I remember from the ages of 14-17 trying to get hired at any and every job in town and being repeatedly turned down for "lack of experience".  Finally at the age of 17 I was hired as a stock boy at a grocery store for less than minimum wage and no more than 20 hours a week.  My first real job was the U.S. Navy just before turning 18 and when I got out 5 years later was back to the "lack of experience" thing again and getting turned down in interview after interview.

I did land some small, low paying jobs and was able to feed myself and barely pay rent and always got along great with my employers--never fired, never in trouble, always good references but it was the recession of the 80's and employers were cherry picking only the best qualified applicants.  You wouldn't even get the time of day in most "interviews".

I went on to help two attorneys set up their own interstate businesses and created my own--where I made more money than any "employer" ever paid me.  I left home  at 17 and came from a family that could not help with college in any way.  I wasn't a minority so there squat then for financial aid--even though I was in the top 90% on my SATs.

I'm not in a position to hire but if I ever am what I have learned is I'll listen to each person as an individual and never assume I "know" there circumstance. That said, you're right.  A lot of kids now don't know how to be committed or follow through responsibly.  It's a sad state all around.

People who think young people should just go out and get a job are out of touch with the times and probably a lot older. I am very fortunate that with the Aerospace upswing my skills are highly sought after and I'm constantly recruited by headhunters. Unfortunately not so for my younger nieces and nephews. I have a nephew who is a hard worker in Portland, OR and pounds the pavement every weekday he doesn't have a job. While he has gotten a bunch of temp jobs, he hasn't landed ANYTHING permanent in over 3 years. He is incredibly discouraged but makes himself keep doing it because he is in his 20s and wants to be able to support himself outside his parents' house.

Even in the Aerospace industry I work in, a lot of the positions we're able to get people who are ridiculously overqualified. These people should be able to get higher level positions, but there is just too much competition for it.

There is a MAJOR MISCONCEPTION that the recession hits all people equally. It simply doesn't. People in there 50s have an easier time getting a job with lots of experience than people like myself in their 30s. People like myself have it much, much easier than young people in their teens and 20s with little or no work experience and special skills. Without my special skill set I'd be one of the ex-Navy or Airforce mechanics-electricians doing a barely above minimum wage assembly job on the shop floor. They need all their military training and experience to get those jobs which 5 years ago would have been going to the high school graduates, who are forced to look elsewhere.

I'm not saying Draginol should just "give" them a job they haven't earned. As someone who has had to hire people under me multiple times I always get the best I can. But this future work force generation is getting caught off and from a 10,000 ft view it is awful for all of us because a whole generation is going to have less opportunity and skills than those who went before. It isn't their fault either but the direct fault of the earlier generation which is benefiting from it the most and currently in political office. Consider it when you vote. Those kids who can't find a job will one day be needed to pay your retirement.

That is true. We have alot of people coming in Canada and I think our wage is getting lower because they think $9.50 an hour is good or they live with 15 people in their home.    I don't consider myself predjudice, but it makes it harder to negotiate a wage when any wage is good enuf for someone else......

'enuf' - that qualifies you for McDonalds

The way I got my foot in the door when I was a teenager was in sales.   Some sales jobs are better than others (e.g. selling a scam and the employer wants a little money up front is probably not for you...), but believe me, landing a sales job was SIGNIFICANTLY easier--and better--than McDonalds.  Plus I ended up making about twice what my peers were who did make the cut in the retail sector.  Sales will sure train your work ethic:  how they rate your performance is really simple.  In fact that's why there are so many openings.

I do sales and the problem there is for every good sales job there are twenty run by greedy idiots who'll burn out their sales force's credibility and their potential customer base just to churn bucks for a quarter till they send a new batch to another new territory they haven't burned yet when that one collapses.

To make a living with a family, you need a really credible company to work for.

Yeah, sales as a career is not for everybody.  But to get your foot in the door, I found that to be a good one.  I did not end up going into sales for a career.   I mean, if you interviewed a kid for an IT job who listed a job in sales...and you asked him about it and he said sales was not for him...wouldn't you like that?   You know, you've got somebody who tried sales and failed at it (but learned from the experience), vs. somebody who never even worked.  I'm taking the guy who failed at sales.  But then again maybe I'm biased, because I did it.  Not to mention that successful salesmen can make a LOT!!   But it's hard to find that niche where you are selling a product you really believe in (otherwise I have serious ethical reservations selling customers on the product).   A lot of times if the product was that good, you wouldn't need salesmen. 

