Some parents made no effort to find out what their sons really wanted to do. If they were devoted young men they probably put aside their own desires and learned the family trade. Over the years many mothers thought that the ministry was the finest profession open to their sons and prayed that these young men would study for the pulpit. Some did, but many were quite possibly neither fit for nor interested in that occupation. However, dutiful sons with other aspirations might well enter divinity school to avoid hurting their parents' feelings. Who would do this today?
As for those young women born after their parents had come to the New World, they were expected to help at home, learn how to run a household including care of the children, and, when of age, marry and start their own families. More recently many of your great-great grandmothers and great grandmothers, who may have dreamed of raising families, probably became clerks in stores, librarians, maids, school teachers, or secretaries while waiting for marriage proposals.
Today's world is quite different. Young women graduating from school or college usually look to a career first and marriage second. That is because so many women want to have the independence a job brings and hope to continue working after the children leave the home. Therefore it is as important for you young ladies as it is for the young men to use a part-time or summer job as a testing ground for your working preferences and to obtain some practical experience for your career future.
Educators and those in business agree that every man or woman will do best in the work for which they have real aptitude and in which they take a personal interest. Now, while you are in school, looking at career choices, and working at a part-time job, is the perfect time to get some idea of what you might want to do after graduation.
The first step in considering a part-time job is to decide how and where you want to work. Would you prefer a job where you will work for someone else in a hotel, a store, a garage, or a restaurant, for example? Are you perhaps a natural-born salesperson who would be happier calling on people and selling them a product or service? Or are you the adventurous type who looks forward to starting a business of your own?
Obviously if you anticipate entering a profession, there is not much opportunity to obtain working experience before you start your formal training after completing college. However, there may be some part-time workplaces that will provide a bit of experience and at least a glimpse of how the profession operates. Thus if you are interested in librarianship, the local library may have a low-level opening permitting you to shelve and check out books. Should you hope to be a doctor, dentist, surgeon, or veterinarian, perhaps a helping position in a veterinarian's office, hospital, or kennel would prove illuminating. Would-be engineers might find a position as assistant to a surveyor, in a construction company, or as a mechanic's assistant in a garage or manufacturing plant. Although it would appear at first that a prospective lawyer could not find a part-time niche, it would be worth a visit to a local lawyer's office or a law firm to see if they could use a part-time office assistant to help with minor chores. You never know unless you ask. So put on your thinking cap and solicit ideas and suggestions from your parents and their friends as well as those in the business or profession that interests you. You should find everyone you meet sympathetic and willing to help in any way they can. Of course, if you are unsuccessful in uncovering any leads, you probably can find some other type of job, as suggested later in this book.
Now, today, is the time for you to start becoming acquainted with your real preferences and prejudices about your jobs future. Consider that after graduation you may well spend the next fifty years of your life working. That is a long time-half a century! You will want to make your career both pleasurable and profitable. The first ingredient for achieving this is to ensure that you choose the kind of work for which you are best suited. If you can, at least make a tentative decision on this important question now; it will make your later career choice that much easier.
How would you answer questions such as these:-
Do I want to work alone?
Will I be happier working with other people, perhaps as part of a team?
Will I prefer to work indoors or outdoors?
Would I be more content performing manual labor to sitting at a desk or behind a steering wheel?
Would I enjoy selling? (It may be too early to determine this, but give it some thought.)
Would I find the greatest satisfaction in working with animals or people in an outdoor setting?
Does a career as a professionally trained person (scientist, doctor, lawyer, engineer, librarian, graphic arts designer, and so forth) excite me?
Would a technical job in a machine shop, garage, radio/TV repair shop, or large manufacturing company interest me?
Would a career in some part of the service industry suit me best? (Service is the fastest-growing segment of our economy and includes businesses such as restaurants, hotels, recreational facilities, laundry establishments, hospitals, nursing homes, and any other business that provides a service.)
These questions must be faced and answered sooner or later. We realize that when it comes to finding a part-time or summer job, you may have no choice but to accept whatever opening is available. Nevertheless, think about these questions and be honest with yourself in answering them. Right now you have the opportunity of selecting one of three broad working areas as outlined below. Consider the advantages and disadvantages not only of working in each of these areas and of making money now, but perhaps earning your living later.
