To ask how did your DCs get their first job

[JanuaryJonez]

I mean very first earning job.

My DS17 is currently doing his A Levels and would like a part-time job. He created a (very good) CV last week and then spent an afternoon wandering into cafes in our city asking if they had vacancies and leaving his CV. None had adverts in the window but only one said a flat 'No, we're not looking' without taking his CV, which I guess is encouraging.

He's now going to leave it a couple of weeks and if he hasn't heard back from any, pop in to them again, but he's having a bit of a 'Now what?' moment and feels he could be doing more. I searched on similar local jobs but they were all full-time and asking for a minimum amount of experience.

Quite a few of his friends and peers have had part-time jobs for a while, but they're all with either an independent retailer or cafe run by a friend of their parents. We don't really know anyone who runs a business that could give our DS a job, so he needs to find one through more formal channels.

So it would be helpful to hear how your DCs, if they're old enough, secured their first job, what was it doing and how long did it take them to get it etc. More recent examples would be the most helpful.

Are you/he a member of your local Facebook residents and selling groups that's usually where part time jobs are advertised where I am.

Excuse the appalling punctuation errors above!

I would say 90% casual jobs are advertised first on Facebook now, either on the businesses own page or local community pages or job pages.

Look online for businesses! Lots of big chains will not pick up cv in person for data protection.
For part time jobs apply to pubs, restaurants, garden centres, local bakeries and cafes. Lots of small businesses will show vacancies in social media (fb and Instagram)
For big companies (supermarkets and fast food chains) look in their websites

My ds got his first job the same way yours is trying to do now - by taking his cv round pubs and cafes.
He got offered a job as a waiter in a pub -they told him to come back the following evening for a trial and if he got on well he could have a job.

They hadn't advertised so it was just good timing.

Dd got her first job via a teacher at her school who ran out of school drama classes. She has since applied for loads of retail/hospitality jobs and got nowhere.

Ds has tried applying for jobs and had no reply in most cases. Many of his friends who have part time jobs have got them via connections eg a girl who got a job at the same supermarket her mum works in.

@JanuaryJonez my son decided he wanted to work for a particular supermarket and just kept watching their website for vacancies, an advert appeared so he completed the very long, online application (no cv required) was interviewed and successful in getting the job. I think there were 4/5 vacancies.

If your teenager doesn't get anything beforehand, a lot of places start looking for part time workers in august September as they lose some of the older teenagers to university (that's what happened with my son).

@Comefromaway I'm sorry your DCs haven't had much luck so far - hopefully you can get some good advice from this thread.

My son 16, buys and sells clothes and trainers online... started with things he'd out grown etc now buys things online and sells them for more

He managed to get a very rare pair of trainers via the Nike app this weekend and they are now selling for £800!!??

He does love clothes though and has a good eye for trends

My DD got her first job through friends of ours who were opening a new business, which was lucky timing. Most of her friends did what your son has done and hit the local high streets with their CVS.

Good luck to him!

Dc1 applied to Tescos at 16 and got a checkout job earning decent money working around 15 hours a week around college. He then transferred this back and forth whilst at Uni and went full time for a short while after he graduated.

Dc2 did her life saving and swimming teacher qualification at 16 and worked about 10 hours a week doing this.

Dc3 qualified as a football referee at 14 so earn a staggering £20 for less than 2 hours work on a Saturday morning. He's now 16 and can referee adult matches so earns £30 on a Saturday and occasionally a further £25 for a youth match on a Sunday or midweek.

All mine have done so so well and it literally has enabled them to have plenty of money which equals plenty of fun without me having to hand over the wonga!

Tangledtresses Wow! That's impressive.

I remember Kim Kardashian on Radio 1 saying that she made her first big amount of money from persuading her parents she'd double her money if they lent her the money to buy about 30 pairs of new trainers that were available that she knew were rare and popular. I think she more than doubled it in the end.

