When you’re a teenager with a job, the power that goes along with an adult needing something from you feels enormous. When you’re an adult, teenagers with jobs are the only thing standing between you and happiness. Either way, certain jobs in this world are almost exclusively held by teenagers, and it’s probably going to be that way for a long time.
Remember those days? Here are 10 classic teen jobs that helped prepare us for life.
Movie Theater Attendant
Popcorn scoopers. Ushers. ID-checkers. The dweebs that started off the movies by giving you a recap of the title, the cast, and other information you already knew. What do these people have in common? They’re almost always teenagers. There’s also usually a slightly older teenager working as the manager, a job they take seriously, in sharp contrast to their underlings. This manager meticulously paces the aisles of the lobby, pointing out dirty things for workers to clean, and lecturing people about real cinema. They are despised by every single person that works for them.
Lifeguard
It’s actually insane that we let teenagers stand between life and death in the pool and ocean, but it is what it is. This is a hard job. I could never have done this. Respect to anybody who has.
Grocery Store Checkout Clerk
It seems like the checkout clerk is a teenager 99% of the time at a grocery store. Maybe this is a classic case of “nobody else wants to do it” but teens seem meant for this one. Really builds up the art of small talk, too.
Carnival Ride Operator
This is truly chilling, when you think about it. I haven’t been to a carnival in some time, but it’s hard to picture an experience I’ve had where a snot-nosed teenager wasn’t operating the incredibly dangerous machinery. I shudder to think what sort of qualifications these kids have.
Drive-Thru Worker
Seems like nobody wins when you’ve got a teenager on the other end of the speakerbox. You’re already mad this twerp is gonna get your order wrong, and they’re already mad they have one of the worst jobs in the world. Did they really forget the ketchup? Or are they messing with you because they didn’t like your tone?
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Tutor
Unlike just about everything else on this list, you’re gonna need to be pretty smart to pull this one off. Tutoring younger kids is a slam dunk if you know what you’re talking about, and can teach plenty of leadership skills.
Barista
Welcome to the portion of the story where my personal teen job experiences begin to drop. In theory, my experience working in one of the busiest cafés in a touristy area should have turned me into a monster barista. What it actually did was teach me how to get other people to froth my milk for me every single time a drink required it, because I was bad at it. Work smarter, not harder, you know?
Camp Counselor
I worked at a day camp, so I had the easy version. Sleepaway camp is far more demanding of a job, and 100% the reason I never even considered it. As a 15 year-old, it was my duty to make sure a bunch of five year-olds didn’t bash themselves into walls or get smacked by dodgeballs. I mostly nailed it.
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Busser
This is an exhausting job, and without question the one I learned the most from. You have to be on your feet for hours, and on top of that, you need to be alert, personable, clean, dedicated, quick, anticipatory, and eager. It’s worth it at the end of the night when you get a cut of your server’s tips, though.
Pizza Delivery Person
Delivering pies, on the other hand? This is probably the best job I’ve ever had. Granted, I was a teenager and my parents paid for the roof over my head, so I really had no expenses. In terms of working hard and making money, this job has those things completely separate. It was so easy. Sure, real-time GPS wasn’t around and I had to write down the directions to people’s houses on the backs of old receipts and then try to read them in the dark, but there were so many perks! I could listen to music! I had no responsibility once I got back to the restaurant! One time the voice of Optimus Prime tipped me $100! A monkey can do this job, as long as the monkey can drive. And those tips at the end of the night just felt like mana from heaven.
