Story by Jeovanna Rios
Staff Writer
In a tight economy, landing a job is already hard to do. But being a teenager, landing a job and keeping it while balancing high school is a much harder task.
For many juniors and seniors at Amat, the desire for a job is vastly spread amongst them. Many students are hungry for jobs in hopes of being able to splurge on clothes and movie nights with their friends without having to go to their parents for money.
“I really want a job right now because I’m tired of always having to go to my parents and ask them for money,” says sophomore Natalie Holguin. I want to be able to earn my own money and spend it on whatever I want.”
Unfortunately though for Holguin, she will have to wait another year to be eligible for a job because she is currently too young.
For some college bound students though, a job now is simply a means way to pay for their education following Amat. With the average college costing around 35,000 dollars a year, students are hoping all the hours working will help with the drastic costs of their future tuition.
“As soon as I realized how expensive everything is going to be in college, I started applying to places for a job,” said senior Lauren Mejia. “I want to be able to help my parents out in paying for everything so that they aren’t stressed out about it.”
Senior Nik Cervantes agrees.
“I’m trying to save up as much as I can now, because next year it’s going to be expensive at college,” said Cervantes. “I won’t have all the necessities I’m use to, so I want to be prepared to pay for them. ”
Whatever the reason for wanting a job, the thought of having one is easier than the actual process itself. Many students have to deal with not only the hammering interviews and unfortunate rejections, but actually learning how to balance their lives once they’ve been hired.
“I was really nervous going in for my interview,” said senior Nicole Ruiz who applied for a job this past June at Tilly’s. “Everyone else who had call backs were in college and had at least some previous experience.”
Three days and a phone call later, Ruiz had learned she had beaten out the other applicants for the job.
Now, after being a part time Tilly’s employee for nearly seven months, balancing her life has become the next hardest thing for her to do.
“I never have free time anymore,” said Ruiz. “My day always consists of going to school, going to work, coming home, finishing my homework, and then going to sleep.”
Ruiz still did not realize how demanding a job was until she had to constantly choose working over spending time with her friends.
“It gets really tough at times,” said Ruiz. “I mean, not only the long days, but the fact that I have to miss out on food runs with my friends because I always have to work.”
