I read a recent article advising teenagers how to get a summer job. The advice was good, but it didn’t go far enough.
I agree with the idea of networking by telling everyone you know that you’re looking for a summer job. (Networking is the best way to find a job no matter your age.) The next suggestion was to walk the neighborhood and call on every store, shop and business. More important was the idea to dress “nicely,” introduce oneself, smile and shake the manager’s hand. The last idea was to “dream big,” and to aim at what interests you. If you’re interested in becoming an engineer some day, do your job-seeking at engineering firms. Be willing to start at the bottom, be eager to learn and don’t be too proud to do the most menial of jobs — you will learn something doing them.
The suggestion I would add would be to change your attitude about the summer job. Teenagers who have come to me looking for a job have had the attitude that I should hire them because they need the job — and, of course, the money. What I always found lacking was the understanding that employers hire people because they need the help — not because the prospective employee needs a job.
A teenager looking for a job must understand the important difference. He or she — or anyone looking for a job, for that matter — must understand that the employer is looking at the applicant from a selfish perspective. In the world of marketing, this is sometimes referred to by the acronym WIIFM (pronounced “whiff-im”): “What’s In It For Me?”
Customers and employers are silently asking that question, even if they don’t express it out loud. The employer looking at the teenager doesn’t care that the applicant needs the money. What the employer is thinking is, “If I hire this kid for $12 an hour, can I make $35 an hour from what he does?”
Oh, that’s terrible and selfish. Yes, it is. That’s what business is all about — making a profit on the materials and the labor of employees. If I can’t make money on the shoes you buy from me, I won’t be in business for very long. If I can’t make money on your labor, how long would I be in business? It’s called profit, and it’s not a dirty word. Profit is what drives the free enterprise system, and it’s profit that has made the United States the greatest and most successful country in the history of the world. (Is that patriotic music I hear?)
When looking for a summer job, be ready to explain to the prospective employer what you can do for him or her — not the other way around.
— Paul Burri is an entrepreneur, inventor, columnist, engineer and iconoclast. He is not in the advertising business but he is a small business counselor with the Santa Barbara chapter of Counselors to America’s Small Business-SCORE. He can be reached at pburri@west.net.