Career Lessons From the Lives of Babes (Part 1)

My son found himself out of school for the summer and without anything to keep him engaged.  He was supposed to have a job with a community organization that puts teens to work…but their funding was cut.  And, although he had applied to be camp counselor at a popular scout summer camp, he ended up on the waiting list.

So, though his first tendency and wish may have been to sleep in and while away the summer, he is blessed/cursed to have a career coach for a dad.  Therefore, to either learn what it is to look for a job, much less to have one and keep it (lessons I’ve been wanting him to learn…including the value of a dollar), he started a program of 4hrs-a-day/4days-a-week of either working, looking for a job, or doing volunteer work–any and all of which have good lessons for what it is to be useful.

It was interesting to note that there was plenty of “evidence” that it would be hard for him to land something (e.g., news articles saying teens would find no work this summer, etc.) but that, in the face of the evidence, on every day he earnestly went out “knocking on doors,” he would find at least one business or store that said they may be looking to hire soon.

Lesson #1: You can buy the “evidence” stories of the masses, or you can make your own reality.