Right now is one of the worst times you could be looking for a job as an 18 year old because that means you have little experience and no college degree. Of course what exactly a “high paying” job means is different to different people but the chances of you finding something that pays more that $10.00 an hour might not be too good. In times like these, you might ultimately have to focus your attention to just plain getting any job rather than one that pays well.

There are some jobs that pay better than others though and you might as well try to get them first before you settle for something less:

Construction jobs – a job in construction is something that you don’t need a college degree for and it is a great start for 18 year olds. This is because you are young and stronger than you will be when you get older and you are better able to battle the elements as well. Construction jobs often pay around the $14.00 mark and higher so it is something that will help you pay the bills and even live on your own if you want.

Sales jobs – Sales jobs often pay you part or all in commissions so there is a bit of a risk here. However, if you are a likable person with a talent for talking and selling, a sales job could be the right match for you. There is definitely a certain type of person that does well in this sort of job and some young people start out as salesmen and never leave. When you are on commission, you can make a lot more than you ever could at an hourly rate if you know your customers and are good at selling the product.

Waiters and waitress jobs – Most people think of these jobs as part time or something that will just tide you over till you find a better job. However, if you already have some experience in restaurants waiting tables, you might be able to get a job at a high end eating establishment. The higher end the restaurant is, the more money you can make and many waiters and waitresses make a very good living. Experience is the key here though, and not your education so you need to have some sort of prior work history in food.

Admittedly it might be hard right now to find any kind of job but that doesn’t meant that you shouldn’t try. The media loves to tell us how bad things are out there because bad news gets ratings. However, if you need a job and you are 18 and just out of high school, the sooner you jump in and start giving the job hunt your all, the better off you will be. Not every job pays the same so try for the ones that you think you will be good at that pay more first. If you can’t get one of those, then lower your standards a little and try for the lower paying jobs.

However, there still could be a few mistakes you are making that you might have overlooked. The first one is that you need to make sure the email address that you are using on your job applications is not childish or embarrassing in any way. Your email address should be simple and have your name in in and it should NOT be anything that would turn an employer off. As an example, “HipHopJamster@aol.com” or “GirlsDigMe@Yahoo.com” would be email addresses that you do NOT want to use on any resume.

The email address you use is a direct reflection of who you are and you want to have something that is basic with your name. Any silly or juvenile email will tell an employer that you might not be ready to work for them and you will lose any chance of ever getting hired. 18 year olds are considered adults so you mustn’t make this basic mistake.

Similarily, your voice message on your cell phone should be professional sounding as well. If you have a message on your phone that is really meant for your friends, you need to change it to something simple that states your name and to please leave a message. Remember, when you are looking for jobs for 18 year olds, it will be adults that are hiring you. The message you leave will be heard by a company manager or recruiter and if they don’t like what they hear, it is very easy for them to hang up and call someone else.

A third thing you should be aware of is your name on the Internet. If you have a name that is not common, an employer might make a quick Google search to see what it brings up. If you have put embarrassing things online you need to take them down if you can. Of course MySpace , Twitter, and FaceBook pages immediately come to mind but you should see what else you have online that could sabotage your job hunt.

Employers have lots of choices this summer and will have for the rest of the year when it comes to hiring. There are more applicants than jobs so all 18 year olds should do everything they can to clean up their act and make they are not doing anything that may ultimately cost them a job before they even get it.

Whether you are looking for jobs for 17 year olds or jobs for 18 year olds, the important thing is to not quit. Too many teens hear their friends talking about how bad it is and then they hear about it in the news too. They assume they will not be able to find a job and so they never even try. Or, if they do try, they only give it a half hearted attempt because they know they are going to fail.

No One Who Gives Up Will Ever Find A Job

I bet many of you or your friends aren’t even bothering to look because you have given up before you ever start. If you never start or never really try, how can you be sure you wouldn’t have gotten a job?

The important thing to note here is that in life there are many challenges. There will be struggles with all sorts of things like passing tests, getting into and out of college, making enough money to live on and so forth. This may not be the only time in your life when finding a job is hard. So, if you give up now or never even start, you are not setting a good precedent for yourself.

Keep Trying For That Special Satisfaction

At this time here in the summer of 2010, you need to work extra hard to get that job and to show yourself you can do it. If you are successful here, it will give you lots of confidence in the future that you can do things that are hard. If you refuse to give up and are eventually successful in finding work, you will get a special satisfaction knowing that you kept trying when many others might have given up.

