There is no one job that is perfect for teenagers. Different teens will have different interests in job types and possess unique career objectives. Some teens are outgoing, effervescent, and highly sociable, needing a supporting crew to stave off boredom between customers.
Other teens are introverted, socially awkward or become flustered and anxious when dealing with customers, colleagues and having a boss tell them what to do. The good news is that Covid-19 opened several employment portals that break from the traditional cookie-cutter moulds.
Teens now have options to work from their bedroom and earn money that was never an option for their parents. Any parent with children into gaming technology will be familiar with the growing number of global gaming competitions that offer the chance for huge monetary prizes, but that is only the start of the technology sector. Let’s look at the top five jobs for teens under sixteen.
Babysitting Jobs
Times have changed, and the growing paranoia around hidden cameras and inappropriate adult attention grooming young teens have taken a large toll on the traditional babysitting jobs of yesteryear.
Babysitting is a service any stressed out, space needing parent will require at some point in their child’s life. It can be as simple as a few hours after school, allowing the parents to leave the house and run errands or take some much-needed ‘me time. It could be for the bulk of the night while the parents engage in some wine, dine, and dance culture into the wee hours of the morning.
Babysitting can be a good job for teenage females (most parents will hesitate to hire adolescent boys due to their immaturity levels and inability to assess risky behaviours). The hours a babysitter works can be fixed or flexible.
Depending on the sitter’s age, the child/children, and the sitter’s level of dedication to the job, a babysitter can establish an hourly rate or quote for the block period and have the client pay in cash on the spot. If you can get after-school in-home sitter jobs, you can make a lucrative income as a teenager. Quoting for jobs is easy with websites and a quick google search on any job seeker website for a wage comparison and starting point.
Qualified and accredited First Aid certified babysitters are always in high demand. While it is an initial overhead expense to gain the certification in CPR and Basic First Aid combined, the benefits of First Aid certification for parents will quickly be seized upon, and parents talk! Training will give you a comprehensive insight as to the skills and knowledge you will gain from completing one of their courses.
Word-of-mouth referrals, references, and recommendations are the best way to get new babysitting jobs, and parents will always choose a sitter with First Aid skills and knowledge over a sitter who has none. Remember that managing small, rambunctious, excitable children can be challenging. However, you are your own boss, and if you finish the contracted job and don’t like the children, the parents, or the house giving you bad vibes, you can refuse to sit for them again. Having the ability to pick and choose your babysitting clients and jobs offers benefits for teens entering the workforce other jobs do not come with.
Lawn Mowing And Garden Maintenance Jobs
While babysitting jobs are predominantly female domain, young men who like being outdoors and getting physical tend to be drawn to the landscaping, lawn mowing, and garden maintenance sector. This includes pool cleaning, leaf blowing, raking, bagging, pruning, and weeding.
You will require the use of several items, and the initial start-up cost can be a challenge if you don’t have access to the right tools for the job.
A good way to get started is to print up some flyers and then knock on doors in your local area and introduce yourself and your services. Look for yards that need your services and ask people if they would be interested in hiring you to do the job.
People are often too busy, or the elderly reach an age where gardening and lawn maintenance is beyond them. Having an enterprising young person approach them with the means to solve the problem will be rewarded with a client. It is then up to you to establish a regular schedule to keep the maintenance in top shape. Word of mouth will also help to grow your business in the area.
You might decide to offer some of the local high-traffic businesses a free service in exchange for allowing you to advertise your business in their window or on their notice board for three months.
If you can line up five customers a week at the going commercial rate and undercut it slightly, you should be making some decent cash, period. Doing lawn care can be hard work, and you are at the mercy of the elements. However, you have the freedom to set your work days and hours, choose your clients, and set your own rates within reason.
Retail Jobs
Retail companies are always hiring young staff as their turnover rate can be excessive if the job, the boss, or the conditions are difficult or too restrictive.
They are generally easy jobs designed specifically for inexperienced youth to learn quickly and replicate frequently. You need to be a people person and genuinely enjoy working with customers and the products you sell.
Stores often hire students looking for weekend and after school employment. Retail jobs can offer a range of perks, from store discounts, flexible schedules, and wearing or using the products you are selling in a bid to promote and sell them.
The downsides to the retail industry include earning minimum wage, paying taxes, working on weekends and, in some sectors, on public holidays or parts of a public holiday. Expect to learn about responsibility, money management, product upselling, and converting a browser into a buyer with your flawless sales technique. You will also learn how to deal with customers’ enquiries, complaints and gratitude effectively.
AI and Technology Jobs
Kids emerge from the womb with computer programming and coding skills these days. There are a growing number of ‘work from your bedroom’ tech sector jobs for the savvy computer whiz. Content creation, gaming competitions, creating online games for others to buy and play, programming, graphic art, 3D animation, digital art, blogs, and YouTube channels can all become highly lucrative endeavours that mean you never have to leave the house and can work the hours that suit you.
