{"id":11429,"date":"2019-06-27T14:34:34","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T20:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/?p=11429"},"modified":"2020-02-27T10:45:47","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T17:45:47","slug":"how-to-land-your-first-summer-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/how-to-land-your-first-summer-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Jobs: How to Land Your First Summer Job"},"content":{"rendered":"

Instead of just kicking back and relaxing, many high school students take it upon themselves to utilize the break and get a summer job. There are several benefits to getting a summer job as a high school student, the most obvious being extra income. But getting a summer job is a great way to learn workplace skills including communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and accountability. Plus, this experience will highlight these skills in your college applications, especially if you continue to stick with the same job.<\/span><\/p>\n

The question is, how do you get a summer job? The first step is to create a resume that caters to the type of job you\u2019re hoping to get. For example, many high schoolers work in food service, and while you may not have prior restaurant or cafe experience, employers in this field recognize that there are other traits and experiences high schoolers may have that will help them succeed in the role.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times students will put activities they participated in at school [on their resume]. So, maybe they\u2019re a ticket-taker at the theater or help out at a snack bar, they might include babysitting or pet sitting. Just whatever they\u2019ve done since they\u2019ve been in school that can be applied,\u201d said Ron Engebretson, owner of Erik\u2019s Deli Cafe in Roseville, CA<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Any experience with responsibility or customer service you can provide can show an employer that you can easily be trained for the job and the rest will come naturally. Students can also include a \u201cskills\u201d section on their resume that features personal traits.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When Myles Dornhofer applied for his first restaurant job as a host and busser at Sushi Lounge<\/a>, a Japanese restaurant in Point Loma, CA, he emphasized his applicable personality skills on his resume and when interviewing for the job.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI emphasized my ability to work with people and my communications skills. In the restaurant business I\u2019ve learned you really need to be able to talk to people and relay information quickly,\u201d said Dornhofer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dornhofer found that these people skills are vital in the restaurant industry both when interviewing for the role and when he started working at Sushi Lounge.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who\u2019s first starting and wanting the other servers to tip you out eventually, you have to be able to have conversations with them and get to know them. You have to be able to build a mutual respect,\u201d said Dornhofer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Engebretson shared that he posts job openings on the job website, Indeed. So, once you have applied for a job and been proactive in communicating with the business, you may then engage in your first job interview. During this interview, Engebretson focuses on how candidates present themselves, regardless of work experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s mostly about [a candidate\u2019s] personality and willingness to learn. My son just graduated high school this year, so he\u2019s been working here since and then I\u2019ve hired on a few of his friends. Here, everything\u2019s pretty easily trainable. As long as they\u2019re willing to learn it and have the drive to do the job, the experience part really isn\u2019t that important to me,\u201d said Engebretson.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ron shared that the key personality traits he looks for in new employees include being outgoing, friendly, and able to move at a quick pace.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone is willing to do that, move fast and work hard, everything else is teachable,\u201d said Engebretson.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, many employers don\u2019t want to hire a student if they\u2019re only available for the summer. If you\u2019re able to continue to work after school once school does start, even if it\u2019s only a few days per week, this will be a major bonus for an employer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of hard now as far as hiring students because if a lot of them go back to school and you hire them now, by the time you go through a training process you might only have them for a month or two. If they\u2019re going to leave when school starts back up then I have to start all over again. So I ask if they\u2019re going to be available after school. With seniors, it\u2019s easier because a lot of times their days end early, so they\u2019re able to work the closing shift,\u201d said Engebretson.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, employers also see benefits to hiring younger employees who haven\u2019t worked in other restaurants, as all restaurants do things differently and it\u2019s easier in some ways to start fresh with a new employee.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[First-time employees] don\u2019t have any bad habits. If an employee has worked somewhere else and they\u2019ve been allowed to do whatever they please, or there\u2019s no consequences for things they\u2019ve done and then they bring it here and it carries over, that can be a problem,\u201d said Engebretson.<\/span><\/p>\n