The harder you try now will help you understand what you need to do better next time. Many of you might be looking for the first time and are struggling with the interview process or what to say to potential employers. You need all the experience in that you can get and failing is just part of the process. In many cases you need to learn what not to do as well as what you should be doing. It is all part of the growing up process and looking and failing is much better than never trying at all. Good luck!

The other option is of course to go to college. However, college is VERY expensive and it is not for everyone anyway. There are lots of people in this world who are successful having never gone to college so although it is recommended, it is not absolutely critical.

When you graduate high school and start looking for jobs for 18 year olds, you will probably start to realize that you don’t have many skills to offer employers. That is why you might consider attending ITT Tech to learn some skills and put yourself in a position to actually have a career.

Going to ITT Tech is a lot less expensive than college and you graduate a lot sooner as well. You come out with some very specific job skills and training  in fields that are in great demand.

 Jobs may be so hard to get now that you might consider ITT Tech as an alternative. They have online classes and real campuses at over 100 locations all over the country. You have probably seen their commercials on TV and you can truly get “career” training with them rather than just a job.

Once you turn seventeen, you can pretty much get any job (other than something that requires you to be 21 like in a bar) and that is good because it opens a lot more things up.

********************************************
NOTE: if you are looking for hourly or part time jobs in your area, you should look into signing up to SnagAJob.com. It is FREE to sign up and they are the one job site online that specializes in the kind of employers and jobs that 17 and 18 year olds would be looking for.
********************************************

In years past, many teens got jobs because they WANTED them. They might have wanted more money than they got for their allowance or just had extra time and thought getting a job would be fun. Now though in 2010, teenagers are looking for jobs because they NEED them.

Many young adults have had their allowance stopped or cut back because their parents just don’t have the money. Many 17 year olds need a job just to help the family out when one or more of their parents gets laid off from work. Jobs for 17 year olds and 18 year olds are now something that older teens NEED instead of just WANT.

The bad economy affects everyone in one way or another and it doesn’t matter whether you are young or old, poor or rich, or educated or not educated. Companies are going out of business and even CEO’s are losing their jobs. When there aren’t enough jobs to go around that means there isn’t enough money to go around either and everyone suffers.

It is sad that seventeen and eighteen year olds are learning this the hard way when they are probably looking for a job for the very first time. Being unable to find your first job in life can be very discouraging and it will probably taint many kids views of the work place and of working for years.

Additionally, your first jobs are where you see what working is like and what it is all about. It is where you learn some discipline and figure out how to get along with a boss and co-workers. Without these first jobs for 17 and 18 year olds, the learning process is delayed and that will make an impact later on.

One of the biggest problems is that adults are now willing to take many of the jobs that they didn’t used to want. These jobs were the ones that eighteen year olds and older teens would traditionally take because they were part time or hourly. Entry level positions are also gobbled up by workers who sometimes have a lot of experience just because they can’t find anything else.

With older and more experienced workers taking the jobs that used to go to 18 year olds, what is left for them? In many cases the answer is nothing and that is why we are in such a crisis right now in this country. It is well known that the one thing that helps you get a job is experience and if you can’t get your first job to get that experience, where does that leave you?

Jobs for 17 year olds are crucial because that is the age that many teens go out into the marketplace and try to get their very first jobs. If they can’t find anything at seventeen, how can they ever get experience? Then they turn 18 and can’t get a job then either. We might have ten years or more where teens aren’t getting the jobs they need to then get better jobs later in life and that will be the beginning of a dangerous cycle.

There is a definite timeline in any persons working career and it all starts with being able to get those first couple of jobs. That is when you learn what it is like to have a boss and what is expected of you in the workplace. It is where young adults learn how to handle themselves and they learn responsibility. Older teens especially need jobs to begin this process that help them make a living for the rest of their lives.

Once you get a job in an office, you might be able to turn it into something better and move up. Showing a willingness to learn and work hard will go a long way towards whether your boss will decide to promote you. Learning the business from the ground up is the key to advancing and ultimately getting better paying jobs. There are many stories of company presidents and CEO’s that started in an office, learned the business, and wound up eventually running the company.

