 Welcome to Teens on Topic. I'm your host Emma Arnson and today I'm joined by... I'm Hattie Shaw. I'm Sam Sheridan. Eric. And today we are talking about teens and jobs. So let's see what adults and Davis have to say about that. What do you feel about teenagers getting jobs? I think, yeah, that's the best way for teenagers to really learn. I think our education system is very focused on book learning and classroom learning. And from my experience, the best way to learn is by getting your hands dirty and getting out in the field. So I think it's a great way to, one, teach about how to actually apply work in the field, but also just the things that you learn, kind of the soft skills that aren't taught in the classroom, that are really important to employers, I think. For sure, yeah. If it's good for them, it's good. I think it's a good idea. I mean, I think it's good. I think it's as long as you're still able to get your schoolwork and stuff done. I had a job over the summers in high school and I thought that was helpful. I mean, I agree. I think it's good to get some responsibility in early. Unfortunately, college debt so much, it's almost a necessity for kids to get jobs, not to pay for the college education. But there's so many more important things they can learn and grow and experience as a teenager and the windows over that opportunity is going to close when they get older. So it's unfortunate that they have to get jobs. I mean, there's something to be gained, but there's something to be lost to. So internships and exposure, especially when they're in the form, especially when your teenagers are choosing their career path and what their major is going to be, and they can get much more exposure to the world by interning and having exposure on other things than getting a job where they're basically not using all their capacity at this point. Do you know any teenagers with jobs currently? Not currently. Not currently. But I always had a job as a teenager. As soon as I was old enough to work, I worked. And so I had control of my own spending money and it was very nice. And it just gives you that little step towards independence. So I think it's a great idea. If you're not too busy in school, if you can handle it, if you're not too busy with sports and academics and everything, I think a job is great. Awesome, thank you. I don't think I know any teenagers right now. I'm trying to think. Oh, I know a couple teenagers, but I don't think they have jobs that I know. They had jobs over the summer. They don't have jobs during the school year. Alright, thank you guys. At the moment, no, because I'm getting old. But if you'd asked me several years ago, then I would have known tons of teenagers with jobs. I think it seems to me like there's been a reduction. Obviously, it probably went like this. There was a period of time when probably young people were working quite a lot. But it seems like there's so much pressure on kids today to be the best violinist or get straight A's. And we have so much privilege in this country oftentimes that maybe there's less of a need perceived sometimes to be working. Not every family needs their kid to be making extra money. But there's a lot more value to it than just bringing extra income to the house. Yeah, thank you so much. Awesome. Cool. What are their jobs? Typically, it's food service in the restaurant industry. Cool, thank you. Awesome. Yeah, my daughter has some as a few and my daughter's considered getting a job. So that's the trade-off we're having to make. Yeah, thank you so much. That was very interesting. I mean, I know we all have jobs here at this table. So it would be interesting to see what do you guys think about what the adults had to say about the job? Well, I think that it's very true that the majority of people work in food service. Because I work at Jamma Juice and I know that these two also work in food service. And that's just I feel like a really like easy kind of way to start out. Like when you're first working because there's a lot of openings and a lot of like kind of like entry-level jobs that you can get. But I don't know what they have to say. I think food service, I think the best jobs for teenagers like physical work. I think it teaches a little bit more discipline. And I know me and Eric both have worked on farms doing odd jobs and cleaning stalls. And I also rake blueberries in Maine over the summer. And it's just the kind of hard work we work long hours and it's sort of gritty. I think it's really important for teenagers to experience some of that and it teaches you some discipline. Yeah. Yeah. Well said. Do you have something to say? No, I was going to ask what do you think? I'd say that it's definitely useful for teenagers to have a job. I know I fairly recently got a job and I think it's very useful because definitely a lot of things that I've learned in my job were not taught in school. So I think it's especially being young people have less expectations of the experience in work. So I think getting started now versus later is definitely a better way to go in my opinion. Yeah. And also when it comes to college, there is a lot that you have to save up for. So I know that I have like, because I do what? Like Jomju's, Durnash and theater stuff to keep up with having to save up for college. And so that's something that I think is a big factor. Because I know that one of the women said teenagers get jobs less