Helping Your Child Find a Job
Landing a Job
Unless you have connections—you own a company or know someone who's looking for help—your child will have to find a job on his own. Fortunately, the jobs are out there.
Your child just has to learn how to find them and how to get hired—but these two things are not always simple.
Where to Look
The job your child wants may be right under her nose. Here are some of the more common places to check out first:
- Job listings at school employment offices.
- Signs in stores and shops in the neighborhood. It's difficult these days not to see “help wanted” signs all over town.
- Ask neighbors and friends for possible openings. Those in high school can talk to kids about to go off to college. As job openings are created by kids going off to college, high schoolers may be able to fill those openings.
- Look at local newspapers. Job openings are listed daily in the want ad or advertisement section.
- Check out the state employment office. There may be a youth employment division that your child can check into for possible positions.
Money ABCs
A reference is a person who can vouch for your child. Generally, a reference is a former boss who can attest to the period of your child's previous employment and tell whether he was a good employee. Sometimes your child also will be asked for a personal reference, which can be a neighbor or friend who knows him well, or a teacher or professor he's had in school.
What to Do
Jobs may be plentiful, but your child still must know his way around the job application process to nail down a position. He can't just present himself and expect immediate and positive results.
Your child must come prepared. For most jobs, he'll have to complete a job application. Typically, this is a one-page form that asks him to list his name, address, telephone number, Social Security number, previous jobs (if any), and who can be contacted as a reference.
Your child should be ready with all the information asked on the application. By anticipating what's asked, he'll be able to have the information on hand and provide it quickly and accurately. If he has never applied for a job before, then it's up to you to prep him on what questions will be asked and what information he needs to respond.
As your child gets older and moves up the job scale to better positions and gets some work experience under his belt, she may be asked to provide a résumé. This usually happens once kids hit college and start to look for jobs in their intended field. It's a good idea for your child to make a résumé even before she reaches the job market and to keep it handy and update it as necessary. You can help your teenager by letting her know that she should have a résumé and helping her to prepare one.
Piggybank on It
If he doesn't already know his nine-digit Social Security number by heart, your child should memorize it now. He'll be asked to provide this number very often throughout his life. Even more than a name, a Social Security number is a person's identifier. It's the number used by the government to know who you are despite job moves, new residences, and even name changes. If your child can't memorize it, then he should carry it in his wallet.
Money ABCs
A résumé is a summary of personal information (name, address, and telephone number), jobs a person has already held (what work was performed and when), and education level (including any degrees expected to be earned).
Even if she may not be asked to provide a résumé when she applies for a job, going through the exercise of making a résumé isn't a waste of time. The résumé will include all the information she needs to complete the job application, so she can bring it with her as a reminder of this information.
There's no single résumé formula that your child must use. Books in the library can provide her with many ideas on how to write a resume.
Even easier, your child can write a résumé using a template in a word processing program. For example, Microsoft Word allows users to tailor a résumé according to specific needs. Your child can list her education before work experience if she want to emphasize her academic credentials. Or, she can list her work experience before noting her school background when her job experience becomes more impressive. The idea of the résuméis to emphasize the positive and minimize the negative.
To make a résumé using a template in Word, simply answer the questions posed by the Résumé Wizard found under “Other Documents”—first select New from the File menu.
For more professional-looking, custom-tailored résumés, consider investing in a résumé software program, such as Résumés That Work (contact Macmillan at www.macdigital.com).
After your child is hired, she'll be asked by her employer to complete Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate. This is an IRS form that tells her employer how much federal (and state) income taxes to withhold (subtract) from her paycheck and submit to the government on her behalf. For example, if she earns $100, she may have $15 withheld for federal income taxes. The $15 is sent to the U.S. Treasury under her Social Security number and is treated as her tax payment. She must complete it, and she doesn't want to appear ignorant about the form when she's hired. It's up to you to explain things beforehand.
Piggybank on It
Be sure that your child updates her résumé after each new job, school award, or other accomplishment worth noting.
Money ABCs
Liability means that your child owes something. When talking about federal income taxes, then liability refers to taxes he owes.
Generally, your child tells the employer how many withholding allowances he wants to claim (none, one, two, or more) and then the employer does the rest. In most cases, he'll claim one allowance (for himself). This lets the employer figure withholding on the basis of his being single and claiming one allowance. He may be eligible to claim exemption from withholding so that no taxes are withheld. To claim exemption, he must meet both of these conditions:
- He had no federal tax liability in the prior year (even if he paid taxes, he received a full refund of his payments).
- He doesn't expect to have any federal tax liability this year. If in 1999 he earns no more than $4,300, he won't have any federal tax liability. If he's not sure whether he's going to be under or over this limit, he may want to forgo the exemption and pay the tax to make sure he has the funds to cover his liability. He can always get back any excess payments when his 1999 tax return is filed in 2000.
Your child cannot claim exemption from withholding if his income is more than $700 and includes interest, dividends, or other unearned income and if he can be claimed as your dependent on your tax return. If any investments have been made on his behalf, he may well have bank accounts paying interest, or stock or mutual funds paying dividends to him that will prevent his claiming exemption from withholding.
He may not know that his grandmother has a savings account for him or that you've set up a custodial account in his name to save for college. These investments may generate enough income to prevent him from claiming exemption withholding. When you know he's job-hunting, be sure to review the W-4 process and explain how many withholding allowances he should claim, or whether he's eligible for exemption from withholding. When my oldest child got her first job, she asked with some embarrassment to bring the W-4 home for me to look at. You can bet that my other kids knew what to do with this form when they got their first jobs.
Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Money-Smart Kids © 1999 by Barbara Weltman. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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