Those are definitely good pieces of advice, and regarding your first one, I would probably give teenage!me a version of that advice as well.
I had a weekend job since I was fifteen, and in fact the only time in my life that I haven't had a job since was the nine months when I was doing my MPhil and my visa prevented me from working. When I was growing up in Australia in the 1990s and early 2000s, the legal age when people could start working was fourteen and nine months, and in Canberra, where I grew up, it was considered kind of shameful — even in the upper middle class milieu that I came from — not to have a weekend job by the time you were fifteen or sixteen, like you were childishly relying on your parents for money. My first job was in an organic/health food shop, and after that I worked in a Swiss bakery/chocolate shop for the next two years. Most of my friends worked in cafes, restaurants, supermarkets, fast food outlets, or doing tutoring via agencies.
I definitely agree with you that doing this kind of work is a really good thing to do, especially at a young age. It increases your confidence and resilience (dealing with vindictive, ignorant, or just plain obnoxious customers isn't pleasant, but it is instructive), and I also feel that having a consistent employment history, and people who can provide references for you when you're attempting to get your first 'real' job is just really useful from a practical perspective. It wasn't really until I came to Cambridge that I met people who were in their mid-twenties who hadn't had any paid employment (and even in that context they weren't the norm), and I always felt a bit worried about them, especially since many were graduating into a recession.
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I had a weekend job since I was fifteen, and in fact the only time in my life that I haven't had a job since was the nine months when I was doing my MPhil and my visa prevented me from working. When I was growing up in Australia in the 1990s and early 2000s, the legal age when people could start working was fourteen and nine months, and in Canberra, where I grew up, it was considered kind of shameful — even in the upper middle class milieu that I came from — not to have a weekend job by the time you were fifteen or sixteen, like you were childishly relying on your parents for money. My first job was in an organic/health food shop, and after that I worked in a Swiss bakery/chocolate shop for the next two years. Most of my friends worked in cafes, restaurants, supermarkets, fast food outlets, or doing tutoring via agencies.
I definitely agree with you that doing this kind of work is a really good thing to do, especially at a young age. It increases your confidence and resilience (dealing with vindictive, ignorant, or just plain obnoxious customers isn't pleasant, but it is instructive), and I also feel that having a consistent employment history, and people who can provide references for you when you're attempting to get your first 'real' job is just really useful from a practical perspective. It wasn't really until I came to Cambridge that I met people who were in their mid-twenties who hadn't had any paid employment (and even in that context they weren't the norm), and I always felt a bit worried about them, especially since many were graduating into a recession.