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When people would come to my place of business for an application, that’s when I really started the interview process.  I would take stock of all the non-verbal cues that I was given by the potential applicant, and let me tell you, there was plenty of information for the taking.

If someone came in to pick up an application, and they weren’t dressed appropriately for the type of job I was looking to fill, I would immediately dismiss them as unprepared.  I would do the same thing if they came in groups, or if they did anything else that I thought was unbecoming to an employee.

The truth is, when I have one position to fill, and there are a seemingly limitless number of applicants that are equally skilled or qualified, my goal is to not waste time looking at any potential problems.  I used a little system that I have since found most employers use something similar to.

I would almost never identify myself as the person who would be making the decision as to whether or not someone would be hired.  I believed that information would only make the applicant act in an abnormal way for them.  I wanted to see how they were when they were comfortable, relaxed, and not dealing with the boss.  Right there is where many people took themselves out of the running.  As I gave the applicant their application, if the applicant had already taken themselves out of the running, I would place “TNT” on their application.  If ever asked, I would say that meant they were ‘dynamite’, but really, it meant, “Thanks, No Thanks”.  These people usually got a call or letter saying we were going in a different direction, and that we would keep their application on file for a year, just in case anything opened up.  The reality was, we would keep it on file for the next time they tried to apply for a job.

The important thing to remember here is that you are always ‘on’.  When you are looking for a job, no matter how much you may think otherwise, you have to be on your best behavior, because you never know who makes the decisions.  It could be the person you pissed off before when you were a customer has a good head for faces, and will remember you when you come back as an applicant.  Also, unless you are absolutely positive that you don’t want to work at a place in the future, you want to make sure you are cultivating a positive image about yourself.  This may mean avoiding acting like stereotypical teenagers when you are out with your friends, but it may also mean collecting a paycheck while your friends are still hassling the workers at the food court.

Once you have a job, and you are doing well at it, your boss may come to you to offer you the opportunity to work more hours, (meaning more money$$) or more responsibility.  This is awesome!!  You have found what many people spend their entire adult lives looking for, someone who will acknowledge your contributions to the company!  You should pat yourself on the back, and be very proud.  But should you take the opportunity that is presented?

While this is an individual decision, and not one that I would want to be responsible for making, there are some general guidelines that you should consider before accepting more responsibility or more hours, especially if this is your first job.  One of the most important things to consider is the amount of time that would be required.  For those of you who aren’t very good at math, (don’t get too upset, I’ve worked in finance for well over a decade, and I was the worst at ‘math’.  I was great at adding up my paycheck, though!) there are only 24 hours in a day.  Most schools run from about 8:00 AM till about 3:30 PM, which is 7.5 hours.  Let’s assume it takes about an hour to prepare for school in the morning; waking up, bathing, doing essential face and hair arranging, picking out clothes, changing your mind about the first choice of clothes, eating breakfast, changing clothes because you spilled some breakfast on your shirt, and travel to the school itself.  Just for fun, let’s assume it takes half that for the return trip.  We’re now up to 9 hours, (15 left).  Teachers will tell you that they figure about an hour and a half of homework per hour of instruction given, but most students will say about 20 minutes or so.  Six classes of 20 minutes is two more hours.  At least 8 of those hours, you are asleep in your bed, oblivious to the world, so that leaves us with about 5 hours which are yours.  Multiply that times 5, (I strongly urge you to think four times if you think you are cut out to work a seven day workweek) and you have 20.  That is probably very close to the MAXIMUM number of hours you should work in a given week.  Personally, I think 15-24 hours a week is pretty fair.  Anything more than that, and you are sacrificing something else that is important to your well being.

You should definitely consider how important whatever you are sacrificing really is to you.  If you are thinking to yourself, “I don’t need that much sleep, I can shave off two or three hours right there, and it usually only takes me about 30 minutes to get ready for school.  I have plenty of time.” welcome to my world.  When I was young, I figured I could work two full-time jobs and still have plenty of time to goof around.  I was very, very, very, wrong.  If you are cutting into your sleep time, consider how tired you will be the next day, and how that may affect your ability to go through your normal day.

You want to think past the immediate prize of more money here.  If your school work starts to suffer, your parents may, (and rightly so) force you to cut back on work, meanwhile, because of your falling grades, you are limiting yourself for what types of jobs will be open to you when you are done with school, because employers do look at education.  Your work output may suffer as well, causing your boss to rethink the idea of giving you more responsibility.

You should also think about how much you want to do this job.  Nobody likes the job they have to do, but if you start off accepting more responsibility than you really want, you will like your job even less, even as you are marrying yourself closer to the job because you are accepting more responsibility.

There will be plenty of time in your life for you to have to work long, hard hours.  While you are still young and able to do so, put those years off till later.  Right now, you are just starting on a fantastic journey that will transcend many, many jobs you will have over your adult life, and you should be focusing your energy on making the best decisions that will get you to your goal of financial security.

As my experience grew, and I would get better and better jobs, I started to notice that the tenor of interviews was getting uncomfortable.  At first, the interviewer would ask the same generic questions that I had been used to, and I would be able to answer with no problems or hesitation. 

Eventually, the manager would start to ask me about my old job and my feelings towards my old employer.  Since I had a couple of jobs under my belt already, and because I was so full of myself, I would let loose about every perceived problem that I had ever faced at my previous employer.  I would also let them know what my solutions were.  I was constantly surprised every time I got a letter saying they were going to go in a, “different direction”.  It took me many times before I learned a couple of things about the interview process.

The interviewer wants you to be honest, but when they are asking about your past employment, they are less interested in the truth as they are in doing a little “weeding” of prospective employees.  When an employer has one job to fill and fifty people wanting to do it, they usually go through a process of elimination.  They will look for any reason to move on to the next applicant until there are no others.  An applicant that spends a lot of time complaining about their past employment is prime pickings to be move on from.

We all know that your previous employment was not desireable.  In all my years of hiring people, I have never considered that I was interviewing somebody who loved their current employer.  I always figured that was why they were looking for a job in the first place!  You are probably working for minimum wage, you do very hard, very unglamourous work, and you are probably working for a real tool.  The person who is interviewing you knows this already.  They already went through it as well.

What follows is one of the most important truths you will ever learn about getting a new job, so listen well:

NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR PROBLEMS

WITH YOUR PREVIOUS EMPLOYER!

NOBODY CARES ABOUT HOW YOU WERE

MISUNDERSTOOD BY THEM, OR HOW

YOU WERE THE BEST EMPLOYEE BUT YOUR

BOSS WAS A COMPLETE TOOL!

From an employer’s point of view, any prospective employee who is willing to complain about these things to someone they have just met, and who, quite probably will be as bad or worse, (because they are willing to offer that extra quarter an hour) is just too much trouble to worry about trying to fix.  It’s just quicker and easier to move on to the next one and maybe get someone with less of an ego to have to overcome.

You’ve gotten applications, filled them out and now are called in for an interview.  Now the real fun begins!

Other books and manuals will tell you that you want to put your best foot forward, accentuate the positive, be ready to counter any objections, blah, blah, blah.  Some of that may be true for people with an actual work history, but for you, chances are pretty good that you are interviewing to get your very first job!  You don’t have anything to accentuate, counter, or put forward.

The best way to handle an interview is to accept that you will be nervous.  Feel free to let the interviewer know that you are nervous.  They were once in your position too, and chances are they will understand and help you feel better.  Answer their questions honestly and completely, but don’t give out too much info.  When they ask you how you are feeling, feel free to tell them you are a little nervous, but don’t describe in detail how that nervousness is exhibiting itself in your body.

The most important thing is to be honest.  It’s always easier to be honest in the long run, because you don’t have a ’story’ to have to keep track of.  Also, any GOOD manager will hear a lie and move on to the next person with you none the wiser.  I’ve hired enough people to know when someone is lying in an interview, and nothing annoys me more.  If I can’t trust you, or think you are trying to hide something, I have a hard time believing that I will be able to trust you to do your job unless I’m constantly watching you, and I don’t have that kind of time or energy.

