associate applications, not law school applications.

Anonymous wrote:Employers are begging for workers now. This was not the case when I was in college in the Carter/Ford years. I joined the Peace Corps after college. That more than made up for my lack of work experience.

And I had other friends who became military officers for four years. You can always make up for lack of work experience, but you may have to spend a few years in a grueling job to do it.

Employers are begging for workers now. This was not the case when I was in college in the Carter/Ford years. I joined the Peace Corps after college. That more than made up for my lack of work experience.

Anonymous wrote:big red flag. but for law school lsat and gpa are king. But the summer before law school is key: huge leg up to those with some type of legal experience.

What? I read through law school applications when I was a law student as a “student screener.” Lite legal work was not interesting or impressive. I mean, neither was the kid who watched Netflix all summer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS never had any jobs prior to college graduation, and he is now working for Google.

Summer activities or jobs is really overblown.

Why did he have a job? Laying around all summer is not okay for my teen and college-aged kid.

PP. Why should he work in the summer for minimum wages when he could use that time to improve other skills in his life that will prepare him after graduation. Why make $15/hr when you can make $100/hr from Apple?

Hahaha your kid isn’t getting a job at Apple.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS never had any jobs prior to college graduation, and he is now working for Google.

Summer activities or jobs is really overblown.

Why did he have a job? Laying around all summer is not okay for my teen and college-aged kid.

PP. Why should he work in the summer for minimum wages when he could use that time to improve other skills in his life that will prepare him after graduation. Why make $15/hr when you can make $100/hr from Apple?

Whatever skills your kid is picking up to be a viable Apple employee, I can guarantee you that there are a thousand others who picked up the same skill and also worked some jobs to show on their resume.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS never had any jobs prior to college graduation, and he is now working for Google.

Summer activities or jobs is really overblown.

Why did he have a job? Laying around all summer is not okay for my teen and college-aged kid.

PP. Why should he work in the summer for minimum wages when he could use that time to improve other skills in his life that will prepare him after graduation. Why make $15/hr when you can make $100/hr from Apple?

It's not about how much he made; it's about having a job with experience being an employee. First you said he didn't then you said he worked for Apple. So he did have work experience.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS never had any jobs prior to college graduation, and he is now working for Google.

Summer activities or jobs is really overblown.

Why did he have a job? Laying around all summer is not okay for my teen and college-aged kid.

PP. Why should he work in the summer for minimum wages when he could use that time to improve other skills in his life that will prepare him after graduation. Why make $15/hr when you can make $100/hr from Apple?

Anonymous wrote:THIS SUMMER, retail and service industries have been in desperate need of bodies.

Yes. Unless there is some sort of mental or physical health issue that precludes your kid from working…there is zero reason to be unemployed right now. Zero.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:big red flag. but for law school lsat and gpa are king. But the summer before law school is key: huge leg up to those with some type of legal experience.

Why?

Because there are hundreds of thousands of teens and college students who were able to find work or do internships. If there are some who didn't or couldn't, they will have a harder time breaking in as time goes on.

Personally, I would never hire someone who has never had a job or some sort of non-academic experience.

Anonymous wrote:big red flag. but for law school lsat and gpa are king. But the summer before law school is key: huge leg up to those with some type of legal experience.

Why?

We had three in-person interns at my small tech company this summer. Advertised at all the local colleges but only ended up with one local intern - the other 2 came from MA and NY. On the other side of the spectrum, literally every local pool was desperate for lifeguards. I can't think of any reason why a college student in this area would do absolutely nothing all summer.

THIS SUMMER, retail and service industries have been in desperate need of bodies.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS never had any jobs prior to college graduation, and he is now working for Google.

Summer activities or jobs is really overblown.

Why did he have a job? Laying around all summer is not okay for my teen and college-aged kid.

Not pp but I don’t know if my kid would be working in-person this summer (service industry) if they didn’t need the money. We still don’t think it’s really safe re: COVID.