Does your 16 year old have a part time job?

[SK1973]

And if so, what do they do?

DD16 left school last week and will go to college in September.

She is desperate to get a weekend/summer job but my goodness they are so difficult to come across. When I was that age (many, many years ago) weekend jobs were so easy to get and I could leave one on a Friday and start a new one Monday.

My son got a job in the kitchen at a café a week after he turned 16. He continued it while at college. Then pandemic hit he was made redundant. As soon as 2nd lockdown ended he got another job at an independent men's clothing store. He's still there (20 now) and also works part time at a gym (he trained as a fitness instructor and personal trainer).
He got them by walking in and asking and then hounding them a bit.

DD is 15 and has just started working as a cafe assistant in a play centre. DS 13 also works on a weekend delivering leaflets sometimes

Yes mine do evenings in dominoes

DD started as a Xmas Elf at Centerparcs when she’d just turned 16 before securing permanent employment with them.

She left there in February as she got another job at Tesco - her reasons for applying were it was closer to home, more hours and a better hourly rate. She has a 15 hour contract with Tesco and her days are set - she does 2 evenings after school and 1 day on the weekend. She’s been able to book holidays round her mock exams and is allowed study leave when it comes to her actual exams next year. They were also great when she had to have time off recently due to urgent surgery.

She enjoys her job and has made some new friends as there are lots of kids around her age doing similar shifts to her. Obviously the pay helps as well - she gets paid over £700 every 4 weeks and we are benefitting from her 10% colleague discount too!

No, because where we are most places want over 18s (London). I don't know why.

I live in London too, SE. It’s very common here for parents to post on the local WA or FB group on behalf of their teenagers to say they are looking for part time work. Collecting DC from primary, babysitting, watering plants all very common.

I have two teens working for me (I run a charity). Both came through our formal volunteering programme. I would say - spread the word that they are looking for work, ideally with a message from them rather than “My lovely DC would like…”. Being reliable and proactive - and you may need a conversation about what the latter looks like - are the main things I look for.

I think one of the key differences is in how they look for them. There is no point in submitting CVs or online applications at that age. The only way seems to be to print out the CVs and physically go into shops/cafes to ask about vacancies.

My dd found the opposite, for shops - they all said to apply online. She was checking online every day for ages for vacancies and eventually applied for 3, heard nothing from 2 but got the 3rd one, in a major supermarket, and loves it.

My two did - DD waitressed from 14 in a restaurant, which she loved. Weekends term time, and weekdays in holidays. I didn't love it quite so much because we are rural and I had to pick up late at night!
DS worked from 17 in a local small independent supermarket - some after college shifts from 4, but mainly weekends.
Both left school with full sets of A stars so no harm done - tho I did worry a lot that it would affect their studies, given the work wasn't confined to holidays.
Both jobs were got through old fashioned door knocking, pitching up and asking. But this was ten years ago.

Both of my sons got jobs as church organists from about 14/15 years old. Not many hours (2-3 a week) but a good hourly rate for youngsters (£30-£35), plus weddings and funerals that pay very well (£100 plus for a 45 minute service)
Neither were organists when they started - just pianists with good sight reading skills.
A lot of churches struggle to find competent musicians.

My church is still trying to find someone to take over from DS2. (Anyone with a keen pianist in the family near Windsor?)

Not yet but he volunteers at a riding stables. He's going to look for a summer job now he's finished school.

No for a variety of reasons. It's extremly difficult as we have a large college in town so lots of weekend jobs are taken by over 18 year olds where employers don't have to jump through hoops.

Most teens I know got their jobs via connections, not blindly applying.

Also DD is part of a drama group and does 3-4 productions per year which are time consumming.

And school work is essay based and the school sets and expects a huge amount of work outside school hours.

17 in August coming...youngest in her year. For a few months she's been at the local KFC. She is in 6th form doing sociology psychology and geography as a pathway to primary teacher and she works a Sunday and a Friday night and sometimes picks up a weekday evening if she wants to. I pick her up at 10pm as i dont want her bussing it alone then as its not a very nice area.