One thing dd does now (since she turned 18) was to start working for Serve Legal doing age compliance audits. It's not a huge amount of money, she probably makes about on average £5 per job plus mileage (each job takes about 20-30 mins but she has to get there) but she also gets free food and alcohol. Because she drives she is able to do more jobs in a shorter time than someone reliant on public transport and they often ask her to go further afield on emergency jobs where they pay her more. Occasionally she gets a free deliveroo or supermarket delivery which is useful when she's in halls or when she was at home during lockdown we reimbursed her for some of it.

If she does one evening a week plus a weekend day she probably ends up with about £30 plus travel.

DD volunteered at a charity shop to gain retail experience, then applied to be temp Christmas staff for a shop across the road from it. She's now doing 20-30hrs/week at a high street chain (advertised on Indeed) whilst having a gap year and is hoping they'll take her on once her trial period of 4 weeks is up.

Her other job was advertised on our local Facebook group. There's been quite a lot advertised on our local board, many of them suitable for teens.

DD 16 created a CV on indeed then applied on there. Started her new job last week

17 is too young for many jobs. Mine both managed to find something at 16 once they were at 6th form. We live in a village with no bus service so had to drive them back and forth. It wasn't exactly cost effective but gave them good experience. DC1 got a job in a local takeaway, it was shocking pay and conditions. Then he got work at a Kumon maths centre. These were always taking on 6th form maths students (he went on to become a maths teacher). DC2 got a job working at a council run visitor attraction. It was advertised on the council website and was only casual /seasonal but he kept that one going right through uni.
Several teenagers I know got work for serve legal.

We check Indeed at least once a week not nothing yet. A lot of places on there seem to want full flexibility. Ds has also failed several online application forms (possibly due to SEN) especially those with questions that are blatantly not applicable to the job.

Teens I know who have recently got jobs got them all when local businesses advertised on local fb pages saying they were looking for staff.

My kids did not go down this path but most kids here start in the major supermarket chains (Coles/Woolworths), McDonalds, KFC and Subway who all prefer to employ very young people they don’t need to pay much. From what I’ve heard it was online application, didn’t need a CV attached as such but may be wrong, they don’t want to know you really just location and availability etc and some online quiz that gives feedback about your potential customer service skills. Places like Aldi prefer older workers (young but not teens/first job while in school).

My kids never did this but instead did volunteer positions with activities that gained targeted skills and intern work experience style stuff in industries they wanted to get into that would benefit them. This seemed to work better for post uni professional employment over having a generic job such as McDonalds on the resume. Of course it does rely on the bank of mum and dad to finance them to that point.

One of mine did do paid babysitting for professional acquaintances though. Had way more work offered than they could take up. They did free babysitting/homeschooling during Covid though ‘to do their part’ as parents they were assisting were frontline.

Waitrose take 16 year olds. Search supermarket assistant roles on their website

Dd1 did waitressing and got that through a friend.
Dd2 worked a McDonald's and applied through a job advert

DD1 worked with her Aunt as a Saturday girl for 2 years age 14-16. As she came up to 17 she started applying everywhere for jobs and eventually got one at our local McDonalds. Been there 6 months now. Good pay and all the shifts she can handle. She's saving for Uni and a car.

DD2 is now working with her Aunt.

Both mine did stints at McDonald's and KFC. I was less than impressed by KFC, but it gave customer service experience to get into the supermarkets, which pay well, especially at weekends. Both have got further jobs throughout uni easily, returning to the supermarket when they need to. Golf club restaurants are also a good start, walking dogs for older people, cutting grass etc.

I meant to add, getting a life saving qualification is great, they can be employed as a lifeguard at local council pools, and travel abroad in the summer doing that for places like Keycamp. Very well paid.

Mine was a supermarket, asked for an application form at customer service and then took it back the next day. I worked there through college and transferred to another store when I went to uni.

Alot of the high street shops/supermarket/food places have their job vacancies on their website and you submit an application form rather than CV.

Also he could set up a LinkedIn profile people also put jobs on there.