Austin's ThoughtsAustin's ThoughtsThe CEO of myfirstpaycheck.com describes the adventures of getting his website of job posting for teens off the ground, with observations and advice about employment as well. Articles
We're up!
2007-07-17 20:28:00 Well sorta, the job posting mechanism isn't up yet and we still have to figure out a few other things, but if you click on the link to the left you can see what we're all about. What do you think? Do you have any ideas?
Zit's Cartoon explained
2007-07-16 19:55:00 While I normally wouldn't rely on Wikipedia as a resource, it's a good place to go for a summary of FICA. It says, "The Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax, a kind of payroll tax, is a United States employment tax imposed in an equal amount on employees and employers to fund federal programs for retirees, the disabled, and children of deceased workers. The FICA tax pays for Social Security and Medicare. The Federal Insurance Contributions Act is codified as 26 U.S.C. ch.21."One of the not-so-fun parts about earning your first paycheck is paying your first income tax, but there are exemptions for students and people with low incomes (this is probably you). For example, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) taxes do not apply to service performed by students employed by a school, college, or university where the student is pursuing a course of study. For more information check out the IRS' site here. More About: Cartoon , Cart , Laine
myfirstpaycheck.com
2007-07-13 20:38:00 I thought our site would be up by now, it doesn't seem to be working, but I'll keep you posted and hopefully you will be able to check it out soon. Wish us luck
Word Vs. PDF Resumes
2007-07-13 20:37:00 An issue I haven't really thought about before, resumes in Word vs. PDF. Blogger My First Job Hunt: Discourses examines the issue and decides, "Personally, I much prefer a PDF resume because you can use Word to create a nice, clean, easily readable resume that reflects a little of your personal style without having to worry about how it will get ruined when someone else opens it on their computer."I'm not sure I agree with Monica though, how many people out there use PDF's on a regular basis? I think the real trick is to have your resume formatted so that it's easily readable no matter what the computer. You don't need many lines or indents or anything, it just gets distracting More About: Resumes
Teen Summer Employment
2007-07-12 16:11:00 Blog, Division of Labour, has a post about the reasons behind the decrease in summer employment for teens. E. Frank Stephenson takes issue with the idea that increased competition is the cause, and instead blames the decrease in number of teens working on the increase in family wealth. I can't say I disagree with this hypothesis, but it seems like he brushes off the amount of increased competition too quickly. I don't have statistics that can prove either argument, but I can imagine the ability for business owners to bring in foreign teenagers who can work longer for less, does make it harder for an American teen to find work.Either way, I think the thing for teens to take away from this conversation is that there are jobs out there for you, but you have to be aggressive in your search and flexible in what you are willing to do. More About: Summer , Employment
Teen Summer Employment
2007-07-12 16:11:00 Blog, Division of Labour, has a post about the reasons behind the decrease in summer employment for teens. E. Frank Stephenson takes issue with the idea that increased competition is the cause, and instead blames the decrease in number of teens working on the increase in family wealth. I can't say I disagree with this hypothesis, but it seems like he brushes off the amount of increased competition too quickly. I don't have statistics that can prove either argument, but I can imagine the ability for business owners to bring in foreign teenagers who can work longer for less, does make it harder for an American teen to find work.Either way, I think the thing for teens to take away from this conversation is that there are jobs out there for you, but you have to be aggressive in your search and flexible in what you are willing to do. More About: Summer , Employment
Posting Jobs
2007-07-12 15:48:00 Job posts are what our site is all about. We will have advice, suggestions, and other reference materials, but we believe the main draw for traffic will be the job posts. To avoid building the posting mechanism from scratch we recently bought J-board from Combtail to use as our base. We're not quite live yet, but we're making a lot of progress and the site is starting to look really good. Gary Reid, one half of combtail, has a pretty neat blog where he discuses social media. If you're into that kind of thing check it out here. More About: Jobs , Posti
Posting Jobs
