STUDENTS AND SUMMER JOBS

THERE IS MORE GOOD NEWS IN THE WORLD THAN BAD

Fernando was sitting at a table toying with his water glass, waiting for his friends to join him for lunch.

He was a bit chilled, but glad to be inside, out of the cold, snowy, windy day. Moments later, Hilary arrived, followed by Edmund and Prem.

As they sat down they all had a similar refrain, “Boy! It’s cold out there!”

In an effort to warm themselves up, they started talking about warm weather and the summer. Shortly after the conversation gravitated to summer jobs and their children.

Hilary started the conversation about jobs saying, “Our son had trouble finding a job last year and he was not alone. He applied to over 15 places and eventually found a job cleaning out swimming pools. Not ideal, but he made some money and learned a lot…including the discipline of getting up early and creating a routine.”

“Our daughter,” said Fernando, “planted trees in Northern Ontario last summer, along with other students. She earned 20 cents a tree.

“She learned the harder, faster and longer she worked, the more she made. She slept in a tent with another girl and learned to deal with the bears who wandered around the campsite after they went to bed.

“She came home with a lot of money and the fittest she has ever been. She is thinking about doing it again this summer.”

“I can remember my summer jobs,” said Edmund. “They were a real mixed bag. One summer I worked on building houses. I did a variety of things, from lugging around supplies to being an assistant to a bricklayer. He treated me like dirt but I was well paid and I learned to lay bricks.

“I learned the short cuts builders make and what to look for when buying my own home. I also learned I did not want to work in construction for the rest of my life.”

Hilary mentioned she worked as a waitress at a hotel out west one summer. “The hardest part was remembering what people ordered and dealing with the cooks and others in the kitchen. The social life was great and we had a lot of fun.

“On our days off we did a lot of hiking. Once we learned the art of waitressing it became easier. We learned that providing exceptional service and being super nice to the guests our tips improved considerably.”

“The best summer job I ever had,” said Fernando, “was being a counsellor at a camp in Algonquin Park.

“We were not well paid but did I ever learn about people!! Being in the outdoors was icing on the cake.”

“Learning to deal with homesick 9 year olds and their parents was an eye opener, teaching them to paddle and encouraging them to carry a pack across a hard portage was hard but I really felt good afterwards. I also developed a great camaraderie with both the staff and the campers. This experience helped me decide I wanted to work with people outdoors. That’s why I am now working at Outward Bound and loving it.”

Prem said, “I grew up in India and having a summer job was not what people in India did. India is a high tech country.

“Instead, in the summers I learned more about computers. This helped me get started in the IT business.”

Hilary added, “My husband had a painting job in his first summer at University. He did this for several years and eventually obtained his own franchise. This required hiring others and finding his own houses to paint.

“After he finished university he went to work in a bank. While he learned some basic finance he did not like it, and decided he wanted to have his own business. He now has his own printing business, loves being his own boss and is making 2-3 times what he would be making in the bank.”

Edmund said, “A good friend of ours went to work as an administrator at a large law firm and developed a sense of the law and what it would be like to be a lawyer. She went to law school and now works in a downtown law firm working a gazillion hours and making lots of money.”

“I would hate it,” said Fernando, “working 80 hours a week on the 35th floor of a downtown building is not my thing.”

“I came to Canada after second year university,” said Prem, “and I found a job helping to deliver meat around southern Ontario.

“This helped me with my English while learning the geography of southern Ontario.”

Edmund jumped in again, “A friend of my father’s told me he had many different jobs while at school. He learned he did not want to make a living in any of the areas he worked in during the summer and became a university professor instead. However, he learned something from every one of those jobs. These experiences gave him a unique perspective in his work as a biology researcher and professor.”

“Sometimes what you learn is not useful until later in life,” piped in Prem. “I am told former Prime Minister Paul Martin knew nothing about Indigenous People until he had a summer job in Northern Canada. Several of his best friends that summer were Indigenous.”

Remembering the difficulty of the Indigenous Peoples was the underpinning of his commitment to Indigenous Peoples when he was Prime Minister. In fact, he continued with this commitment after he retired.

Their family, through THE MARTIN FAMILY INITIATIVE, now promotes and funds Indigenous Education.

They all agreed, some people and businesses do not like to hire students. They believe the students only stay for a few months and then disappear.

“You get no return on your investment,” they say.

Fortunately, there are many people and organizations who think otherwise and provide summer employment for students.

“My Mother was one of them. She had her own business,” said Edmund. “She believed it was her duty to hire summer students. It was an investment in the future of Canada.

“In fact, she is still in touch with some of them going back many years. These students also helped her enormously with her business.”

In general, governments at all levels are good about hiring students, be it in administrative work or through day camps or running playgrounds or public transit.

After trading funny experiences that happened to them in their summer jobs, and remembering all the great people they had met, they realized they had not said a word about what was going on for them in their day to day lives. By now they had finished their coffee. It was time to get back to work.

The conversation also made them realize even though summer was a few months off, they had better check in with their children to determine if they had taken any steps towards this year’s summer job.

Finding a summer job is primarily the responsibility of the young people, however, they usually need some parental guidance. Working with their children also provides an opportunity for the parent to do something with their children and help them develop the important life skill of obtaining employment.*

The snow was still falling and the cold wind was still blowing, but memories of his summers kept Fernando warm as he trudged off to the subway on his way back to work.

Till next time,

Chris Snyder, Climate Optimist

Email: snyderchris74@gmail.com
Stories of Good News and Hope: https://chrissnyder.makeanimpact.ca

* Places to look for summer jobs include: online, family, friends, school employment centre, local businesses,Youth Employment Services, newspapers, government recreation centres, summer camps, your network, unpaid internships, or even starting your own job such as a lawn cutting service.

Other suggestions:

Get help around how to find a job, start early, apply for many, and learn about about how to get an interview and how to conduct yourself in an interview,

Be prepared for turn downs (it is part of the experience) and stick with it. Obtaining employment is a numbers game.

Author’s Note – I’m pleased to announce my latest book is now available. Many of the stories are from my blog going back 5 years.
Here is what Mike Sladden, Director Emeritus of Camp Pathfinder, says,

“He gives a master class in delivering these stories humbly, in an engaging voice and readable style, to readers hungry for a little reassurance and a little reset of their perspective. Thanks to Chris, we also get energized to add our own efforts to the GOOD NEWS side of the ledger.”

The further Good News about this book priced at $34.95: It is available to readers of the blog for the special price of $29.95. Use discount code GOODNEWS at checkout to purchase your copy at:

https://hilborn-civilsectorpress.com/products/52-good-news-stories