Dear Amy: I am an 18-year-old college freshman. I need to get a job to pay for my living expenses.
However, I have absolutely no job experience.
During high school, I was extremely depressed and spent some time in and out of psychiatric hospitals.
When potential employers ask me why I didn’t work as a teen, I have no idea how to reply.
I’m an extremely polite, responsible, determined and hard-working young woman, but my lack of experience working deters potential employers.
I’ve run my own pet-sitting business for several years, but I have absolutely no experience working outside of that.
How can I overcome this and make myself a more attractive candidate?
How should I reply when asked why I don’t have any experience working in the “real world”?
– Jobless Student in Maryland
Dear Jobless: Many 18-year-olds don’t have much, if any, real-world work experience, but you actually do – you just don’t seem to see it that way.
Potential employers want to know that you are reliable, responsible and resourceful. You are all of these things. The fact that you are an experienced pet-sitter means that you make and keep deadlines, and that you have experience providing a useful service to satisfied customers.
See how I did that? I turned your actual work experience into language that employers love to hear.
When you are asked about your work experience, you should do that too.
Your college should have an office that deals with on-campus jobs.
It would be good to start your job search there. Your lack of experience probably won’t surprise campus employers, and you should be able to find something that works around your school schedule.
Your own medical or mental-health history is private. Unless you have health issues that would affect your ability to do a certain job, then there is no reason to disclose it.
…
Dear Amy: Responding to the letter from “Longtime Stepkid” on the subject of children calling adults by their first names, our daughters went to a small progressive school where all students called all adults by their first names.
These students, now teenagers and young adults, communicate remarkably well across generations, are just as comfortable talking to a 70-year-old as to a 12-year-old, and show respect for all ages and types of people.
First-naming adults seems to have helped establish consideration and respect.
– Happy Parents
Dear Parents: I tend to believe that the naming issue is a red herring and that the respect your children show toward adults is because of the respectful way they’ve been treated – at school and at home.
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