As the end of the year approaches for high school students, their work hours only increase to help them make more money while they aren’t in school.
“Working in the summer doesn’t interfere with school, and we get longer hours,” said junior Sarahi Ledesma.
Not all students necessarily want to work in the summer, but they want to save up some money so they can reach a goal later on in life.
“I’m working in the summer because I want to be able to save up some money before I go off to college,” said junior Ashley Garver.
Summer is a time to have fun and be carefree, and it can still be fun even though one may be working.
“Six Flags is fun to work at because my friends and I are always singing and dancing and cracking jokes because we are pretty much getting paid to have fun,” said junior Joselyn Wadkins.
There are rules and expectations. Employees can only have a certain amount of days off so they have to make sure they have plenty of notice before they miss so they have time to give their shift to another employee.
“It can get in the way of my social life since I have to give a two week notice if I want time off,” Wadkins said.
Teenagers who get jobs can learn very valuable lessons and learn to interact with different people, which is a skill that will come into play later on in their lives.
“I like how I can interact with people from all over the world, and I like seeing the customers happy,” Wadkins said.
Not only the lessons will help them in their future, but so will the actual job.
“Having a job looks great on college applications,” Wadkins said.
There are a variety of job types out there for different teenagers. A lot of them are actually very common jobs that are good for starter jobs.
“I work at McDonalds, and it’s a nice first job because it’s not too hard. It gives you experience in dealing with customers,” Ledesma said.
Restaurants seem to be the most common jobs for teens over the summer, but there are other places outside of the food industry.
“I work at Six Flags as a game worker. Six Flags is a good place for teens to work because a lot of people need a basic job. They hire a lot of people since it’s an easy job,” Wadkins said.
Summer jobs take up time and take away from social life, but there are benefits as well.
“The biggest benefit of working in the summer is being able to work without worrying about homework and other school-related activities,” Garver said.