In my case, I was selling advertising.  No ethical qualms with that.  It's really cut-and-dried:   buying an ad with us you reach X number of people.  Advertising sales will always need salesmen.  The cost of producing the product for us was almost zero, so every dime a customer paid us went to profit (and my commission).  A teenager can do it, until you get up into television advertising--that takes a little more know-how.  All you need is someone not afraid to walk up to strangers and willing to pound the pavement.

I blame NAFTA.

Yeah - they're called "right to work" states -- you can be fired for no reason at all, whenever, regardless of how long you've been there.

Prostitution of their work force for a bad payed job in many cases (go Marx, go!). Being abused by their superiors, having to work many unpaid hours or doing tasks that don't belong to them without getting paid extra, for fear to lose their jobs. And stuff like that. Seen it, suffered it. Not a fan.

Let's be serious, in most cases if you are not a boss, you are nothing but a disposable tool for a soulless company. Not that I can complain about treatment too much as I have always have had good relationships with my bosses and mates, but doesn't change that I have been nothing but a (currently unemployed) tool.

Being able to go to work 5 days a week at the same time should be something that any college graduate should be able to do without any job experience. At least if he used to go to class, you know (which may include discipline and responsability). In any case, no one is born with job experience and everybody has a first time (be it at 14 or 40 years old). We love to joke how companies love to deny young people positions because they lack experience while at the same time they also deny older people positions because they are "too old".   But it could also being that my country is a bad joke.

Right to work...for less money with less protection from employer abusive of power.

bull.

The term is "at will employment" and has nothing to do with the term "Right to Work" states.

The "right to work" legislation just gives employees the right to choose weather or not to be part of a union. They can no longer be forced in to it and watch their dues line the pockets of politicians and "special interest" groups.

I believe at-will employment is the norm in most states.   You can be fired at any time for no reason without notice; but then again, you can quit at anytime, too.   Your antidote is to have value.   If you have a skillset the employer needs, have a proven track record--for example in sales, you have a history of consistently closing 10X your base salary in sales--the company already has $$$ invested in your training, etc....then at-will employment works in your favor.  You can just up and quit at anytime, and boom, there goes the company's valuable asset.   It's usually considered unprofessional, though, to just up and leave without giving 2 weeks' notice and training your successor; but if your employer is exercising his legal right to just up and terminate people--no reason, no warning, no severance, nothing--then you have every right to return the favor.  Most employers don't go to that extreme for that very reason.   If employers are treating their people better than the law requires, then morally you should be doing the same for them.   If you don't, you kind of lose your basis for complaint.

edit:  By the way, in my field, the generally-accepted price of replacing a head is $100,000.   In other words if somebody leaves, you might as well budget $100,000 in recruiting costs, training, lost productivity time, and office space to replace him with someone else.  We do NOT like to lose people.   And we like to fire people even less.

Is it *really* that hard for a kid to get a part time summer job.  Man, I started working when I was 11.  Local farmer would pick me and the other kids up at 6am and we'd pick Raspberries until the afternoon.  Made like 35 cents a quart.

I'd then make 75 cents a bucket later in the summer climbing up in cherry trees picking the cherries that didn't come down with the picker machines.

I hit the "jackpot" when I was 12 and was stuffing newpaper inserts for a quarter of a cent an insert (yes, 1 penny for 4 inserts) every Saturday morning.  And that was year round, would make around $30 a week doing that.

Then summer would come and I'd be packing tomatoes or something.  Farmers love kids that want to work.

When I was able to drive I washed dishes at a local restaurant.  Did that until I was 18 when I got my first retail job stocking shelves.  In college I worked that retail job.  Also did odd jobs on campus like work the parking lot for football games or in the library.  Colleges are always hiring students to do these type of things.  It's something.

I mean come on, there are TONS of menial things that people will pay teens to do if they aren't afraid of work.  Perhaps it's easier growing up in a smaller town, fancy that.

And I know all about unemployment.  I got laid off in 2009 and went 14 months with no work. 

Anyway, my point is Brad wants someone who did *something*.  Even if it was just working the parking lot at football games and washing dishes.  I refuse to believe that a teen can't get a job doing this type of stuff on campus if they want to.  I know I would much rather work 3rd shift for 4 hours at the computer lab then flip burgers.  

Right to Work. You know I wish we had that out here. Not for me but I've heard some people having a couple unions at one job. With no choice...

I have been in a union, they take their slice of the paycheck. Then the gov.

Also they're gradually taking away the right to strike over here..... That's the unions hammer. Not that I'm a big fan anyway.  Just sayin.  

"They" also want to make $30.00 an hour jobs $18.00 instead..... Or the job leaves the country....

Pensions age is 65, maybe, probably 67 says Harper will be the magic number for me and other boomers....

I could go on... Dam