I live in Wisconsin, and recently, our state has been reopening. More stores, restaurants, and businesses are allowing visitors. But when the reopening began, I wasn’t interested in visiting right away. My main focus was on finding a job.
To begin the process of applying, I searched “jobs for high schoolers in (my hometown).” I had to weed through a lot of old postings for open positions since many of those places weren’t open yet. I found a few options: a paid-intern position at my local library, a cashier position at a fabric store, and a production position at Panera (a fast food restaurant). I didn’t feel like filling out a ton of job application forms, so to cut time, I made a resume to show my past work experience and other information about me, like the languages I speak. It probably took me about 45 minutes to finish, and with a little bit of clicking around online, I had applied to three different places.
I really wanted the library job, because I’m a bookworm, but they didn’t respond for a long time. The fabric store never responded, but Panera called me in for an interview pretty quickly. The interview took all of 5 minutes, and they hired me on the spot. So really, getting a job wasn’t too difficult.
Things got trickier when the library called. They took their time but finally asked me to come in for an interview about one week after I started working at Panera. I thought, “well, I guess an interview can’t hurt!” and said yes. Long story short: they offered me the job!
I was flattered and excited to work at the library, mostly for the fun of saying to people “yeah, I work at the library,” so I took the job. That’s how I ended up working two first jobs! So far, juggling the schedules has been better than I expected. My managers are flexible and understanding. I have a set schedule each week for both places, and I don’t even have to work on weekends. I feel incredibly lucky to have two great jobs at my age. Applying for multiple positions was a great way to give myself options and backups, even if, in the end, I had more options than I needed.
Discussion Questions:
What job do you want to apply to? Why?
What are ways to find a job?