WOULD YOU WORK FOR OTHERS?
Advantages
- You start earning the minute you report for work.
- You know exactly how much money you will be making.
- You have regular hours and can forget the job after you leave work.
- You don't have to borrow or save up capital (money) in order to get started in business.
- You have no business worries, such as wondering where you will find more customers or other forms of business.
- You can stop working any time you wish, provided you give the usual two weeks' notice.
- You may have an opportunity to learn a great deal about the business, how it operates, and what it has to offer.
- You must find a job. If you live in the country or a large city this may prove difficult.
- Your regular working hours may prove inconvenient when there is something special you want to do, such as joining your friends for a beach party or an all-day picnic. You must be prepared to pass up some good times.
- You must be willing to take orders from your employer as well as accept criticism and suggestions gracefully.
- There probably will be little opportunity to increase your regular salary. In a business of your own, what you earn will depend on how much you sell or how hard you work.
- You will have to learn to get along with your co-workers regardless of whether or not you like them. This is true of every job where you work for others.
If you think you want to find a job, here are six questions a personnel manager would suggest you ask yourself:
- Will I be on time and stick to a regular working schedule?
- Will I be able to take orders and criticism from others without feeling or showing resentment?
- Do I like people? Will I get along well with my co-workers?
- Do I have enough perseverance to give my job a fair trial, even though at first it may not be as exciting or as interesting as I expected?
- Am I sufficiently interested in making good on the job to ensure that I will do my best and learn all I can about the business?
- Will I bring the proper attitude to my job?
On the other hand, if the idea of working for someone appeals to you slightly but you are not sure, there is no harm in trying your hand at a job. The worst that can happen is that you won't like it, in which case you are free to leave on two weeks' notice. There is an equally good chance that you may find working for others a rewarding, happy, and challenging experience.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SELL?
Some people are born salespeople. For others, nothing is more distasteful than the idea of drumming up prospects, giving each a sales pitch, and hoping that the prospect will buy. There are not many items you can sell today on a part-time basis. Nevertheless, we are going to introduce you to the fascinating art of selling because this knowledge will be most useful throughout your working years. You may not become a Fuller Brush salesperson, but if you have a business of your own, you must sell your product or service. Similarly if you are employed by a store, a bank, or other business in a selling position, it would be wise to know something about how to sell. Selling can be fun and profitable, too, so read ahead and learn something about it.
First, let's list the advantages and disadvantages of selling-whether you work for yourself or someone else:
Advantages
- You are your own boss.
- The harder you work and the more you sell, the more you earn.
- Your profit on each sale is usually good because salespeople's commissions tend to be fairly generous.
- You get to meet a lot of people on a person-to-person basis.
- Selling is not only fun but provides you with a valuable business background that later may prove quite useful.
- You earn money only when you make a sale.
- You may hit an unlucky streak and go for days without making a single sale.|
- When sales fall off and you become discouraged, you may be tempted to quit.
- You must be willing to go out in good and bad weather alike and not let discouragement keep you from trying further.
- Will I prepare and practice my sales talk before I call on my first prospect?
- Have I the courage to ring doorbells and talk to people whom I have never met?
- Can I keep from becoming discouraged when doors are slammed in my face and I am told "No" again and again?
- Will I stick to my job of selling in the face of discouragement?
- Do I like to meet and talk with people and can I do this easily?
- Do I like the idea of calling on people and trying to interest them in buying my product or service?
- Do I have patience as well as a sense of humor, and can I hold my tongue when tempted to talk back or say something rude?
- Do I have confidence in my ability to become a salesperson and do a good job?
- How do you rate yourself on the above questions? Would you be happy and successful as a salesperson?
"I'd rather die than have to call on strangers and sell them something," he told a friend on his way to work one day. "I'm much happier working in the stockroom of the hardware store."
A couple of weeks later an odd thing happened. Bob had been listening to a salesperson who called on his boss, and the more he heard, the more fascinated he became.
"If that's all there is to it," he told himself, "I could do as well as most of them, if not better."
