I prefer my summer spent lounging about my living room, snacking with my PlayStation controller at the ready. Sprinkled with occasional outings here and there, some spent with friends hitting up restaurants with exotic grub, others spent within family get-togethers and the like. To me, summers suck. Year in and year out, we’ve all had plenty of time to fall prey to crappy old summer lethargy, the kind that makes you sick to your stomach dreading the thought of spending an entire three months cooped up in your own personal Alcatraz. Picture yourself in my shoes. School’s been out a couple of weeks and there you are, kicking it back, sleeping in till 3 pm every other day, watching Hulu re-runs and wasting your life away, . . . now what? Well, if you have a summer job lined up already, good for you. If not, seriously what are you doing! Get serious about your future and make some money!
Starting the whole process of finding a job is pretty hard especially if you’re searching for one on your own without parental guidance.
First things first, you gotta start with a fresh self-assessment. Before diving into Resumes and applications, it’s imperative that you be realistic with your goals and marketability as a person. Job hunting is like an unforgiving game where, if you aren’t sure about how to sell yourself, you’ll have no skin in. Know the difference between having good qualities as an employee and just being flat-out painfully mediocre, focus on nurturing your reliability and confidence. Employers love dependable folks.
Second on the list is the Resume. The Resume is a document giving a summary of what you’re good at. Resumes are meant to give employers an idea of your character, achievements, reliability, and skills. It should highlight anything in regards to you lending your own “services or skills” and should include things like you’re grades and educational information. That can range from doing babysitting jobs for your neighbors to volunteering or participating in after-school events like sports or clubs. In it, you should mention if you’ve had any paid experience prior to your application. It needs to mention anything that might be relevant to your overall quality as an employee and those qualities’ application to the job you’re shooting for.

Apps like Resume Help, Indeed, and Canva offer a wealth of information in the form of formats and typesetting tips that can easily heighten the likelihood of your application being considered. After you’ve made your Resume, email it to the employer you’d like to contact. To paint a clearer picture of what one would put on their resume; I’m a member of our school newspaper and school band, I’m also fluent in Spanish and have volunteered as a student assistant for our school’s Spanish teacher. In a resume, this would translate to saying that I’m able to work well collaboratively, have strong writing skills, and have experience with a foreign language; it’s also important to note that a lot of employers consider your academic integrity when determining whether they’d hire you. In regards to the kinds of jobs you should be trying to go for, you want to approach it like a compatibility score; know exactly what you’re not and what you are good at before job hunting. Using the example I just gave since I have a foreign language under my belt and have good writing skills I would look for a job that fits that criterion. Remember not up on the first couple of sent applications, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take!
The third-most step in the process would be the actual interview process. So, what is the Interview process like exactly? Wouldn’t know lol. Never been in one! All of the jobs that I’ve held have gone through without any kind of formal interview so I haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing that sort of hell, but not knowing the ins and outs of one in an article about getting would sorta come off as an affront to my own “journalistic integrity”.
Well, interviews are historically mortifying, they don’t have to be though. Today, job interviews are for the most part held online over apps like Google Meets, Skype, and Zoom. With the right amount of planning and the right demeanor, and knowledge over the process, interviews can go surprisingly smoothly. Interviews will usually start off with an introduction, and eventually lead into the questioning section. Interviewers have two main types of interview questions: closed-ended or direct questions that focus on facts and open-ended questions, which generally fall into being either hypothetical, “what if” questions about a situation that hasn’t happened or could happen, and behavioral questions that ask you to describe past behavior when handling a particular situation.
During the interview, it’s super important that you know what you’re there for and to be confident in your own skills. Dress appropriately for interviews; professional attire hinging on casual. Show your passion by researching the position you’re going for and asking employers questions about said position. After an interview, make sure to follow up with employers by sending a thank you note within 24 hours of the interview. Think back on how you performed. Did any questions stump you? Consider how you can improve your answers for the next interview. Employers will always look only for ‘A players’ or people who are a good perfect fit for their team, if you think you have it easy being a fresh-faced high school student, you’re in for a rude awakening, that being said, you shouldn’t put on a facade in hopes of building rapport with employers, being dishonest with them is the same as being dishonest with yourself. If you have the means to do so, find a workplace where you’d actually enjoy working.