Engebretson shared that one of the main things he values in an employee is reliability, so it\u2019s important to assure your new employer that you will be reliable, and live up to this claim.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn this day in age the biggest thing is to be reliable and on time, and to show up to your shifts ready to go,\u201d said Engebretson.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though a service or other entry-level job may not be related to what you want to do as a career, a student summer job can provide more than just extra income.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter college I\u2019ll want to get a job related to my major, and there\u2019s going to be interviews. I had to interview for my position [at Sushi Lounge] so I feel like it was all a small version of the things I\u2019m going to be doing in the future,\u201d said Dornhofer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dornhofer also shared how the people skills he is acquiring being a host and busser at Sushi Lounge will help him become more well-rounded both as a person and an employee.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether you decide to go into food service, childcare, lifeguarding, or something else as a student, an employer simply wants to see enthusiasm, responsibility, and reliability in a potential employee. Showing that you\u2019re a hard worker and can be counted on to learn your job tasks and perform them will help you land the job, and demonstrating these traits will help you keep the job.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you’re going to be a junior in high school in the fall, you’ll also want to check out this Summer To-Do List for High School Juniors<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Instead of just kicking back and relaxing, many high school students take it upon themselves to utilize the break and get a summer job. There are several benefits to getting a summer job as a high school student, the most obvious being extra income. But getting a summer job is a great way to learn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":11431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[3096,25,3094,3097,3095],"class_list":{"0":"post-11429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scholarships","8":"tag-first-job","9":"tag-high-school","10":"tag-high-school-job","11":"tag-student-job","12":"tag-summer-job","13":"ad_tags-ap"},"better_featured_image":{"id":11431,"alt_text":"","caption":"Confident young waiter.","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":2121,"height":1414,"file":"s3:\/\/pcom-wp-media\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/27140240\/iStock-811911828.jpg","sizes":{},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"Getty Images","camera":"","caption":"Confident young waiter.","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"Young waiter serving","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"post":11429,"source_url":"https:\/\/wp-media.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/27140240\/iStock-811911828.jpg"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nStudent Jobs | How to Land Your First Student Summer Job | Peterson's<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are many benefits to getting a summer job as a student, but how do you land your first one? Peterson's can walk you through the process of finding one!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/how-to-land-your-first-summer-job\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Student Jobs | How to Land Your First Student Summer Job | Peterson's\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are many benefits to getting a summer job as a student, but how do you land your first one? Peterson's can walk you through the process of finding one!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/how-to-land-your-first-summer-job\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Peterson's\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/petersons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-06-27T20:34:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-27T17:45:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/27140240\/iStock-811911828.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2121\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1414\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Taylor Sienkiewicz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Petersons\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Petersons\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Taylor Sienkiewicz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Student Jobs | How to Land Your First Student Summer Job | Peterson's","description":"There are many benefits to getting a summer job as a student, but how do you land your first one? Peterson's can walk you through the process of finding one!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/how-to-land-your-first-summer-job\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Student Jobs | How to Land Your First Student Summer Job | Peterson's","og_description":"There are many benefits to getting a summer job as a student, but how do you land your first one? Peterson's can walk you through the process of finding one!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/how-to-land-your-first-summer-job\/","og_site_name":"Peterson's","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/petersons","article_published_time":"2019-06-27T20:34:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-02-27T17:45:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2121,"height":1414,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/27140240\/iStock-811911828.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Taylor Sienkiewicz","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Petersons","twitter_site":"@Petersons","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Taylor Sienkiewicz","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/how-to-land-your-first-summer-job\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/how-to-land-your-first-summer-job\/"},"author":{"name":"Taylor Sienkiewicz","@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4af14b9d9fb2ee25e844a4abb47563d1"},"headline":"Student Jobs: How to Land Your First Summer Job","datePublished":"2019-06-27T20:34:34+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-27T17:45:47+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/how-to-land-your-first-summer-job\/"},"wordCount":1104,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/how-to-land-your-first-summer-job\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/27140240\/iStock-811911828.jpg","keywords":["first job","High School","high school job","student job","summer job"],"articleSection":["Funding"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/how-to-land-your-first-summer-job\/","url":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/how-to-land-your-first-summer-job\/","name":"Student Jobs | How to Land Your First Student Summer Job | Peterson's","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/how-to-land-your-first-summer-job\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/how-to-land-your-first-summer-job\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/27140240\/iStock-811911828.jpg","datePublished":"2019-06-27T20:34:34+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-27T17:45:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4af14b9d9fb2ee25e844a4abb47563d1"},"description":"There are many benefits to getting a summer job as a student, but how do you land your first one? Peterson's can walk you through the process of finding one!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/how-to-land-your-first-summer-job\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/how-to-land-your-first-summer-job\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/how-to-land-your-first-summer-job\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/27140240\/iStock-811911828.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/27140240\/iStock-811911828.jpg","width":2121,"height":1414,"caption":"Confident young waiter."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/how-to-land-your-first-summer-job\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Blog","item":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Stories","item":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/category\/stories\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Student Jobs: How to Land Your First Summer Job"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/","name":"Peterson's","description":"Peterson's helps students discover their best fit educational program","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4af14b9d9fb2ee25e844a4abb47563d1","name":"Taylor Sienkiewicz","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7741b5bff283798d59e25c5299c761696f4795f49fc2135b7dba7354da99ca0a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7741b5bff283798d59e25c5299c761696f4795f49fc2135b7dba7354da99ca0a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7741b5bff283798d59e25c5299c761696f4795f49fc2135b7dba7354da99ca0a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Taylor Sienkiewicz"},"url":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/author\/taylor-sienkiewicz\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12424,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11429\/revisions\/12424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}