Getting a job as a young individual can be hard, however, it can also be beneficial. This step in your life becomes a huge responsibility, especially if you are juggling school and work at the same time.
“The good things that come out of having a job so young is that you already know somewhat of a work ethic. I would say this opportunity just gives you a head start with life in general. It helps and benefits you in many ways,” Jayden Adkins states.
Some of the benefits would include money, and new skills. Having the ability to work so young provides you with a widespread range of new opportunities. Again, this is a big responsibility. Working hard and following challenging time schedules.
“The reason most teenagers want a job is solely because of the money. I wanted to take on the responsibility early before it was too late. I figured it would help me out a lot and it did in my case. Again, it is mostly for the money, but learning and taking on the responsibility is another reason I decided to get a job,” Adkins says.
“It also has benefited me a lot because social interaction has brought me out of my shell, I used to not be able to talk to people, but now it just comes naturally because I work in a fast-food restaurant so that requires me to be social.”
After working for a while and getting the hang of things, you also might become quick at thinking or making important decisions, which is a great thing.
If you plan to go to college in the future this helps you as well, the reason being, most colleges look at having a job and doing school at the same time the administrators find it impressive and skillful.
Everything that has a benefit comes with a set of cons. Time is one of the dreadful things about having a job. Another con is that you get to see how people really are. Sadly, retail and fast food are the worst for it. In this case, it is not always terrible to run into unpleasant people because this can teach you how to deal with and react to moments like these.
“Yes, especially working in fast food, it helps you learn how to deal with certain stresses and overwhelming feelings. I do not know if it is the same in retail, but I know that working in fast food really helps with overcoming and how to manage stressful situations along with feelings. Fast food is one of the best jobs for a teenager just because it teaches you how to deal with things like that,” says Adkins.
Working with fresh faces gives you the opportunity to build a new friendship or even a few. This is a broad experience, although it can be scary at first starting out and sometimes stressful, this builds up and gives you many opportunities.
According to the article Our Turn: Does having a job in high school benefit teenagers? from mlive.com, it says students who have significant work experience tend to be more motivated and driven to keep up with school.
“I think that school can keep an individual motivated to keep up with their schoolwork, but for me it does not, it is kind of just draining me more than I already am because I am juggling school, Vo-tech projects, band, and work all at the same time. I do not know how to juggle. Again, I believe that in most cases it would keep an individual motivated to do schoolwork, but where I am juggling four things at once, it is hard to do everything all at the same time. However, I am trying, and it is getting better. I know people who are working and doing great in school. I think it all just comes down to the person themselves,” Adkins states.
“For me working keeps me motivated to do school because I have a lot less time to do schoolwork in general,” Blevins said.
“I would recommend working as a teenager because again it throws a lot of life problems at you and teaches you how to deal with them. I also recommend it because it can help with people’s personalities and for me it has helped with how I act and how I talk to people. What I mean is that I was not ever rude to people, I just could not talk to them,” says Adkins.