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MONEY SMART KIDS
Summer Jobs for Kids
by Janet Bodnar

I'm 11 and I want a job. People say I'm too skinny to walk a dog. Can you help me?

Can you tell me where to go to get a job when I am 14? I start college in four years, and I only have $80 saved.

Judging by dozens of e-mails I receive from kids like the ones above, America's youth are admirably eager to become productive members of society -- and astonishingly clueless about how to do it.

The workplace can be a forbidding adult world in which kids often feel unwelcome. My stomach still churns when I think about my first job hunt, trudging from temp agency to temp agency and taking typing tests I invariably failed.

Of all the financial topics we discuss with our children, I suspect that the job market ranks near the bottom. If anything, kids are likely to hear us complain about work -- which could explain why 79% of teenagers surveyed by Junior Achievement have no interest in taking up their parents' careers.

There's a lesson here for parents who want to get their kids off the couch this summer: Prodding alone won't do the trick. Kids need your help to figure out what they can do and how to sell themselves to employers.

For example, children younger than 14, who can't work legally yet at traditional summer jobs in stores and restaurants, are perfect for the service economy. You can give them ideas of the services for which adults would be willing to pay.

Kids too skinny to walk dogs can water plants and take in mail when neighbors go on vacation. Instead of waiting for a call to babysit, they can organize play groups to relieve harried parents.

One young man I know offered his services as a waiter, busboy and gofer to an aunt who was giving a dinner party. Seven hours later, he went home with a wad of cash in his pocket.

Once kids turn 14, they can legally work in an office, store, restaurant, movie theater or amusement part. If you have any contacts at such businesses, give them a call -- not necessarily to get your child a job but at least to get him or her in the door. I gratefully gave up typing when my uncle put in a good word for me with a bakery owner he knew.

Next: More job tips for teens.