often now. I feel like that's kind of not true and I more agree with like, teenagers have to get jobs in order to like, not just have money, but also save money up for college. I know. So when you start young, because you're not always going to rely on your parents. And I guess having the experience working to help you when you're like older, you know. Yeah, I agree with that. Like working and being able to work with people who are older than you and who have been in the workforce for kind of a long, like a longer time is something that's like, I feel like a really important skill to have. Yeah, I like that teenagers opportunities in Davis for teenagers to get jobs. And I wonder if the school district could leave more opportunity for students to do homework like at school or to like be more accommodating of jobs. Because I know that I work from like four to nine and then like I go to the gym right after that. And I just don't have time for homework. So I just like don't do it. Not always. No, but yeah, I know that like work can like definitely take away from my homework. But also sometimes like I really enjoy going to work and just being able to like do something for like a period of time and make money for it. And so like that's the one thing that's very different from score. So I think that like, especially working in food service, the work isn't necessarily like as hard, but it is like like you're making money for it. The score can be hard, but you don't make money for it. So just nice having money. You just go out and buy something without telling your parents how money, you know. And you feel better about it. You feel, yeah. Yeah. You can take more valuable stuff you buy with your own money than your parents money. Exactly. I definitely agree with that. That's one thing that I've like. I don't know if that aspect of having a job is like, it's not like set enough. I think it's underappreciated that buying something for yourself when you're still relying on your parents for other stuff it feels a lot better. And teenagers should do that more often. The level of independence is something that's like, that's really nice. Because then, but then like you feel kind of bad asking your parents for stuff after that point. Because you're like, I have a job. I should pay for it. It also depends on the person too. Some people, some kids come from a rich family, you know. I always get money. So some depends, just really depends on the person. Yeah. Because I mean like, I'm very appreciative that like for me, getting a job wasn't necessarily a necessity. Like it was something that I kind of was like, I want to get a job because I want to start working and making money for myself. But I know that there's a lot of people who like, that's kind of how they like, that's what they have to do. And so, but I don't think that teenagers who have like the privilege to like not work as much should just not work. Because working is fun. I like, I like, I don't know, it's taught me a lot. And like, I feel like these guys have the same opinion of it. Yes. Yes. And money is good. You heard it here first. Yeah. I definitely agree with everything that's being said. And I wonder if you guys would think that like it should be mandatory that all teenagers should get some sort of job or internship before they graduate. What do you guys think? Well, I think it's not mandatory. But like in Davis, like if you don't have a job or do an internship or really good at a sport, like what are you doing? Like, I think it's, it's pretty like enforced. I think it's pretty like in our culture that, I mean Davis is more like academics and like sports, but it's still like an extra curricular that's really tough when you work on a skill. I think that's a good thing, although it puts a lot of stress. What do you think? Yeah. People should be required to work? Well, not mandatory. Like you gotta go work now, but I guess you should, you know, for the experience, you know. Yeah, I agree with the whole like if you're not doing an internship, if you're not having a job, if you're not doing an extra curricular, like what are you doing? Because that's definitely how I feel sometimes when I'm like not really doing anything. I'm like, and maybe it's just because like we live in Davis and like there's very like, like this is what you kind of have to do. I don't know. I guess I like being productive and keeping myself busy because I feel like I'm able to do like everything better if I'm doing something. Yeah, I'd agree. I mean I think it's very satisfying to be working or having an internship. I think every internship or job, even if it's like as simple as working at McDonald's or anything like that can definitely teach you not only useful skills, but maybe in some way have an idea of what you want to do for the rest of your life because there are skills that you practice that you don't practice in school and I think that there's a lot to be said of having any sort of high school level job. I think it's definitely useful to do that before you go to college because I know sometimes people might not be able to get a job in college for whatever reason. So I think getting a job now would definitely be more useful. Yeah. And did you guys do internships too as well as jobs? Yes, I interned here as well as I've done other internships. Yeah, because that's one thing that I felt like was like when I was applying for jobs, like having the