Mother of a Man-Child

As you know I am keen for the men-children to have jobs.  For two main reasons: firstly so they stop putting their hands out for money every week (which they don’t do anything to earn), and second to teach them responsibility and a little business sense gained through working.

One of the men-children has made more efforts than his brother to get a regular job.  But as I doled out yet another note to him the other day (why is it I always have a $50 when I need a $20), I asked him how the job hunting was going, especially since rowing is over, and he now only has one sporting commitment on the weekend.  And do you know what he said to me?  He told me he’d put his resume into every shop in our local area, and no-one had given him a job, and anyway (and I quote here) “why don’t you get me a job”!!!!

Well, you can imagine how that went down can’t you?  So he got a few lessons in life about job-hunting from me.  It went something like this:

1. A job won’t find you – you find the job.  Your resume will go in a file (or bin) with about 20 others from that week, and that’s where it will stay.  It won’t sit on the top screaming give HIM the job.
2. You should drop into the places you want to work regularly.  For two reasons: you might just be there on the day they’re thinking about hiring someone.  Or when they do come to hire the next person, they’ll remember the kid who drops in regularly and say lets give him a go.
3. You should think beyond your own nose!  He has so far visited the businesses within walking distance of our home.  I said why don’t you go a short tram or bike ride down the hill to the next suburb and see if you can get a job somewhere there?  I recall travelling some distance to my casual job every week, and didn’t even think about it.
4. As for the last comment, I said I didn’t have friends who ran the sort of businesses that could offer him a casual job.  What I didn’t say was that based on your attitude I wouldn’t find you a job even if I could, because I don’t want my sons growing up thinking nepotism is the answer to all their problems!!

I like to think when he made the comment about me finding him a job, he didn’t quite mean it to come out that way.  But apparently since some of his friends have parents who have indeed found their sons jobs, I’m not sure.  So be it – I am not them!

Since our little discussion about job-hunting, an opportunity has in fact presented itself to Man-Child I.   He was invited along to an “information” session the other night by a school peer, about a health-related product that he could help sell.  The information session (think sales pitch) was very successful – my son came home having drunk the Kool-Aid and espousing the virtues of said product and all the money he could make selling it.   He told me all the wonderful things about the product (scientifically proven of course), how a famous footballer had been at the meeting and talked about how good the product was, he showed me the fancy bag with all the shiny literature in it, and told me he was going to have other people selling it, and he’d even make money out of them too.

Pyramid selling at its best?  The way he talked about it reminded me of a successful drug-pushing network.  So Mother of a Man-Child gave him a few lessons in sales (they will tell you ANYTHING), and how it really works (you won’t get rich overnight), and what it really costs (the product is actually pretty expensive), and that they key to success was finding a market to buy the product, and at the prices they sold stuff, I wasn’t sure his school mates could afford it.

I also Googled the name of the company and showed him what some people had to say about this worldwide “conglomerate” and the fact that they promise you’ll make gazillions of dollars, but that really most people don’t make much at all.   That took the shine of it for him!!!  I also suggested he ask his cousin who has some knowledge in this area what he thought of the product (he endorsed it which was something).

So my Man-Child has drunk the last of the Kool-Aid and signed up as a “distributor” of the said “miracle” product.  I said go for it, so long as you go into it with your eyes wide open, and don’t ask me to buy the product from you so you can make sales.  I figure there’s nothing to lose, and something to gain – perhaps some money, but more importantly an insight into how these businesses operate, and what “selling” is really all about.  I’ll keep you posted, and I promise not to offer to sell you anything! 🙂

PS.  All job hunting tips welcome, and of course job offers for a kid who really does want a job!!