2007-07-12 15:48:00 Job posts are what our site is all about. We will have advice, suggestions, and other reference materials, but we believe the main draw for traffic will be the job posts. To avoid building the posting mechanism from scratch we recently bought J-board from Combtail to use as our base. We're not quite live yet, but we're making a lot of progress and the site is starting to look really good. Gary Reid, one half of combtail, has a pretty neat blog where he discuses social media. If you're into that kind of thing check it out here. More About: Jobs , Posti
What happens when there is a theft on the job
2007-07-11 20:01:00 June Kronholz had another great article regarding teenage employment in Monday's Wall Street Journal (but since it's the WSJ, I don't have a link I can post). She writes about her son's first job experience and how the two of them handled a problem he had at work. Her son was working at the cash register and it came up short at the end of the day. He offered to pay the difference, even though he did not take the money. Kronholz advices against making a confession to fix the problem, and argues that you should tell your boss that you want to discuss the matter with your parents before taking any action. Which is generally always a good idea.For one of my first jobs, I worked at a hoagie shop and was placed at the register on my first day for the lunchtime rush, not such a good idea. There were tons of people, everybody was in a hurry, and I didn't know how to fix mistakes on the register. The register ended up being $100 short and I panicked, but after discussing it and ap... More About: Theft
What happens when there is a theft on the job
2007-07-11 20:01:00 June Kronholz had another great article regarding teenage employment in Monday's Wall Street Journal (but since it's the WSJ, I don't have a link I can post). She writes about her son's first job experience and how the two of them handled a problem he had at work. Her son was working at the cash register and it came up short at the end of the day. He offered to pay the difference, even though he did not take the money. Kronholz advices against making a confession to fix the problem, and argues that you should tell your boss that you want to discuss the matter with your parents before taking any action. Which is generally always a good idea.For one of my first jobs, I worked at a hoagie shop and was placed at the register on my first day for the lunchtime rush, not such a good idea. There were tons of people, everybody was in a hurry, and I didn't know how to fix mistakes on the register. The register ended up being $100 short and I panicked, but after discussing it and ap... More About: Theft
Celebrity First Jobs
2007-07-10 16:21:00 Benjamin Welch blogs about a Forbes article on celebrities' first jobs. Some examples he provides, Johnny Depp. Supported himself fronting a Kiss tribute band, which at one point opened for the B52s and Iggy Pop, and by selling pens over the phone — a feat which Depp supposedly called his “first acting job” because of all the different voices he used to alleviate his boredom. Teri Hatcher. Before landing her first role as a mermaid on The Love Boat, Hatcher was as cheerleader for the San Francisco 49ers. Quentin Tarantino. The Grindhouse director actually began his career in film in a “grindhouse” of another sort. He was an usher at a porno theater in Southern California. Chris Rock. Actually started his comedic career as a busboy at a Red Lobster. Danny DeVito. Worked for eighteen months as a hair dresser in his sister’s salon before enrolling at the American Academy of Dramatic arts to pursue his true passion — makeup and cosmetology. But the bigger point that ... More About: Celebrity , Jobs
Celebrity First Jobs
2007-07-10 16:21:00 Benjamin Welch blogs about a Forbes article on celebrities' first jobs. Some examples he provides, Johnny Depp. Supported himself fronting a Kiss tribute band, which at one point opened for the B52s and Iggy Pop, and by selling pens over the phone — a feat which Depp supposedly called his “first acting job” because of all the different voices he used to alleviate his boredom. Teri Hatcher. Before landing her first role as a mermaid on The Love Boat, Hatcher was as cheerleader for the San Francisco 49ers. Quentin Tarantino. The Grindhouse director actually began his career in film in a “grindhouse” of another sort. He was an usher at a porno theater in Southern California. Chris Rock. Actually started his comedic career as a busboy at a Red Lobster. Danny DeVito. Worked for eighteen months as a hair dresser in his sister’s salon before enrolling at the American Academy of Dramatic arts to pursue his true passion — makeup and cosmetology. But the bigger point that ... More About: Celebrity , Jobs
Tax advantages to putting your kids on your payroll
