Every year, fewer and fewer students are working jobs. In 2000, 43 percent of teens worked a job during the summer, but in 2021, the number dropped significantly to 30 percent. Now more than ever, working a job as a student is an essential part of growing up as it teaches how to deal with complex interactions, understand the value of money and develop perseverance through challenging guests.
Melissa Marcus, a University of North Carolina School of Medicine student, claims that students learn valuable skills to prepare them for their future when involved in the workforce. According to Marcus, working as a teenager helps build resumes and can lead to higher-paying jobs. After college, finding a job is not always easy, but if a student can prove that they have work experience in the past, they have a greater chance of receiving better opportunities post-graduation.

During the summer, I worked as a camp counselor. For five weeks straight, every single day, I dealt with crying children and was told to accommodate their every need. At first, having to ‘serve’ people was unfamiliar to me. However, as the weeks went by, I learned to adapt to my situation by focusing on the work at hand rather than focusing on the negatives. By working this job for five weeks, I saw my life from a different perspective.
Working a service-based job can change someone’s perspective on life as it teaches the difficulty and struggle of satisfying guests. Seeing this new perspective is arguably the most important reason for getting a job. It is better to realize sooner rather than later that people’s jobs are challenging, especially those that serve customers. Students will treat employees with more respect by experiencing the other side of customer-worker interactions.
Some people claim that monotonous jobs, common among teens, can give a wrong impression on the workforce and leave people not wanting to work anymore. However, if individuals see it as improving their current skills, it could motivate them to strive for a better job in the future. Along with that, by learning how to manage an income early on in life, teens can learn about budgeting and saving money. If students look at the situation from that point of view, it may encourage them to appreciate their employment.
It’s common for people to think that having a job adds a lot of stress to students, who already have to deal with their extracurricular activities and schoolwork. However, this can be avoided simply by getting a summer job or even a part-time job on the weekends. By just experiencing the workforce, many students can learn necessary skills like valuing hard work and understanding the importance of teamwork.
Students should look for jobs during their teenage years, as they provide valuable skills that can be applied throughout their entire lives. Jobs are the key to students experiencing the real world and preparing for their future.