Getting hired for the summer starts in March

By the time your last exam is over, the good summer jobs are gone. Day camps interview in February and March. Pools hire their guards in April so they can train them before Memorial Day. Garden centers and ice cream stands staff up the week the weather first turns. If you start looking on June 10th, you're applying for what's left.

So start now, even if "now" is still cold out. Two Saturdays of effort in March beats six weeks of refreshing a job site in July.

Go where the work actually is

The jobs near you're not on the big national job boards. They're in windows, on community Facebook pages your parents can see, on the bulletin board at the hardware store, and in the mouths of people your family already knows.

Places that hire people your age most summers: ice cream and snow cone stands, garden centers and nurseries, grocery stores (bagging, carts, shelf stocking), car washes, dish pits at restaurants, day camps and vacation Bible schools, pools, golf courses, landscaping crews, fairground and festival setups, farm stands, and the family friend who needs a second set of hands.

If you're 15 or older and you can swim well, look at a lifeguard certification course through your local pool or Red Cross chapter. It costs money up front and takes a full weekend or more, and you have to pass a real swim test. But a certified guard is hard to replace, which means better pay and a manager who wants you back next year.

Tell your parents what you're applying for before you apply. Not after. They'll spot the situations that aren't right, and some of the paperwork won't work without them anyway.

Walk in, and pick your hour

Online applications for small businesses go into a folder nobody opens. The move is to do both: fill out the form if there's one, then show up in person with a printed copy in hand.

Timing matters more than anything you'll say. Don't walk into a restaurant at 12:30 or 6:30. Go between 2 and 4 in the afternoon, when the lunch rush is dead and the manager is doing paperwork. Retail, go mid-morning on a weekday.

Ask for the manager by asking for the manager. "Hi, is the hiring manager in today?" If they're not, ask when they usually are and come back then. That single question, asked twice, puts you ahead of most applicants.

Dress like you're already on the schedule. Clean shirt with a collar, jeans without holes, shoes that aren't slides. Leave the earbuds in your pocket, not around your neck.

Then say the short version:

"Hi, I'm Jordan. I'm 15, I'm looking for summer work, and I'm free starting June 3rd. I filled out your application online. Is there anything else you need from me?"

Shake hands. Make eye contact. Don't apologize for being young.

The résumé when you've never had a job

You still make one. One page, and half a page is fine.

Put your name, phone number, email and town at the top. Use an email address that's your actual name. If yours is something you picked in sixth grade, make a new one today.

Then list what you've actually done. Mowing four neighbors' lawns every week since you were thirteen is work experience. So is helping at your church's food pantry, running the scoreboard for rec league, watching your younger siblings three afternoons a week, or two years on a sports team where you never missed a practice. Managers read that as reliability, which is the only thing they really care about.

Add two references with permission: a coach, a teacher, a youth leader, a neighbor you've worked for. Not a relative. Ask them first, and tell them who might call.

Print five copies. Keep them flat in a folder so they don't come out of your backpack bent.

The paperwork nobody warns you about

If you're under 16, a lot of states require a work permit, and the process usually runs through your school. Go to the front office or your counselor and ask what your state requires. Do this before you're hired, because a manager who wants you starting Monday will skip you for the kid who already has it sorted.

You'll also need your Social Security number, a photo ID or birth certificate, and a parent's signature in a few places. On day one you'll fill out a W-4 and an I-9. Bring your parent or ask them to look at the forms with you. Nobody expects a teenager to know what an allowance on a W-4 means, and admitting that's smarter than guessing.

Hours are limited by law for workers under 16, and there are jobs you legally can't do at your age, like operating certain machinery. Your state labor department's website lists both. If a job asks you to do something on that list, that's not you being difficult. That's them breaking a rule.

Answer the three questions they're actually asking

An interview for a summer job is short and it's mostly about logistics. Have real answers ready.

"What's your availability?" Say it in days and times, and say it honestly. If you're gone the second week of July for a family trip, tell them now. A conflict disclosed in the interview is fine. The same conflict discovered in July makes you the guy who lied.

"Why do you want to work here?" Something true and specific. You've been coming here since you were little. You want to be outside. You want to learn to cook. "I need money" is honest and acceptable, but pair it with something else.

"Have you done anything like this before?" If no, say no, then say what you can do. "I haven't worked a register, but I'm good with people and I learn fast. I've never been late to a practice in two seasons."

Ask one question back. "What does a normal shift look like?" or "What separates the people who do well here from the ones who don't?" That second one makes managers sit up.

Apply to ten, and take the unglamorous one

You will get turned down. Plan for it by applying to ten places, not two, so no single "we're all set" ends your search. Follow up once, five to seven days later, by phone or in person. Once. Twice is pestering.

And when the offer comes, it'll probably be for the job nobody's bragging about. Dish pit. Carts in a parking lot in August. Pulling weeds at a nursery from 7 a.m.

Take it.

The dish pit in particular is the best first job going, and almost nobody says so. It's hot and it's loud and your shirt will be soaked through by nine. But you learn a restaurant from the inside, the cooks will teach you things if you're not lazy, and a kitchen manager who says "that kid works hard" is a reference that opens doors for the next four summers. Guys who start on dishes end up on the line. Guys who hold out for a cushy job in June are often still holding out in August.

Then, once you're hired, the whole thing comes down to something dull: be ten minutes early, every shift, and when you finish a task, ask for another one instead of reaching for your phone. That's it. That's what gets you asked back, handed more responsibility, and paid more next year.

Your first paycheck will be smaller than you expected, because taxes. Frame the stub anyway.