2007-07-09 17:35:00 An interesting article in the WSJ by Diana Ransom, that you should definitely pass on to your parents if they own their own business (and you should definitely read if you're a parent). Financially, it makes tax sense to hire your own children, and did you know, "And your teen may not owe any tax on that pay. A dependent child can generally collect up to $5,350 in annual wages without owing federal tax on that income?" me neither, thanks Diana More About: Kids , Putting , Payroll , Advanta , Ages
Tax advantages to putting your kids on your payroll
2007-07-09 17:35:00 An interesting article in the WSJ by Diana Ransom, that you should definitely pass on to your parents if they own their own business (and you should definitely read if you're a parent). Financially, it makes tax sense to hire your own children, and did you know, "And your teen may not owe any tax on that pay. A dependent child can generally collect up to $5,350 in annual wages without owing federal tax on that income?" me neither, thanks Diana More About: Kids , Putting , Payroll , Advanta , Ages
Why Filling Summer Jobs Is Tougher and Tougher
2007-07-06 22:21:00 This WSJ article by June Kronholz is about the difficulties some employers have in finding young employees, and how for certain jobs many people look overseas to fill openings. She writes, "the story of how the U.S. came to rely so heavily on foreigners to staff its swimming pools and other seasonal venues says a lot about the changing nature of the U.S. labor force. Stephen Lavery, president of Virginia-based High Sierra Pools Inc., says that he hired neighborhood kids as lifeguards when he began his pool-management company 18 years ago, but that the labor source soon began to dry up. College students began taking internships that would buff their post-graduation résumés, or sought jobs they could continue during the school year. High-school students signed up for summer courses or exotic travel to build up their college applications." If you're sitting there thinking that nobody is going to hire you, you haven't looked hard enough. There are plenty of people looking... More About: Summer , Jobs
Why Filling Summer Jobs Is Tougher and Tougher
2007-07-06 22:21:00 This WSJ article by June Kronholz is about the difficulties some employers have in finding young employees, and how for certain jobs many people look overseas to fill openings. She writes, "the story of how the U.S. came to rely so heavily on foreigners to staff its swimming pools and other seasonal venues says a lot about the changing nature of the U.S. labor force. Stephen Lavery, president of Virginia-based High Sierra Pools Inc., says that he hired neighborhood kids as lifeguards when he began his pool-management company 18 years ago, but that the labor source soon began to dry up. College students began taking internships that would buff their post-graduation r??sum??s, or sought jobs they could continue during the school year. High-school students signed up for summer courses or exotic travel to build up their college applications." If you're sitting there thinking that nobody is going to hire you, you haven't looked hard enough. There are plenty of people looking... More About: Summer , Jobs
Bob Herbert Column
2007-07-05 22:51:00 Blogger, The Unknown Candidate posted a June 16th Bob Herb ert column from The New York Times. A great piece about the Northeastern University labor study that found, "the national teen employment rate averaged only 33.1 percent, tying for the lowest employment rate in the past 60 years." Herbert writes, A steady job could make all the difference. Along with the paycheck comes a sense of the possibilities. Kids develop a clearer understanding of the value of education and are more likely to stay in school. The heightened sense of self-worth that comes from gainful employment can be a bulwark against negative peer pressure. Contacts are made and a work history established. "The more you work today, the more you're going to work tomorrow," said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies. "And the more you work while you're in school, the easier it is to transition to the labor market when you graduate." It seems obvious that we sho... More About: Column
Bob Herbert Column
2007-07-05 22:51:00 Blogger, The Unknown Candidate posted a June 16th Bob Herb ert column from The New York Times. A great piece about the Northeastern University labor study that found, "the national teen employment rate averaged only 33.1 percent, tying for the lowest employment rate in the past 60 years." Herbert writes, A steady job could make all the difference. Along with the paycheck comes a sense of the possibilities. Kids develop a clearer understanding of the value of education and are more likely to stay in school. The heightened sense of self-worth that comes from gainful employment can be a bulwark against negative peer pressure. Contacts are made and a work history established. "The more you work today, the more you're going to work tomorrow," said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies. "And the more you work while you're in school, the easier it is to transition to the labor market when you graduate." It seems obvious that we sho... More About: Column
