Purple Haze
You're hired!
By Lauren Bagian

March 26, 2009

Oh spring, so fleeting in its blissful change of seasons. All of a sudden it’s gone and it’s summer with its glorious freedom and--responsibility. The summer job sends a shudder through most teenagers if they haven’t already been working during the school year. In this economy it seems very discouraging. There are less and less “NOW HIRING!” signs around Dillsburg, and if you haven’t already wrangled a job it seems like finding one is an impossible task.

I met my best friend in the parking lot of the high school one afternoon. She was my moral support on my job quest. The plan was to drive around Dillsburg and find businesses where I might consider working, pull in and get an application. After a circuit around Dillsburg followed by a lap of the Capitol City Mall, I had a pile of six applications to mull over that night. While I had some success, I was turned down at a few establishments claiming that they weren’t interviewing at that time. It was all quite daunting. I began to worry that despite my wealth of paperwork I may not be guaranteed a job during the summer months. My friend gave me the same piece of advice that she gave me when I was thinking about colleges, “Apply everywhere, you never know.”

It’s true, you never really know if you’ll get that phone call or that interview and there’s no shame in saying that you’ve already been hired somewhere else if you finally get a call from one of your potential employers, so put yourself out there. As I sat down that night filling out application after application, I definitely began ordering them by importance, where I would prefer to work and where was a last resort. However, if no one else called and my last choice did, I would rejoice that I sent in the application for that last choice and in this economy, a call to set up and interview seems too rare to be picky. Put yourself out there, it will pay off, literally.