After months of searching, Ryan finally found a job. Ya-hoo!
As a teenager with only volunteer work experience on his resume his job search seemed like a daunting task. Let’s face it; finding a job is hard to begin with.
But when you haven’t had any experience in a workplace, have never been through an interview, and don’t know where to start in writing a resume, the task can seem impossible.
The job market is rough and the jobs the teenagers looked forward to each summer are hard to find. Most summers I can find employment for many of my students. Not this year. Many of the county funded programs that offer job placement for high school special needs students did not receive money this year.
I usually know who is hiring in our community so when Ryan began his search
I steered him to a couple of possible prospects. He has packed boxes of food at a food back as a volunteer, so when a new grocery stored opened in our neighborhood he applied.
He thought once he turned 18 that his dream job at Game Zone would be waiting for him. He has been a loyal customer for over 10 years and thought he had this one in the bag. No such luck.
Regal Cinema sounded like fun so he applied. Humph, no one called.
Starbucks and Jamba Juice have waiting lists due to their popularity. Too bad.
When July rolled around and still not even one interview under his belt and his gas tank nearing empty he finally got his call. The perfect job. The job we all wished we had when we were young.
The happiest place on earth called. Ryan is now officially a cast member at Disneyland working in Tomorrowland. Yay! Russ and I are looking forward to whatever we can get out of this. We haven’t been to Disneyland for years, so we will take advantage of the free passes.
This has come at the best time for me, as I was considering buying a pass and take my 3 year-old granddaughter during my summer break. So this will work out just fine.
This a great first job, we all have to start somewhere. It is a lot better than my first job, or few jobs.
My first job was blowing up balloons dressed as a clown for a promotion at a K-Mart. From there I did a two-year stint at Arbys and worked my way up to assistant manager. Two years coming home smelling like roast beef and with a backache and sore feet from standing all day.
My dogs were always happy to great me at the door to lick the roast beef off my shoes.
I really wanted to work at Baskin Robbins with one of my girlfriends. She told stories about all the ice-cream concoctions she made and tasted. I possessed the passion and enthusiasm for ice-cream, still do, I don’t know why I wasn’t given the chance to prove my ice-cream scooping skills.
As Ryan began his first semester at Golden West College I didn’t press him too hard about finding a job. I had no problem filling his gas tank or buying the things he needed for school, but now that he has made the transition into adulthood it was time for him to begin his journey into the workforce.
Very few people are born with a silver spoon. So the rest of us have to start somewhere, and why not Disneyland? Steve Martin got his start at Disneyland and things turned out pretty good for him.
