School holidays now and we have always felt that daughter's education is more important than getting a part time job and earning some more pennies so therefore has not had a job up to now.
However she is now going to be entering her final year of school and needs to start getting pennies for driving lessons etc.
All the usual outlets are just not recruiting, retailers are pretty much a no go and although she is trawling through websites, many seem to be recruitment companies and agencies and I doubt whether they actually have the jobs they claim to.
Anyone else in the same position and have found any jobs for this age group?
I have suggested she networks as much as possible, she chaps doors of every shop on the street etc. In my own supermarket days, although we got loads of applications in all the time, when we had a vacancy it was usually filled by someone who knew someone who already worked there.
One possible thought, she enjoys ironing and does it well. I have suggested she makes up a flyer and distributes it to the houses in the immediate area, possibly about 200 and see if she gets any takers. This would also mean she could be flexible around homework etc.
But what type of flyer would grab your attention? I said she should just do a hand written one that gets photocopied and she be honest in it ie I am x, I live locally and am trying to earn some money and would you be interested in getting your ironing picked up and dropped off. Call me on x.
Personally I feel that makes it more personal rather than a pre printed one and would grab my attention more but interested in what the panel's thoughts are??
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A cleaning job at work was advertised got 242 applicants for the job ranging from school leavers to ex directors.
Sports centres, other leisure outlets, holiday camps, supermarkets, take on partime workers.
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Mine went through this.
Paper round, waitressing. The pay's awful, but it teaches them a lesson.
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Bobby, does the usual suspects you mention include MacDonalds?
Miss B, now waiting A2 results, has been doing a couple of shifts a week since she was 16. They're a reasonable employer, shifts can be flexible to suit etc. And it's expereince for real work good managers, carp managers, friendly colleagues and psychos!!
And transferability within the organisation so possibilty of work at Uni.
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I would print the flyer, people find the written word hard to read.
But KISS - keep it short and simple - a bold headline is OK 'Ironing Service', but use the same typeface throughout.
Three or four sentences and a mobile number/email address is all you need.
I think she has a good chance of getting some work from 'around the doors'.
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Iffy, thats interesting and I wonder what folk's takes on this would be.
If I received a printed leaflet I would probably read the heading and bin it without going further. But if I got, what appeared to be a hand written (very neatly) I would maybe be encouraged to read further.
I also think if she goes along the lines of looking to earn some money as opposed to looking to build a business empire she may get more of a symapthetic hearing and we "will give her a try" sort of thing.
But others may look on that as an unprofessional approach?
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Brompton, yes she has included McDs.
Agree re the experience side, when I worked in the supermarkets we had a lot of school staff and they were worked hard and they saw some "real sides" to cut throat business as it were. Does stand them in good stead albeit sometimes you had a parent unhappy with you cause their poor wee Johnny was getting worked too hard.
When the local Tesco opened, they had something like 5000 applications for 300 jobs. I recently saw an advert in the paper for a great job (not for my daughter). It was an apprentice vehicle technician for the Fire Service and it stated on the advert that the closing date was x, or once 100 applications had been received, whichever was the earlier. I had never saw that on an advert before.
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Ironing sounds like a good idea Bobby .
Notices in shop windows , maybe in your local supermarket and fliers at the local railway station to the commuters..
She needs to get the pricing and service right, good customers tend to be busy professional business people who need reliable service , so check out what competition is asking and if you can help her out to get started by collecting and delivering back to the customers locally that will help.
SWMBO used a couple of local ladies for a while but got as time went on she got fed up with unreliable service and has reverted to doing it herself again ..... I do help as well. My old Mum showed me the correct way to iron a shirt and I find it quite therapeutic.
If she can set up a few regular customers that becomes her 'bread and butter' and it will help if she goes for a regular job if she can demonstrate the initiative of setting up her own little business.
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I did a bit of waitressing and then moved on to shelf-stacking at Asda. Asda were happy to keep me on from early 6th Form right through to the third year of my degree, going back for each Xmas, Easter and Summer.
Your lass could earn a lot more ironing than she could in a supermarket; her entrepreneurial spirit is to be commended!
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Both stepsons got part time jobs at the local Asda at that age - one on tills, the other in the bakery. Might mean giving up a significant amount of her weekend time if she wants to earn a reasonable amount.
The self-employed ironing option sounds interesting and potentially profitable though.
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One thing Bobby, if going down the laundry route, and she's going to be collecting/delivering make sure the ad doesn't state age or personal info...you never know who's out there...sorry, not being a scare monger just a remider of something you are no doubt fully aware of.
