Many high school students often find themselves working their first jobs during their Junior and Senior years of high school. From working as an Intern at a local arts center to serving tables and tourists at a restaurant, most lower-skill jobs aimed at high school students are often filled up rapidly as soon as they open. Many American students also get their first car on their sixteenth birthday, which happens to usually fall at the start of their Junior year of high school. On a personal level, I have struggled with finding employment often, with jobs either not answering my application or “ghosting” (not following up) me after a single interview. This short opinion piece, thanks to Hurricane Milton, will strictly cover the job search experience that you may experience during your high school years.

To begin, let’s remind ourselves of how most people now apply for jobs online. According to this Pew Research Center document from 2015, 54% of Americans apply for jobs online. Obviously, this document is now very outdated, and I would personally like to assume that this number is over 80% today. While, yes, networking plays an important role in the job search process, first-time applicants likely have zero connections in any industry, leading to Online applications taking up a grand majority of current job applications. This brings many unique challenges in the experience-such of “ghosting”. Ghosting is a common issue for many first-time applicants today and entails employers either taking incredibly long to reply to applicants or not replying at all. Other instances can occur after an aspiring applicant’s first communication with an employer or after their first interview. With how widespread this issue is, the best solution to it is very simple: apply to multiple jobs at once. Parents may consider this a poor idea, however they must understand the struggle of communication in the modern era. With the amount of ghosting that occurs, multiple applications can easily widen the chance that an individual employer will NOT ghost you, and WILL reach out to you to schedule an interview.

Finally, let us touch on the interview process. Most people often experience a great deal of stress when an interview is close. Let me be very, very clear here-Interviews are NOT difficult. When accounting for entry-level positions like working as a clerk or bagger, Interviews become very simplistic. Most interviewers simply ask about your background, your reasons for applying, and what you plan to do in the future. My advice would be to answer these questions as brutally and honestly as you can. For example, most people give nebulous, long-winded, and untrue answers about how you can “see a future here” and how you “want to expand your horizons”. Be real with yourself for a second, you’re here to get a paycheck to afford gas and a new game that’s coming out, not to change the world and lead a revolution. I was honest in my most recent interview which led to me being employed, admitting that I needed a paycheck and was stuck as a bum for a few months. 

If you listen to some of these tidbits and tips, I’m sure you, too, can escape the pit that is unemployment.