For most people, high school is when they experience their first job. However, if you are one of those students who is constantly thinking about their future, you might want a job that would benefit that, rather than to just have one to make money at the moment. While internships are a great experience, some of us just want to make some money. For these job recommendations, I talked to an ex-college admission employee, who listed jobs that are accessible to any high school student with typically more flexible schedules.

Food and Beverage

Working a food and beverage job whether it is a fast food restaurant or a high class restaurant is a job that many college admission workers will find impressive. According to Valerie Keller, the ex-college admission employee, working in a restaurant demonstrates “You are able to work in a fast paced environment and have brutal experience with customer service, especially if you work at a fast food restaurant.” While working in food and beverage may not be the most glamorous, it is a good way to make your resume a little bit more impressive for your college applications.

Retail

Much like food and beverage, working retail demonstrates a lot of customer service, which is what many colleges like. This is a common first job among high school students. The category “Retail” is very broad. Retail could mean a boutique, book store, or even a grocery store. It is a place that sells products. One of the more common retail jobs is clothing. However, many people find that this job is not as enjoyable as in seems to be, especially with customer service. Customers can be very rude, especially if certain items they want are out of stock or if a sale does not apply to the clothing piece they want. Some employees tend to spend a lot of money at the clothing store they work at, which somewhat ruins the point of a job. However, if you find the right store, it could be a really fun job. Another common retail job is your local grocery store. Publix hires teenagers as young as 14 and Walmart as young as 15. While I do not know much about what these jobs entail, you can talk to a store manager or look online for more information. According to Keller, working at a grocery store typically shows that you are able to multitask and, once again, handle customer service.

Tutoring

Being a tutor, especially as a high school student, is a very impressive job.

Valerie Keller stated that, “Being a tutor is impressive because it shows you are able to help others and communicate difficult concepts well. A good GPA paired with being a tutor is something we find very notable.” She also explained, “While age range does not matter to me, it could depend on the person who reads your resume. One person could really like a student that tutors elementary students because it could possibly demonstrate a lot of patience. Another person may like that a student tutors other high school students because those topics tend to be more challenging to teach. It all depends.” What is great about this job is that you are self employed, meaning you can make your schedule on your own times and set your own rates.” However, if you do not like the idea of having to make an effort to find clients, you could always apply to be one at a tutoring center near you.

Scheduling

If you do not play any sports, or have a lot of extracurriculars, it is important to make sure you work a decent number  of hours. Colleges really like students that work many hours, because it demonstrates commitment. It also doesn’t hurt to make some extra money. And if you do not want to work many hours, try to find ways to dedicate your time to the community. You can find ways to do that in my other article “Finding Community Service Opportunities During COVID-19.