Websites constantly require SEO-literate content creators, editors, managers, and designers. There is a grey area in working within the industry on what is considered a wage and what is a hobby. One requires tax to be paid, and the other does not. The downside to working in this sector is seeking the correct legal and financial advice for setting up your business and what form of payment you take.
Cryptocurrency block change technology while all the rage is a surefire way to find yourself rich when you go to bed and broke when you wake up with no chance of ever seeing your money again.
Drop Shopping offers the young entrepreneur a way to get rich with dedication and little overhead but a lot of acumen with a finger on the pulse of trending products.
Traditional Supermarket Jobs
There are various jobs to be found within a supermarket, and the list is growing thanks to Covid-19. Traditional skills like check out, stocking shelves, trolley collection, or overseeing a department like fresh produce, deli, freezer section etc., have now grown to include picker/packer and in store shopper positions that allow for contactless sourcing of the products through to hiring drivers to deliver them to the shoppers’ door.
Supermarkets are always looking for new staff, and some stores have a higher turnover rate than others. The hours can be fairly good, but rosters must be adhered to, and these can change suddenly and force you to make unwanted decisions on hours of work or time with friends planned months ago. Customers can range from exceptional to abysmal, and no two days are the same.
Fast Food Service And Delivery Jobs
Many teens can find starter positions in fast food restaurants and franchise chains based on the minimum age to work in each state being 14. They are eager to hire young people with no work experience and limited life experience. The word ‘exploitation’ often rings in their hallways. They are the evil of all the options but also the easiest to get into due to the nature of the consumer beasts’ unquenchable appetite for food that is fast, full of fat or sugar and can be ordered from their car seat without any need to leave the vehicle.
Typically, fast-food jobs tend to have a short duration but serve to teach many vital life lessons. They tend to have a high turnover rate as conditions are not the best for employees, and the relentless fast pace or dealing with rude or obnoxious customers, colleagues, or managers can ruin a day in seconds.
To enjoy this position, you must love working in a team and at a constant fast pace. Most fast-food restaurants expect their servers and kitchen staff to be very quick and efficient and work well under pressure which is a tall order to ask of anyone, let alone young and inexperienced teens. When it comes to delivery drivers, there is the wear and tear on your vehicle and hidden costs and expenses that never seem to be covered by the company. You can expect to get backlash from the unhappy customer at the other end of the longer-than-advertised delivery time.
Delivery drivers still run the risk of being verbally abused, physically assaulted, robbed, mugged, having their car stolen or simply coming to grief while doing their job in some areas. Most delivery drivers will tell you it is a lousy job and not worth the money.
Waitstaff, Bar Tenders, Gaming Agents
Ok, so the customers can be difficult to the point of painful. Tips of any significance are rare in Australia. Shifts can run late into the early hours of the next day, and your body will constantly protest at carrying weights and being on your feet.
On the upside, you can fill the hard times with banter, and your patrons and colleagues can be a screaming riot and make you laugh until you have a stitch. Employees can receive discounted or free meals during their shifts. These jobs teach increased patience, customer service, money management, food handling, food preparation, and multi-tasking skills that can pay off after high school. It also typically offers roster flexibility.
As an added incentive to hire you over the competition, you might like to investigate taking a barista course that ticks off all the safe food handling and food prep requirements. It also gives you the added ability to make a range of amazing coffees that offer flexibility in your work environment. Bar staff don’t just make alcohol-based drinks these days. They are all required to be trained to use industrial coffee machines and be qualified baristas. Check out the link below for more details on what a barista course could offer you.
Consider taking a short course to add skills and qualifications to your resume that are now a legal requirement in most venues in Australia, thanks to the corruption of the education system and the endemic need to have a certification certificate to prove ability for even the most mundane and unnecessary tasks.
Show a little initiative in planning ahead to get the job and demonstrate the willingness to be proactive. You can obtain the required certification in Responsible Service of Alcohol and Responsible Service of Gaming qualifications prior to looking for work in this industry. This means it is a cost the employer does not have to take on, and you are already trained with the skills required to fall straight into the job with minimal in-house Training over other candidates who do not have the qualifications. Check out the two links below for the two courses mentioned above.
Summary
Ultimately there are no limits to the jobs you can undertake but your age and self-limitations.
The age group 12-16 can be limited in the traditional vocations, but by thinking outside of the box and looking at options technology and globalism have created, there is every chance you could be the next Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet or Elon Musk.
For the 16-18 age group with licences, cars and the ability to legally take on more demanding and potentially dangerous jobs, the traditional route has never been more ready to take you on with the rise of the door-to-door food delivery business. Don’t have a car? Never mind, Deliveroo will take you if you have a pushbike and the stamina to get the product to the door still warm and in an edible state.
So what are you waiting for? Get your resume together, research your ideal job providers and hit the bricks or the internet online application portals and may you be gainfully employed in no time! Regardless of your chosen path, thinking outside the box and obtaining skills in advance where the funds are available can only place your application at the top of the candidate list. Don’t let rejection deter you. Keep applying until you get a job and join the workforce. You will be framing your first Pay Slip in no time! Don’t forget to hit the online job seeker websites like: