How to Tame Summer Job ApplicationsPart 1

The year that I became the go-to person for our summer job applicants was a turning point for me.

For the previous 14 years, I was on the easy side. I was one of many staff members who benefited from having a "will do anything for food" person on the payroll. Often, that junior staff was somehow related to one of our clients. Sons, daughters, friends, neighbors - you name it, if one of our important clients had a kid that couldn't find work anywhere else, they were guaranteed a job at our company. What that kid did all summer at our office was of no concern to me. When I needed their help, I just asked for it. What they did with the rest of their day, or their week, or their summer...who cares?

Well, that all changed after I changed departments. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was heir to the summer staff...situation.

The first summer, I had no idea what to expect. I didn't know who the summer help would be, their age, their skills, their interests. In fact, let's stop right there. I didn't know if that kid actually wanted a job and couldn't find one, or if the parent was forcing them into working through their summer vacation. Nor did I know what had been promised to this kid in order to entice them to actually show up to work. Turns out they were promised ALOT. And it was not alot of moving boxes and organizing storage closets and updating archives and running errands, which is really what they were capable of doing; as long as it was under close supervision. Actually, one of them was too young to drive so ixnay on having him run errands.

The second summer, I tried to get a little more prepared. I thought it would be a good idea to ask the bosses in the Spring if they planned on having any kids work for us that summer. That way, I told them, I could start planning ahead on what type of work to get ready for them. "Oh no," they said, "we don't even have enough work to keep our full-time staff busy. Why would you even think of hiring more people in the summer?" Well excuse me. Forgive me for trying to plan ahead.

15 years working with them and I still accepted what they said as truth. In the following weeks, as I started to receive emails from high school and college students, I responded to each in about the same way. "Sorry, we're not hiring any summer help this year. Try such and such a firm. Maybe they are hiring." I felt terrible. I wasn't convinced that we were not hiring, I only knew that the bosses didn't know if they were hiring.


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