Any good paying part-time job recommendations for a bright 16 year-old kid?

For a first job, any job - especially a customer service job - is a good job.

I have an in-law who is an oral surgeon, in the Boulder area. He is a self-made guy, and worked hard to put himself through college. His first job was sacking groceries. Despite having the means to pamper his two daughters, he did not. He had a few chit-chats with the manager at the local grocery store, and when it was that time, both of his daughters worked at the grocery store, sacking groceries.

At 16, good-paying should not really be a criteria.

It happens occasionally that a 16 year old can make good money if they are really good at programming, or if they have a family firm or connections.

For everybody else at 16 a job should be about earning a ittle pocket money, learning the ropes about showing up on time, getting along with supervisors and co-workers, and figuring out that a job at Wal-Mart is not what they want to be doing at 40.

Good advice both of you. Many thanks.

He's a lot better off concentrating on school than working some min wage job that will teach him nothing and barely give him money. By applying himself to school for the next year and a half, the skills he will develop will serve him much better in life and college than a min wage job.

kvothe wrote:

He's a lot better off concentrating on school than working some min wage job that will teach him nothing and barely give him money. By applying himself to school for the next year and a half, the skills he will develop will serve him much better in life and college than a min wage job.

False dichotomy.

Anyway, I think that there is a lot of value to working when you're young. Earning your own money really helps you to start to develop a sense of self-efficacy. No, you're not going to be 100% independent as a result of your weekend job, but earning some cash of your own is an important first step to realizing that you don't need to be completely dependent on mom and dad to provide everything for you.

I personally much preferred working at local restaurants when I was that age. Wal-mart just seems like a soul-sucking place to work. As mentioned, you want your kid to see that he doesn't want to still be doing unskilled labor when he's 40, but at the same time, you don't want him to develop a general dislike for the idea of working, and there is no benefit to being miserable. If you're washing dishes or cooking, you get enough interaction with other people to have fun while you're at work, but you still definitely don't walk away thinking "yep, this is what I want to do forever."

kvothe wrote:

He's a lot better off concentrating on school than working some min wage job that will teach him nothing and barely give him money. By applying himself to school for the next year and a half, the skills he will develop will serve him much better in life and college than a min wage job.

0/10 advice

Have a long conversation with him about what he wants to be when he's older. A quasi "goal setting" session.

Trim out the ridiculous normal teen stuff (I want to be a sports star, rock star etc) and try and find the top 2 or 3 things. (Let's say they are app builder and architect)

Offer him 2 choices to earn money:

1 - Work at local walmart/macdonalds etc. for $8/hr

2 - You will pay him $8/hr that he spends working on online coursework towards his career dream (exp. udacity for programming) but has to maintain an A or 9/10 - a B or 7/10 and his wage drops to $5. Anything less and he gets no pay.

At first I was going to say stay away from Walmart. But as I think back, a crappy retail job is a good reminder of what life could like if you don't get an education. Seeing a 40y/o mother of 3 trying to survive by stocking shelves is a good life lesson.

100 mpw

For you and your son

you're cancer wrote:

kvothe wrote:

He's a lot better off concentrating on school than working some min wage job that will teach him nothing and barely give him money. By applying himself to school for the next year and a half, the skills he will develop will serve him much better in life and college than a min wage job.

0/10 advice

But you have to admit, it'd help his son avoid those unpleasant microaggressions that the work place is chock full of. Why deal with them when you can run away?

This. By far. It gives him the best of both worlds. The value of hard work to earn money while actually learning something valuable and technical. I know it is a real "boomers" tradition to "show 'em the value of hard work" by working at macdonalds etc. but you're literally wasting tons of precious hours while your young brain is at peak capacity doing mind numbing work. At that age you want to do the exact opposite as synapses and nerves in your brain are particularly acute to learning at this time. Save the bagging for when you're 80 and need some part time socialization. Unfortunately if you are a low income parent this might not work as well but it seems like you probably arent?

real advice wrote:

Have a long conversation with him about what he wants to be when he's older. A quasi "goal setting" session.

Trim out the ridiculous normal teen stuff (I want to be a sports star, rock star etc) and try and find the top 2 or 3 things. (Let's say they are app builder and architect)

Offer him 2 choices to earn money:

1 - Work at local walmart/macdonalds etc. for $8/hr

2 - You will pay him $8/hr that he spends working on online coursework towards his career dream (exp. udacity for programming) but has to maintain an A or 9/10 - a B or 7/10 and his wage drops to $5. Anything less and he gets no pay.

