Chapter 21

How Can I Get (and Keep!) a Job?

A SURVEY, published in Senior Scholastic magazine, asked some American high school seniors to rate which life goals they considered “very important.” Eighty-four percent responded: “Being able to find steady work.”

Perhaps you are interested in an afterschool job to help out with personal or household expenses. Or you may be seeking part-time employment in order to support yourself as a full-time evangelizer. (See Chapter 22.) In any event, worldwide inflation and limited demand for unskilled workers have made jobs hard to come by if you are a youth. How, then, can you make a smooth entry into the job market?

School​—A Job-Training Ground

Cleveland Jones, an employment recruiter with many years of experience, offers this advice: “Get a good high school education. I cannot stress enough the importance of learning to read and write and speak properly. Learn proper decorum as well, so you can handle people in the working world.”

A bus driver must be able to read timetables for arrivals and departures. Factory workers need to know how to fill out job-completion tickets or similar reports. Salesclerks are expected to do computations. In almost every type of job, communication skills are needed. These are skills you can master in school.

Persistence Pays Off

“Never give up if you are out of school and looking for a job,” says Jones. “Do not go out on two or three interviews, then go home and sit and wait. You will never get called for a job that way.” Young Sal looked for a job for seven months before he was hired. “I would tell myself: ‘My job is to find a job,’” explains Sal. “I would spend eight hours a day each weekday for seven months looking for a job. I would start early each morning and ‘work’ till four o’clock in the afternoon. Many nights my feet would be sore. The next morning I would have to ‘psych myself up’ to start looking again.”

What kept Sal from quitting? “Every time I was in a personnel office,” he answers, “I would remember what Jesus said: ‘Exert yourselves vigorously.’ I would keep thinking that one day I will be working and that this bad time would pass.”​—Luke 13:24.

Where to Find Jobs

If you live in a rural area, your job search could start with local farms and orchards, or you can look for some type of yard work. If you live in a large town or city, try looking in the newspaper help-wanted ads. These ads give clues as to what qualifications are needed for a certain job and can help you to explain to the employer why you can fill those needs. Parents, teachers, employment agencies, personnel offices, friends, and neighbors are other sources you can tap.

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Handling Job Interviews

“Before going on a job interview, remember, first impressions are lasting impressions,” advises job counselor Cleveland Jones. He cautions against wearing jeans and sneakers to an interview and stresses the need to be clean and neat. Employers often conclude that the way a person dresses is the way the person will work.

When applying for an office job, dress as a business person dresses. When applying for a factory job, wear slacks and a shirt that are clean and pressed, along with neat-looking shoes. If you are a woman, dress modestly and use cosmetics sparingly. And if applying for an office job, wear hose and dress shoes to complement a conservative outfit.

Always go alone to a job interview, cautions Jones. If you bring your mother or friends with you to the interview, the employer may conclude that you are immature.

‘Suppose the employer asks me if I have had prior work experience, how do I answer?’ you may wonder. Do not bluff. Employers often see through exaggeration. Be honest.

You may not realize it, but you have likely had prior work experience even if you are hunting for your first “real” job. Did you ever have a summer job? Or did you ever baby-sit? Did you have a regular work assignment in your home caring for family chores? Were you given the responsibility to take care of certain duties at your place of worship? Have you ever had training in public speaking? If so, then these things could be mentioned at the interview or listed in your résumé to show that you can handle responsibility.

Another important concern of employers is how interested you are in their company and the job being offered. You must convince them that you want to do the work and can do it. The “what’s-in-it-for-me” attitude will quickly turn off the interviewer’s interest in you.

Applying for and getting a full- or part-time job is a challenge that you can meet successfully. And when that job is used as a tool to help others, not just yourself, satisfaction becomes a fringe benefit.