Office jobs for 18 year olds are great because they can often be flexible in nature. Whether you are still in high school or just graduated, you might look for something that will work with your schedule. The types of work you will be able to get in an office will often allow you to come in during certain hours and not necessarily be there all day.

If you don’t like doing manual labor, that would be another reason for looking for this kind of job. Usually a job in an office will have something to do with answering phones, working on the computer entering records, making copies, bookkeeping and other tasks such as that. These are all things that are a lot easier on your body than going out an working digging ditches.

Eighteen year olds are in a bad position right now with the economy being so poor and jobs being so hard to find. If you are a high school student or recent graduate, don’t overlook the option of working in an office somewhere. You might find that it is the perfect job for you!

Here is the list of free job search sites:

1) SnagAJob.com – This is free to sign up and you can begin your job search here. This job website specializes in hourly and part time jobs so if that is what you are looking for, this is the place to go.

2) Job.com – You can post your resume for free and search through 1,000’s of jobs in your area.

3) Monster.com – This is one of the biggest online job databases. Submit your resume and look for jobs FREE.

It’s 2010 and jobs are difficult to find for all ages. If you are trying to figure out how to best go about finding jobs for 19 year olds, you are pretty much in the same boat as eighteen year olds.

18, 19, and 20 year olds are limited in their job options because at that age, they haven’t graduated college and might not even be going to college. This means the only jobs they would qualify for are entry level jobs that don’t require a degree. Although there are many jobs of this nature, it does limit your options and it does mean that you will start out on the low end of the pay scale.

Getting a college degree is agreed to be the best choice by most people because it may open up job doors in the future. However, college is clearly not for everyone and there might be any number of reasons why college is not an option for you. Getting in early and getting some solid job experience is the next best thing to going to college and many people have made successes of their life that way too.

Good jobs for 18 year olds and 19 year olds include entry level office jobs where you can get in and learn the business from the ground up. Many big time CEO’s have started that way either in the back office or the sales floor and worked their way up until they became the top man (or woman). Learning a business and everything it encompasses is a great substitute for a college degree and there is no reason why you can’t be a success if you are hard working and motivated.

Jobs for high school graduates can also be found in sales. Being a good salesperson is something that you might already have the talent for or can learn. It is definitely not something that is learned in a college classroom so if you are outgoing in nature, you might look into sales as a career. In today’s bad economy, companies are always hoping to find people who are talented at sales.

Any job you get for 18 or 19 year olds will probably be something that is not glamorous and will not pay great. However, if you are willing to work hard and keep learning whatever business it is, you will find you have a lot of upward potential.

Jobs for 18 year olds can be for part time jobs while you are still in high school or jobs that you hope to get after you graduate. No matter which type of job you are interviewing for, there are things you should and shouldn’t do that will either help or hurt your chances. Remember, if you are eighteen, that means that you are now an adult in the eyes of the law and of society. You will now be expected to present yourself as an adult and interview like an adult. Here are some tips:

1) Come to the interview prepared – If you are not ready to answer some of the questions you will be asked, it will be very obvious you are not prepared and perhaps not even serious about getting a job. The more interviews you go to the more you will know what types of questions to expect.

2) Resume complete with references – At 18 years old, you should be able to put together a resume with references any employer can call. Some will have better resumes than others due to the fact that they have had more job experience but even if you have little, you should try to have a resume ready to give the interviewer.

3) Know what hours you are available – If you are a high school student, you should know ahead of time what hours you will be able to work. It is unlikely that an employer will be able to work around your schedule and so it is smart to do some research ahead of time to make sure you can actually work the hours that will be required.

4) Know as much about the job as possible – It helps to find out as much information as you can about the job you are interviewing for before hand so that you don’t waste the interviewers time. If you are able to discuss the job and ask intelligent questions about it right from the start, most any prospective employer will be impressed and assume you really are interested.

5) Don’t ask silly questions- Be careful to only ask intelligent questions and ones that adults would ask. For instance, you wouldn’t want to ask about how much break time you get every day or something trivial and juvenile like that. Remember, the questions you ask an employer reflect on you and can damage your chances of getting hired if you ask the wrong ones.

6) Be gracious and thank them for the interview- Always thank the interviewer for the time they have set aside to consider you for the job. Many people go an extra step of sending a thank you note a day after the interview which can be in the form of an email or a paper note sent through the mail. Jobs for 18 year olds are hard to find and any small thing you do like send thank yous may make the difference.