Are you parenting a high schooler?  Then you should continue reading today’s guest post from Andy Earle, a researcher who studies parent-teen communication and adolescent risk behaviors. He is the co-founder of talkingtoteens.com and host of the Talking to Teens podcast, a free weekly talk show for parents of teenagers.

A job in high school can be a huge benefit for teenagers, and the skills they learn at work can help them be more successful in college.

Why High School Jobs are Part of College Prep

Getting good grades is important, but your teen might be missing out on valuable life lessons if they don’t have a job in high school. Being the most prepared for college means having a well-balanced life, and not focusing too much on studies. It’s important for your teen to flesh out other parts of their life such as recreation and gaining job experience. Here are five reasons why getting a job will help prepare your teen for college.

1.    Savings for the Future

If your teen doesn’t have a job before college, they will likely go into college with little to no savings. This is harmful because your teen won’t learn how to budget their money for the new expenses that college brings, such as the price of textbooks, groceries, or going out with friends. They might have to rely on Mom and Dad for money, which holds them back from being independent financially and personally. College should be a time that your teen learns how to do things on their own, and part of that includes using their savings wisely.

2.    Resume Building

With job experience in high school, your teen might have an easier time getting future jobs. The more they work in college, the more impressive their resume will be, so they can continue to hunt for fun part time jobs where they can earn spending money. It’s crucial for your teen to have spending money in college, so it’s very likely that they will pick up a part time job somewhere. Plus, if they can use their high school job to get a great job their first year of college, they might have enough experience in that field by the time they graduate to apply to even better full time jobs.

3.    Teaching Responsibility

A teenager can learn a lot of responsibility at a job that can help them prepare for college. Their job will allow them to interact with adults in a professional environment, deal with tasks that have real world consequences, and practice accountability. These are all outstanding skills that a teen can use to be more successful in college. College environments provide clubs and organizations that will benefit from a student who has job experience and knows how to accomplish their extracurricular goals. And it also helps when your teen needs to have discussions with professors about assignments because it’s a lot like negotiating with a boss at work.

4.    Time Management

Time management is crucial for college students because they have to balance their class schedule with work, maintaining their living space, socializing, and more. It’s such a dynamic environment that it might be hard for your teen to budget their assignments with all the other awesome opportunities college has to offer. Learning how to manage a work schedule with high school is great training while their brain is developing to be on top of all their obligations in college. This way, they can learn how to take on even more classes, new jobs, or fun activities since they will be able to manage it more effectively.

5.    Influencing Career Paths

Jobs are very informative for what your teens might want to pursue as a career in the future. Even bad jobs can teach your teen what isn’t a good fit for them so they can narrow down on their ideas for a job after college. The jobs that they really enjoy can help them pick classes and majors in a similar field so they can learn more about a path that interests them. Without prior job experience, your teen might feel lost in college and not know what to focus on to get the most out of their education. It’s normal to be unsure about jobs after college, but the earlier your teen can get job experience, the better idea they will have about what career path they might want in the future.

Happy Job Hunting

If your teen doesn’t have a job already, you might want to offer your help to find a job that could be really beneficial for them. You could try teaching them how to make a resume or look for opportunities to help them get started. If your teen is defiant about getting a job, check out these tips. They will surely enjoy the extra cash, and will gain a lot of skills that will help them succeed in college.