This is just about the only time of the year that you can count on retail outlets, restaurants, and customer service companies having jobs available and actually looking for employees. They need workers and they need them right away as the malls fill up and the people do more eating out.

The holiday shopping season is a HUGE part of any retailers business and they need to make sure they can keep up with whatever demand is out there.

Besides going around and asking for jobs at the places you want to work, you should be looking online as well. Snagajob is the best online job site for holiday jobs because they have the most hourly and part time work of any of the other websites. You can try sites like Monster.com and Jobs.com but they are more for full time jobs. Snagajob is free and it is the one site that has the biggest selection of retail and restaurant jobs that are hiring this Christmas.

If you have had trouble getting a job up till now, you need to consider trying to get a Christmas season job in 2010. Even though you may want something more permanent, take advantage of this opportunity and get your foot in the door somewhere. Even if the job you get ends in January, you will at least have another employer to put on your resume and you might even get lucky and make some connections while you are working.

Remember, it is always easier to find the job you really want when you already have a job. You need to make small steps and that first step is to get hired somewhere which is what can happen right now for you if you look hard. Good luck in the job hunt!

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.

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.