Babysitting...I know of a couple teens who make good money and it is a pretty good gig. A few weekends ago two couples got in a bidding war over one of the sitters.

Lifeguard.

The worst advice yet. 1. You don't learn "value for money" as this is likely a family or neighbourhood nepotistic connection so he didn't "earn it". On top of that he'll likely be goofing off, watching tv, having friends over etc. so doesn't learn the value of real work. 2. No hiearchy or socialization involved so has none the the interactions with coworkers, boss etc. 3. Is not learning at actual skill (might pick up 1 or 2 things that would be helpful for a stay at home dad but he'll forget them in university anyway. It basically hits 1/4 on the checklist of things you want. Learning value of hard work for money - NOLearning how to work with boss/coworkers - NOLearning valuable skill - NO (maybe slightly)Making money - YES

luv2run wrote:

Babysitting...I know of a couple teens who make good money and it is a pretty good gig. A few weekends ago two couples got in a bidding war over one of the sitters.

King Soopers? or the small grocer in N. Boulder

kvothe wrote:

He's a lot better off concentrating on school than working some min wage job that will teach him nothing and barely give him money. By applying himself to school for the next year and a half, the skills he will develop will serve him much better in life and college than a min wage job.

School doesn't take all your time. I worked 20+ hrs, did a sport and managed to graduate in the top 5% of my class.

That was the good old days.

kvothe wrote:

He's a lot better off concentrating on school than working some min wage job that will teach him nothing and barely give him money. By applying himself to school for the next year and a half, the skills he will develop will serve him much better in life and college than a min wage job.

I sort of agree with this. During the school year, focus on school. Work during the summer time and get the experience.

I agree with what a lot of other people said about the benefits of working a minimum wage job. There is nothing like working your ass off for 8 hours and only get $40 for that (after taxes).

Toward the end of high school, tell your son to try and get a summer job in an office/law firm working in the file room or office service or something. The pay isn't great, and the work isn't glamorous, but you can make solid connections, especially if you are a somewhat friendly person who says "hello" to people. It happened to me. Summer before college, I applied for a job working at a mid-size company in office services. I worked hard and every summer when I came home they had a part time role for me to fill. I kept moving up, went to law school and management at the company got me an interview with a friend at a major law firm. Got the job at the firm, in part because I made connects with people at the company.

real advice wrote:

Have a long conversation with him about what he wants to be when he's older. A quasi "goal setting" session.

Trim out the ridiculous normal teen stuff (I want to be a sports star, rock star etc) and try and find the top 2 or 3 things. (Let's say they are app builder and architect)

Offer him 2 choices to earn money:

1 - Work at local walmart/macdonalds etc. for $8/hr

2 - You will pay him $8/hr that he spends working on online coursework towards his career dream (exp. udacity for programming) but has to maintain an A or 9/10 - a B or 7/10 and his wage drops to $5. Anything less and he gets no pay.

I like the idea of gearing work toward possible career options. I hate the idea of making it center around coursework. The kid isn't going to learn anything in an online class that he wouldn't have learned eventually in college anyway.

When I was about the OP's son's age, I got together with some family friends who flipped houses and owned a bunch of rental properties. I started out doing nothing but grunt work, but I constantly tried to learn more and more about the business side of things. Eventually I started helping them find new deals and doing some financial analysis (with healthy oversight and review). That was the most important experience in my life with regard to eventually becoming a real estate developer.

If I'd spent the same time completing online coursework, I would have just learned a bunch of stuff that I was going to learn in undergrad anyway.

If you're into the idea of paying your kid to do things that will help him toward a career, pay him to go DO something, not to take classes. Have him volunteer for a health organization or something.

At 16 there really are no 'good paying jobs'. More than likely, wherever he finds a job, he will just get minimum wage. The better paying jobs are in a factory or construction, but unless things changed since I was in high school, you had to be at least 18 before you could work at those places of employment.

That said, working for minimum wage at 16 to earn some cash is not a bad thing at all. I worked at a grocery store 15 to 25 hours a week during high school. Mode some good friends, got a few raises, and made some cash to help pay for my 1st semester of college. A lot of times, places will work with your kid to schedule hours around high school sports (i.e. give him hours after practice and they won't schedule time during games/meets as long as he is responsible enough to communicate this with work). On top of the extra cash, it does give your kid the opportunity to learn some life lessons about being in the work force and personal responsibility. Just don't screw it up by coming to the rescue. Make him deal with things that come up at work, turn in his schedule on days he cannot work, find subs if he cannot work, communicate with the managers, and/or call in sick.