Honestly, getting a job as a minor sucks.

I'm 24 years old now, though back in '08-09 I went through the very same thing as you OP. Nobody wanted to hire me. Part of the problem was that they were taking on way too many Boomers who lost their pensions in the crash. The other problem is that when you're a minor there's going to need to be special concessions made for you. They'll have to work around your schedule and depending on the state / district you'll need additional paperwork done to acquire a work permit.

Rather than give you generic advice I want you to ask yourself this: What do I want to do?

You're young and I'm not much older but I'll give you a little bit of advice. As you go through life people will try to sell you things. Some of these people may be well intentioned, some will just want to extract wealth from you. In this case some person / people in your life sold you this idea that you need to work in THIS way.

You seem to have it set in your mind that you need to get one of these jobs, but there's an entire world of choices out there for you. What do you actually enjoy doing? If there's no serious pressure from your parents right now then do that thing, whatever it is.

I realized early on that 'hitting the bricks' is an obsolete means in today's economy. You're easily competing with a couple of hundred, if not thousand applicants for each position who will undoubtedly have more skills than you can provide to them.

So while you're applying for jobs, tearing your hair out and kvetching from the stress you're not working. You're not networking. You're not developing any marketable skills. If you've made getting a job into your job then congratulations, you've been suckered into a con.

The longer you waste your time on these outmoded means, the less relevant you're becoming to the job market. The longer your unemployment the less employable you will be. If I could go back in time to when I was your age armed with this realization I would have done something that many here might think I'm insane for doing.

Stop applying for jobs. That's right. Give up. Unless these are expectations placed on you by yourself, then you're under no obligation to uphold them. Now that doesn't mean to do nothing. Instead of applying, make your own opportunities. Stop being unemployed already and just employ yourself.

/r/TrueOffMyChest Thread