Attention VCs! - What a blogger learned from their first job
2007-07-03 16:46:00 A funny story from blogger Barry Spencer,I recently started to read, about his first job, and how he still uses the skills he has learned from it. While I wouldn't try what he did at your first job, I think his story should encourage you to go out and find work and stick with it when it gets a little boring. When I was in high school, I worked as a part-time bagger/janitor/deli clerk at the Star Market in Wellesley, Massachusetts. On slow weeknights I would get bored and practice my comedic talents by telling jokes over the public address system. If I didn't have any jokes, I would read weekly specials using a subtle amount of "exaggerated exuberance". Other times, I announced random newspaper articles or excerpts from the manual for the Hobart deli slicer.Attention Star Shoppers. If the meat grip is not needed, it may be stored out of the way by sliding it to the top of it's travel, rotating it under the carriage tray and allowing it to rest on the retaining clip. Thank you fo... More About: Blogger , Logger , Blogg , Learned
Attention VCs! - What a blogger learned from their first job
2007-07-03 16:46:00 A funny story from blogger Barry Spencer,I recently started to read, about his first job, and how he still uses the skills he has learned from it. While I wouldn't try what he did at your first job, I think his story should encourage you to go out and find work and stick with it when it gets a little boring. When I was in high school, I worked as a part-time bagger/janitor/deli clerk at the Star Market in Wellesley, Massachusetts. On slow weeknights I would get bored and practice my comedic talents by telling jokes over the public address system. If I didn't have any jokes, I would read weekly specials using a subtle amount of "exaggerated exuberance". Other times, I announced random newspaper articles or excerpts from the manual for the Hobart deli slicer.Attention Star Shoppers. If the meat grip is not needed, it may be stored out of the way by sliding it to the top of it's travel, rotating it under the carriage tray and allowing it to rest on the retaining clip. Th... More About: Blogger , Logger , Blogg , Learned
A great job post
2007-07-02 18:12:00 A great job posting by way of Kristy Headley, "Since I am currently searching for a long-term job, and I know many others who are still looking for local ones, I thought I would share this valuable, common-sense quip (with equally healthy doses of seriousness and hilarity). That being said, read, and enjoy." I would say most of these pieces of advice make sense, but I think the point of point "don???t offer a full-on resume on expensive stationery when applying for a record store clerk job," is not against resumes, but rather having a good idea of what your potential employers are looking for in a hire. Helpful hints for summer job seekers If you???re out looking for summer employment, here are a few tips from your friends at Madhatter Music Co. (who are, incidentally, not hiring): - don???t come in wearing a dirty shirt. - don???t walk in with four of your friends, ignore the counter guy???s greeting, whisper and giggle furtively for five minutes i... More About: Post , Great
Good News
2007-07-02 18:01:00 Some good news from The Wall Street Journal by way of The Chicago Tribune, " The chances of landing a summer job???be it a paid internship or a stint as a drive-in carhop???are brighter this year than last, despite predictions of a slowdown in the economy."The article also mentions the way teenagers are using new technology (hopefully soon myfirstpaycheck.com too) to find jobs, "In recent years, it has become easier to find a specific job as such sites have proliferated. At the same time, more employers are posting on established sites such as Craigslist.org, and young job hunters are notifying each other of job openings through social-networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, said Trudy Steinfeld, executive director of the New York University Wasserman Center for Career Development." More About: News , Good News , Good
Job Ideas
2007-07-02 05:17:00 This is a little late to be too useful, but we've talked about applying for jobs at tourist attractions before, but this reminded me that temporary events, and festivals are always looking for people too. I had a good friend who was able to find a job at Bonnaroo one year, so he got paid to go. You never know what's out there, just remember to apply early. More About: Ideas