If she's looking for jobs, you can't beat dressing appropriately (as Z correctly put it) nicely and just putting a face and quick pleasant exchange through the door, hopefully pigeon holeing the man or woman responsible, it worked for me, i know the place i'm going has a stack of CV's from others who didn't show themselves.
Ironing services can work, and no doubt in your work you already hace access to professional or semi pro pressing steam irons.
Is she any good at seamstress work, would she be interested in learning?, few youngsters are, might be a nice little side line if she can put in new zips, take up hems, alterations etc...pound notes too.
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GB, the safety and security is something which has crossed my mind. As long as she targets the local estate only, then pretty much everyone knows everyone else sort of thing.
For delivery, the probability would be that either my wife or myself would be driving her round with the items but for neighbours either side, she would obviously just walk.
She doesn't have any experience of the seamstress type work but who knows where that could lead to if required.
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>>Both stepsons got part time jobs at the local Asda at that age - one on tills, the other in the bakery. Might mean giving up a significant amount of her weekend time if she wants to earn a reasonable amount.
For her,t hat is an issue just now. As well as obviously studying at school, she does Tae Kwon Do, Athletics, and is a season ticket holder at Celtic. She knows that there now need to be sacrifices if she wants money and the ironing option could soften that blow as she could work it round her other commitments.
We also have a room in the house that the majority of the time she could use to her heart's content.
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>>
>> Your lass could earn a lot more ironing than she could in a supermarket; her
>> entrepreneurial spirit is to be commended!
>>
Indeed, the going rate for cleaning/ironing that sort of thing round my way is 10-12 quid an hour.
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Spam, thats interesting and this is where she needs to decide where she pitches herself.
I reckoned that she would be best to say , for instance, I will charge you £7 an hour for your ironing and in a typical hour I could do x shirts, y trousers etc.
Comercial ones I have seen charge per item and I feel that to look at a leaflet and someone is charging you £7 an hour you might think thats a fair enough hourly wage to ask whereas if I am handing you 20 shirts and you charge me 50p a shirt , I am not paying you a tenner just to iron my shirts?
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She has also mentioned maybe making a donation to the local hospice from it as well, so, say, charge £7 per hour and £1 of that goes to the Hospice. Or some sort of figure like that.
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>> Spam, thats interesting and this is where she needs to decide where she pitches herself.
>>
There's probably a fair amount of variation in that, even 5 years ago it was more like 15 quid an hour around the M25 area, probably cheaper in other places. I'm on the Hants - Dorset border on the South Coast, plenty of Honda Jazz driving elderly folk with enough put by to pay a cleaner for a couple of hours a week. Other likely source of custom I should think is households with two breadwinners neither of whom has the time/energy for a bit of dusting or ironing.
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>>If she can set up a few regular customers that becomes her 'bread and butter' and it will help if she goes for a regular job if she can demonstrate the initiative of setting up her own little business.
Agree and this is my thinking.
We live in an estate where there is probably about 150-200 houses. If she can put flyers round which basically convey who she is, that she is just round the corner and is flexible then if she could even get 3-5 households to start with, I think word of mouth could increase that.
She has, quite rightly, said that this may be a good idea just now as when people come back their holidays, they tend to have a pile of ironing which they don't want to face. Thought that was a good sales pitch.
She is 16 coming on 17 but she has always been great round the house, helps with the ironing a lot as long as we leave her to the TV and the Virgin+ box and is also very good at deep cleaning. She also cleans her granda's house once a week.
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>>All the usual outlets are just not recruiting, retailers are pretty much a no go and although she is trawling through websites, many seem to be recruitment companies and agencies and I doubt whether they actually have the jobs they claim to.
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When my son was at school and went looking for a part time job he was told "not recruiting".
He was presentable as Zero says and ensured his CV went to the correct dept in the local departmental store. The result was a phone call next morning and he has not looked back since.
My daughter did life guarding at the local pools
She also did St John duties ( for free of course) but got to see some super events etc
I suggest that a little pushing may help.
Good luck.
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Words like "delivering", "business" and "car" make me think about insurance, so I guess you've thought about that one?
Just in case is all. But good luck with it!
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Crank, I have thought if it but at this stage I am willing to take the risk.
If it develops into something bigger then will obviously review!
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Had a few days off this week and had knock on door from some bloke wanting to clean my gutters to mowing the grass and window cleaners.
Said no to all but can't blame them if they need work.
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Job for my 16 year old daughter - Bigtee
