Your Money Matters: Tips for teen summer jobs
by: Kristina Miller
Posted: May 2, 2022
Challenger SVP, Andrew Challenger was interviewed on the Your Money Matters WGN-TV segment with Patrick Elwood on tips for teen job seekers.
Read the transcript below or watch the full interview.
Patrick Elwood (PE): Let’s talk about opportunities your money matters. focusing today on the teen job market this summer. How parents and caregivers can help make some big decisions. Joining me right now is Andy Challenger with Challenger, Gray and Christmas, and we welcome you again. Always appreciate your insights, on this kind of stuff. Last year I think the figure was: 2 million jobs available for teens and they placed how many – a little bit over a million?
Andy Challenger (AC): Around 1.3 million teens found jobs over the summer.
PE: So this summer, are you seeing kind of a parallel track?
AC: Yeah, we see again, lots of opportunities because companies are trying to hire. They’re trying to get people in the door we don’t expect that many teenagers to fill all those roles.
Related: Teen Employment Summer 2022 Forecast
PE: Since this is the land of opportunity. Let’s get to the tips. What do you tell a teen who’s trying to get out there for the first time and get a job?
AC: Yeah, I can always say one thing: networking isn’t just for adults. A lot of these jobs for teenagers never get posted online. It’s just companies that need a little extra help during the summer. It takes in-person work, go to the store yourself and ask for a manager and see if they have any opportunities.
PE: Talk about how important is it to have a resume. Is it still an important thing for a teen? This is probably the thing that is a good way to set yourself apart.
AC: You don’t have a lot of job experience. But if you talk about projects you’ve done in school, extracurriculars, etc. It sets you apart from the pack.
PE: What about using your parents or caregiver for any kind of networking possibilities out there, always a good idea?
AC: So many of these jobs for teenagers come through friends of friends, friends of the family, and it’s worthwhile to go ask around see if anybody knows of somebody that’s hiring.
PE: So if you have somebody who’s very forward thinking, this will be a great way for going into their freshman year of college a sophomore, to find something that maybe will jive with what they want to do in major life or career wise.
AC: Yeah, it’s not just in this environment of typical teen job. Not just scooping ice cream. There’s lots of opportunities in the field that you might want to work in for the rest of your career that can have a job for you this summer.
Patrick Elwood interviews job expert Andy Challenger.
PE: Alright, so parents want to get involved but not too much, right? Because that could cause more harm than good. In the age of the helicopter parent. Definitely some things that will help but others not so much.
AC: Absolutely. great for us as parents to be constructive. Drive your kids to the job, get them around and meet potential employers in person. Don’t go in for the interview with them. You wouldn’t believe how many times you hear that happen.
PE: Yeah that’s gotta be a non-starter available looking to possibly to play somebody. What I did like to do like to practice interviewing, I do this with my kids sometimes when they have a resume, kind of an interview room where there’s working for for school without necessarily a job. So how important is that and run us through that. What is a good way to practice for an interview?
AC: Yeah, it’s so important to practice is a skill set that why people never develop a record realize, because you can get started your kids doing that as a teenager, just asking them some simple questions like, tell me about yourself. Tell me a time when you ran into a struggle and you all work teammate or just practice.
PE: So it goes beyond the scope of ‘what’s your favorite color.’ More like, ‘what have you done to overcome some kind of obstacle in your life?’ So as we wrap this up, looking ahead now’s the time to get into this. It’s the first week of May. Companies are filling some of these positions already. In fact, my 20 year old daughter in college, found her job in February.
AC: June is the number one hiring month of the year. So today, May is the day to get started get moving right now because companies are looking for people they’re going to hire over the course of the summer starting this week.
PE: So somebody wants to know more about where to go, what to do, etc., you have the answers, and information at challengergray.com. Final thought as we leave: be ambitious, right?
AC: Be ambitious. This is a great time to get out there as a teenager and get those opportunities.
PE: My mother would always tell me, “no, it’s an another opportunity to find yes.” Thank you so much for being here.