So he borrowed some books on selling from the library and the fol-lowing summer found a job selling fuel oil to home owners. In no time he discovered that selling was exactly what he liked to do and, furthermore, that he did it well. After graduation, Bob took a job with a national manufacturer as a sales trainee and today is one of their best salespeople.
Perhaps, like Bob, you are certain you wouldn't care to sell, while actually you would make a good salesperson. What do you think?
HOW ABOUT A BUSINESS OF YOUR OWN?
Operating a business of your own can be lots of fun and profitable, too, but it also has its good and bad features. You will note that some of them are similar to those previously listed under selling. That is because a salesperson is really in business for herself or himself. Bear in mind, however, that in this particular discussion we are thinking of those business activities that do not call for selling but rather for rendering some type of service.
Advantages
- You are your own boss and free to run your business as you wish.
- You can arrange your working hours to suit your convenience.
- All profits are yours.
- You will have unlimited opportunity to use your imagination and initiative.
- You will experience the real thrill of being entirely on your own.
- You may have to find, save, or earn the capital (money) necessary to start your own business. The Choice before you 27
- You will have to find customers for any business you start, and this will probably entail a certain amount of sales effort at some time.
- There is an element of risk in every business, and you must be pre-pared for the possibility that your business will not prove as successful as you had hoped.
- If your idea is new or different, you may face competition because others may try to copy it.
- Can you answer "yes" to each of the following questions?
- Do I have confidence in my business idea and in my ability to carry it out?
- Can I raise the necessary cash if my business idea requires capital?
- Am I willing to take a chance in starting my own business?
- Will I do a conscientious job and render the very best possible service to each customer?
- Will I give my business a fair chance to succeed before I quit and look for other employment?
- Will I work hard and steadily without a boss to watch over me?
- What's the verdict? A business of your own? If so, we wish you success!
Have you ever thought of starting a business of your own in partnership with your mother or father or a friend? A business of this type, if undertaken with your mother or father, would probably have to be of a make-and-sell variety. You could spend time together making things, but because your parent probably has a regular job, the job of selling your product would fall on your shoulders. Working with one's parent or parents can be fun. Many families have developed large successful businesses from such starts.
In partnership with a brother, sister, or friend you could have either a make-and-sell or a service business. Working as a team, two can often accomplish more than twice as much as one. You will find it fun working with another person, and a partnership has another distinct advantage: if either of you is sick, the other can carry on the business. Thus the little enterprise won't fold up should you be unable to work because of illness or for another reason.
Alex Taylor and Phil Dawson started a little printing business with a small press Alex purchased inexpensively. He reasoned that he could not do it all himself and persuaded Phil to come into the business with him. That way both boys knew how to operate the press and both of them could go out to sell their products. If one of them could not work for some reason, the other was able to fill customers' orders. They operated the business until they graduated from high school, whereupon Alex sold the press to someone else.
In a partnership you usually split the profits evenly, according to how much work each does, or on some other basis agreed upon ahead of time. If you do a thorough job, are a fast working team, and can line up plenty of customers, each of you should make as much or more than you could working by yourself.
It is extremely important that you and your partner be congenial and respect each other's ideas and thoughts about what is right and what is wrong. Many partnerships are started by young people, but the majority of them soon break up because of a trivial argument. If each of you is willing to "give" a little when there are differences of opinion you should be able to make your partnership a prosperous one.
LET'S GO TO WORK!
No doubts by now you’re itching to find the perfect job, so let's proceed with the first job area-working for others. This, of course, involves finding a job, and logically we should devote the next chapter to suggesting how to go about your job search. However, we believe it is wiser first to read about the opportunities that may be open to you. Then, when you have an idea as to which job or jobs appeal to you, you can turn to Chapter 10, Planning Your Job Search, and learn how it would be best to approach prospective employers.
There is much more to landing a job than merely walking into an office or store and asking if there is an opening. In fact, you will discover someday that advising and helping people who are seeking employment is a huge and profitable business. Fortunately you do not need to pay for such advice and assistance. It's all in Chapter 10!
Now, on to the job market!