If you don’t know an answer, feel free to admit that.  Questions where this comes up usually tell managers what type of training may be needed before the employee is ready to fly.  Sometimes, however, they are designed to gauge your honesty or humility.  Don’t try and ‘find’ an answer that may not be there, or you may come off as a BS artist or just untrustworthy, two things that you don’t want to be.

If reading any of the previous posts hasn’t scared you out of working forever, congratulations!  You’ve decided to go to the local mall, fast food place, or local store to put in applications to start work.  In my time as a hiring manager at various retail places, I’ve seen all types. 

If you are going to pick up applications to work, do yourself a favor and dress appropriately.  Some people will be at a mall, hanging with their friends and pick up applications from stores as they travel along.  The official jury hasn’t come back on whether that is a good strategy or not, but it doesn’t guarantee success, which is my goal.  When I used to be a hiring manager, I had a little routine I would follow when someone came in looking for work.  I would never say that I was the hiring person to someone just picking up an application.  I would ask the applicant some insignificant questions about experience, and when I gave them the application, I would put one of three marks on the application, either a star symbol, a check mark, or the letters “TNT”.  If they got a star symbol, I would tell the applicant that meant they were a ’super star’, and should be looked at closely.  If they got a check mark, I would say that meant the hiring managers should ‘check this person out’, and if they got TNT, that meant they were ‘dynamite’!

Once the applicant turned in their applications, I had three trays on my desk:  Check mark applications meant that this person was a good prospect, and would need to have an interview shceduled ASAP.  Star applications meant this person had the confidence I was looking for, but may be more trouble than they were worth to hire.  I would interview them if I ran out of checked applications.  TNT applications got a letter thanking the applicant for their interest, but we were going in a different direction.  TNT really meant, “Thanks, No Thanks.”  I based my decisions on the ‘meaningless conversation’ that I had with each applicant as well as my first impression of how they presented themselves.

When I “pre-interviewed” each applicant, I didn’t care so much about what they answered, so much as I cared about how they answered.  If they looked like they were ready to start working for me, could look me directly in the eyes when speaking to me, and could string a sentence together without saying, ‘um’, ‘ah’, or stuttering over simple things, I was interested.  If they were enthusiastic and happy about being wherever they were, I was really interested.  If they were not dressed to work with me, couldn’t speak, brought friends with them, or gave me any other reason to say, No Thanks, I would.  This practice has allowed me to hire some of the best employees from a very broad pool of applicants.

To review:

• Dress like you already work at the place you are applying to work at.  This may mean wearing a tie, or it may not.  If you are in doubt, dress up rather than down.
• If you see a place is hiring and you are not ready to interview immediately, come back when you are.
• Be friendly and speak clearly to whomever approaches you.  You don’t know if they make the decisions to hire you, (or not!)
• Act like you want to work for the company.  Don’t drag yourself in like you are being punished.

Good Luck!

-W

Most young people decide to enter the workforce with one goal in mind.  They want to buy a car, (or motorcycle, scooter, or other mechanical means of transportation).  To youth, this is the Holy Grail, the final peg in their search for adulthood.  Without a car, not only are kids lacking autonomy and transportation that is on-demand, they are also lacking a certain status within the microcosm of society that is high school.

 Many families will strengthen this bad idea by providing support and additional justification for the need of a car.  They all attract kids with the same siren song, “You need to be able to get around”, and like all the Argonauts before them, most teens steer right into the rocks of increased debt.

Guys, believe me when I say that I understand the need for something a little better than a skateboard.  Let’s play honestly here.  There is no chance at all of getting anywhere with the opposite sex if you have to ride them on your handlebars.  I know how hard this excersise will be, but think of how little sense is made by the idea of putting yourself in debt for years when you are making a single digit hourly wage!  Now think of having an auto loan with a DOUBLE DIGIT INTEREST RATE!!  You will never pay down any principal on this loan, you will be forever stuck in a vehicle that is losing value as it sits, and you are opening the door to a host of other expenses that come with the ownership of a car.

If possible, make arrangements to share the usage of a family vehicle instead, while you save enough money and build a little credit so that when you are ready to buy, you won’t get such a bad deal!

