Ellen Miley Perry
Provided
If your son or daughter still is not picking up a paycheck this summer, it’s not too late.
As a wealth management adviser, Ellen Perry has spent years advising people on how to keep not only business, but also families, thriving. One of her pieces of advice? Get a summer job. They teach valuable life skills, whether interning in an office children would like to ultimately work or serving pizza slices.
After working with more than 100 wealthy families, she wrote”A Wealth of Possibilities: Navigating Family, Money, and Legacy.”
Although the book is geared toward families with money, her counsel can apply to parents and children across the board.
Perry gave us tips for getting your child off the couch and into a summer job:
1.Don’t make it optional. Give them two weeks after school ends to lie around the house and sleep late — then, if they aren’t employed, tell them you will find one for them (and that it is going to be far less interesting).
2. Help them brainstorm all the options. What are they good at? What experiences do they have that are helpful?
3. Stay out of the actual job search as much as possible. Don’t make the calls for them, line up the interviews for them, pull strings for them. You are trying to teach them resourcefulness and resilience — you can’t be too involved if they are actually going to learn those.
4. Remember practical skills are useful. The job doesn’t need to be fancy to be good for them. Waitressing can teach a lot about time management, pacing, customer service and multitasking.
5. A boss can a great teacher. If you don’t know the boss, kids get honest feedback and learn to identify what the boss wants in terms of their performance and how to give it to them. Try not to be too fussy about the job or boss. Sometimes the hard situations teach the most.