Articles on Teen Jobs
2007-06-30 23:46:00 A few years ago, I worked as a reporter for The Canton Repository. I was just going through some old articles that I wrote and found two that I thought would be appropriate for myfirstpaycheck.com's forum on teenage employment. The first is an article I wrote about a work program for middle school students. I was able to talk with 20 students who completed a program created by Stephanie Patrick, principal of Hartford Middle School. The students made minimum wage doing manual labor in the schools, and they were all thrilled for the opportunity. They were able to earn some money, learn some life lessons, and stay busy during the summer. Kids and Teenagers aren't lazy like some people suppose, they are just rarely given the opportunity to work. This is one of the reasons we created myfirstpaycheck.com, hopefully we'll be able to connect students with opportunities that they might have missed on their own. Here is another article I wrote about teenage employment. It's about a na... More About: Articles , Jobs , Artic
Places to look for Jobs
2007-06-30 01:03:00 The blog Work & Rest has some ideas on places that will hire teens, they mostly list places that we have already mentioned on myfirstpaycheck.com, but I would like to highlight tourist attractions, and parks and rec departments.On some scale, everybody has a local tourist attraction, and they are always hiring. One of my current co-workers found her first job at Sesame Place, an amusement park in northeastern Pa., and she still talks about how much fun it was to hang out with all of the other teens and spend time outside. One of the great things about these tourist attractions and/or parks is that they attract teens from a greater area than local merchants, providing you the opportunity to make friends outside of your school, and expand your social circle. More About: Jobs , Places , Lace , Look
Should Teens Receive An Allowance If They Are Working?
2007-06-28 19:41:00 Is what one parent blogger asks at families.com. She says, "I was surprised to find that 45% of respondents in a recent poll by the Family Education Network felt that teens should continue to receive an allowance once they start working. 47% voted "no" and just 8% had "no opinion." The blogger, Myra Turner, seems surprised to hear this, but it makes sense to me. I can't imagine most kids/teenagers are supporting themselves with income from their first job, or allowance, and allowing them to still receive some sort of allowance merely supports the money parents provides. Teaching kids/teens about budgets is still important, but I would worry that by stopping an allowance you would discourage kids/teens from working. More About: Teens , Working , Allowance , Allo , Workin
Act Now
2007-06-27 23:03:00 Blogger Molly's Brother wrote the other day about how to get a job. I think he has the right idea with his five step plan listed below. 1. Act now. 2. You don???t need to love it??? 3. ???but try to incorporate your future. 4. It???s never too early to start saving. 5. Learn the definition of ???networking.??? Especially #1, It's almost July, you should be out there applying for things! If you do struggle to find somebody who will hire you at this point, think about agreeing to work during the fall too. A lot of places look for new hires once kids go back to school, and you should go back to school and work hard. But maybe you can arrange your schedule so that you'll be able to work one day a week or something. Ask, maybe an employer will agree to it.
Few teenagers earn greenbacks with lawn-cutting jobs
More articles from this author:2007-06-26 23:26:00 A good AP story, about lawn-mowing and other teenage jobs. "The number of teenagers offering lawn-mowing services are definitely small, according to Junior Achievement, which surveys teens across the U.S. about their summer job plans. Only 6.2 percent of those surveyed this year plan to cut lawns during the summer. That's a slight uptick over the past two years (5.3 percent in 2006 and 4.4 percent in 2005), but still a fraction of those seeking work. Today's teenagers are most likely to choose retail, office or restaurant jobs to earn their summer spending money, says Darrell Luzzo, senior vice president of education at Junior Achievement. And they're mindful of developing their resumes for college and future job hunting as they choose those jobs." I think this is a same, my first job was mowing lawns and I thought it was great. I was able to gain experience, earn some cash, while being outside, and maintaining flexible hours. And it's a good life skill, I still mo... More About: Jobs , Earn , Teenager , Teenagers , Teenage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
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