As much as most teens would love to deny it, getting that first job is a huge step towards adulthood.  Let’s face it, many teens aren’t faced with that mortgage payment or any major bills.  Granted, there are those teens who are trying to help the family with bills, or those who are more advanced in the path towards adulthood, but the majority of kids don’t fit into either of these categories.

During these teenage years, most of us are trying to find our own identity, but are faced with resistance from our parents.  Physically, we are adults, but to our parents, we are still in the diaper.  For most of us, the best form of rebellion is to do what they, (the adults) do better than they do.  We believe that we can prove that we are ready to be treated like the adults we think we are, and one of the things we see them doing is going to work.  We see our parents working, and we perceive that they don’t have to follow the same rules they have for us, and they don’t have someone to answer to about every aspect of their life, (later on in life, you will all understand how vastly different that fantasy is from the reality of everyday life, but that is another story!).

 I’ll let the shock of knowing that kids really do want to be like their parents settle in for a minute before I continue–

–Minute’s over.  The path towards becoming one of the working class is a one-way road, and that’s something most kids don’t understand for a while.  So whether they are motivated by external, (bills to pay, contributing to the household income, etc) or internal, (wanting to buy a car, wanting to get a leg up on savings, etc) factors, kids really need to be sure that they are ready to make this committment.

 There is absolutely nothing wrong with a kid wanting to remain a kid, for a while, but this isn’t about remaining a kid, this is about kids learning to survive and thrive financially.

Now that you’ve come very close to making a decision to joining the workforce, you should really look at the other side of the equation.  Working is hard.  Unlike your normal life, you don’t get to sleep in, ever.  You also don’t get summers, holidays, a week in spring and a week in winter off.  Forget about being able to speak up and say what you want.  Mouthing off to someone in authority may get you a date with the head cheerleader, (or whoever is popular in high school these days), but in the work place, all it will get you is fired and then you have to look for work all over again.

 Another concern that a lot of parents have about teens working is that they will somehow miss out on some of the milestone moments that are traditional “kid” things to do.  Some parents remember when they finally started working and how they had to start making choices about what they were going to do and when. 

All of these arguments make sense, but the last one really gets to me.  I was working at a very young age, (in fact, I lied about my age several times just to get a job, but that’s another topic) and I don’t feel like I missed out on anything.  I hung out with my friends, I went out with girls, I even playes sports and competed in other things.  All in all, I was very well rounded.  I also had an income, which made me even more popular!  But seriously, if there is a concern that your working will get in the way of you living out your minority years in the manner you would prefer, then you should wait.  Truthfully, you will not be a very productive worker if you do join too early, and you will regret the experience.

If working interferes with school, that is a totally different story. You should avoid working at all costs if it will affect you doing your best in school.  You don’t want to be destroying your chances to have a better job because you focused too much on making sure the fry pits were cleaned and not enough on making sure your homework was done.

For whatever reason, there seems to be a stygma attached toworking in fast food that wasn’t there when I was young, or ever that I am aware of.  Let’s face it honestly, these places provide jobs for people with no experience, no marketable skills, and no knowledge of how to work!  Of course they pay little, and you come home from work smelling like lunch, but I personally believe that a lot of very important knowledge can be passed on to anybody who wishes to learn.

Most employers don’t want to become babysitters who have to pay those who are ’sitted’.  They will expect a certain level of dedication, committment, drive, and ethics and will not keep an employee long that lacks in either of these areas.  The problem you, as young people, face is that there is no class on these attributs that you can take, there is no DVD that will teach them to you.  The only place to get the experience is in thw workplace, gaining experience.

Enter now the fast food place.  They know how much they pay.  They know how you smell when you go home.  But, they are willing to overlook some of the faults and flaws of the young, albeit temporarily, and try to teach them to be better employees for the next job.  Take it from me, I know of no other job where I can go to my boss and tell him that I want the day off because I had a hangover.  Well, I could, but I no of no other place where it is accepted as a valid excuse.  Because these places do put up with a lot of flaky teens, they usually hire them by the truckload, and they offer no benefits and part-time hours.  In my mind, that’s almost as good as it gets for the young.  Whatever you do, don’t fall into the trap of taking a job that winds up being a career move that you will wind up regretting in fifteen or so years.