internship work experience on there was really something that like gave me a leg up and also made me feel confident that like I could go into any job and like kind of pick it up easily just because I had already worked in an internship. What do you think? Another thing that jobs get, especially like the jobs people really look down on, like fast food and like really low paying jobs, they give you an opportunity to deal with people who are really difficult, like a lot of our customers with fast food are like really tough and say outrageous things, but you know they're right and it's really a nice opportunity to learn when you're young that just because somebody might be saying something ridiculous, you guys always have to just take it and like be understanding and sort of work with them. Yeah, like working in customer service, like the customer's always right, like that's true and like you just kind of have to be like nod your head and like kind of take it and like just still be positive with it. I think that that's something that I've like that was not necessarily a learning curve for me, but something that like I had to pick on them kind of fast, I feel like. Like in high school, it's like there's really a force like everything's fair and like yeah, and then work it's just like it's not right. Yeah, you just have to yeah, I agree. What do you think about that? Yeah, I definitely agree. I mean, I know we all go to an adventure. We all have experienced working groups. Definitely a different feel for it than actually working. I don't my job. I don't have a lot of customer service. I've done like had to talk to people a couple times by mainly work behind the scenes. And I think it's very useful because I like the people I talk to aren't usually people that I would normally talk to. So it's definitely not only am I like getting a new getting to meet new people. It's also having better people skills, I guess, because I like I hang out. I'm around high school students all the time. A little bit of a different group. Yeah, I like, I don't know. Yeah, work, I guess, makes me feel more confident talking to people. And then it also feels like like mean not meaningful is like a weird word to say, but like it feels like you're doing something that kind of has like a purpose, whether your purpose is to like make money or like what you're doing in your job. I think that that's one thing that I was thinking about at work on Monday. Yeah, maybe say what? What was something else that you picked up on? I think that it's interesting that I went through a couple of times trying to find a job before I actually found a job here. And I think there's a lot to be said of working or trying to find work in a college town because I know a lot of students are trying to find work here. So I think that's one at least small aspect that some of the more lesser roles and more low skill level jobs are being not, I don't want to say stolen. They're being filled. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, so I think it's definitely in a world where you need a bunch of experience to go into any job. I think that's rising skill levels are, I think it's important for a teenager to get a job, but I also would understand why people would have a hard time finding a job with no experience. I was really fortunate and I found a job pretty quickly. They were looking for someone and right as I applied, but I mean I've known friends that have applied for jobs. Like their application process took four or five months before they found a job or I had a friend who had eventually found a connection at this place and then was able to find a job after applying to a ton of places. So I know that for high school students, especially when you haven't graduated yet, those jobs are often filled by college students so you kind of have to have something that makes you unique or makes them want to hire you more than just like you can work. Definitely. What would you guys say, do you think would change in the job world for teenagers saying like the next 10 years, if someone was in high school, do you think that they would have a harder time finding jobs or more people would have to find jobs or what do you think moves the future? I wonder if minimum wage went up, if that would make it harder for high school students to find jobs because people would be wanting more hours and wanting to make more money and it would fill up faster. I mean it could definitely help teenagers pay for stuff but I mean it's the point if you can't find a job, it doesn't matter how high you're going to get paid if you kind of want to. Yeah and like how would the price of everything go up if minimum wage went up? Because like I mean it just went up but also like where I work and then a bunch of other places like prices went up and it might have been only a small amount but like over time like that's going to get like higher and higher and so I wonder like how, I mean I do wonder how like how what is going to be like moving for college and trying to get a job there, especially like in a larger city. So that's something that's like a concern but I think that like all the work that I'm doing right now is not only going to make money, it's like experience for future jobs. Well thank you all for being here. I think we talked a lot of interesting things about the jobs that teenagers get and tune in next week where we're going to be talking about minimum wage.