Unless you are an aspiring comedian looking for a summer gig, you probably should take it seriously. I guess, to be honest, even if you are funnier than everyone else you know, you probably have to work hard to prove it and get paid to do it…

The competition for any job in a tight economy is fierce…but summer jobs for those who have never worked for anyone else before is even more difficult.

• You don’t have any practical experience.
• You don’t have a car or maybe you don’t even have a driver’s license.
• You are thus, reliant on others to get you to and from your work place.
• You are not old enough to have lived through tough situations that will enable you to deal with unruly customers.
• You may have confidence, but you don’t know exactly how to do a job and you will need to build it and grow as you go.
• You’re under 18 and need “working papers” to prove that you have the right to work.
• There are hundreds of older, more experienced, more reliable – maybe – people and they are competing with you; and, they applied in January after the Christmas holidays, or in March when they were home from college on spring break.

Having connections is one terrific way to find the right part-time, temporary summer work, but you definitely have to take it seriously or you risk someone else’s reputation. No one says this is easy and in fact, I think that today it is even more difficult than it has been in the past. Your fortitude and dedication to the task should be rewarded…with a decent, educational and paying job. Or, blow us all away and start your own company – be entrepreneurial and enterprising – and for that also, you should be rewarded.

~ Dawn aka Hat Girl