Church organist sounds like the most lucrative job so far!

Yes, eldest has been working in DM’s shop since 14, autistic, quiet shop so suits them

DS16 has been working since he was 14 but it’s seasonal, very touristy where we are fair amount of jobs going but not all year round

My 17 year old has been at Waitrose for nearly a year now and does 12 hours a week

I certainly think it's harder now than it was when we were kids. I often used to do cash in hand jobs in cafes, farms or for friends' parents' businesses. But now red tape means everything needs to be done officially - right to work, induction, training, insurance - which I guess all raises the bar in terms of job availability.

DS (16) does have a Saturday job in hospitality, and he's hoping to pick up more shifts over the summer (although he's doubtful he'll get that much) but our local Facebook pages are now full of parents of teens, and teens themselves, asking for summer job leads, with no responses at all.

All of mine have worked part time throughout teens and university.

Starting at 14 in a local cafe . They have done kitchen assistance work in local pub. Bar work once 18. Nannying , Delivery driving and shop work. both for small local shops and large supermarkets. They have never found it difficult to find work. We are in rural south east if that makes a difference.

Thanks all.

Interesting to see what they are all doing. Will suggest to dd to try some voluntary work over summer to boost her cv and to print her cv off so she can pop it into some places in town.

She has had a couple of interviews but sadly wasn’t successful but that’s all good experience for her. One of her stumbling grounds is the fact she is a little introverted until she finds her feet with people then is fine but it’s getting past the first base which is tricky and also we are not only in a university town but the whole area has so many new build estate’s recently so it seems as soon as a vacancy pops up it gets put on hold because so many people apply.

Hopefully something will come around.

I live in a seaside town so most of the 16yo, DD included, work at the local fairground.

We found a lot of the bigger chains won't consider 16 year olds until they get past school leaver's age. Virtually everyone in DD's year (she's just finished Year 13) has had jobs through sixth form but there was a much more limited number before the start of sixth form.

Most have jobs in retail or hospitality, but some work in tuition centres or in roles specific to particular skills they have (music, lifeguard, swim teacher etc). There is no problem finding jobs - whilst you can't quite leave one job on Friday and start another on Monday, it does seem like everyone who wanted a job has found one. We do live in a (small) city though - maybe that means more availability. I'd suggest you need to be more flexible than "weekend job" - most jobs wanted a minimum number of hours and would want a Saturday plus at least one evening, for example.

Both my DC found that volunteering before sixth form gave them something to put on a CV, so your DD could maybe look for volunteering jobs over the summer in the hope they will kick start something in September?

Both ds17 and ds15 have a paper round. They've been doing this for 2.5yrs and 1yr respectively.

Jobs various relatives and students have / had as teens.

Washing up in a pub on a Sunday.
Working at Argos.
Taking payments on the M6 toll.
Working at Alton Towers - OK those last two you need to live near.
Waiting in a hotel.
Working in a bike shop, but is an avid cyclist.

At 16 I had a sort of nannying job for the summer holidays. I basically sat in the living room watching TV while the kids I was 'looking after' played with their friends outside.

Pet sitting / feeding animals when people go away.

My oldest (17) went round to lots of cafe/restaurants with a printed out CV and asked to speak to the lead in each one to say hello and hand them a copy.

She got 8 job offers from one day!

There's no point talking about what you did or what your older children did, OP is talking about now. There's significant barriers to employing under 18s. Technically they're not even allowed to use a coffee machine.
Also depends on where you live. We live in a big city with two universities. No 16 year old stands a chance.

My 16yo is a netball player and she earns money from umpiring (she had to do a qualification first) and coaching (she started off as a volunteer before it turned into a paid role). In the summer holidays there will be extra work available as the club runs summer netball camps for the younger players.

McDonald's. They normally advertise around now ready to replace the university leavers. Great company and both ours did it ( one is 17 so still there)