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Those of us who grew up in snow country might remember the teens who went door to door with their snow shovels, asking if the homeowners would like their driveways cleared after a storm. Or the same kids the following summer, who took their long-handled brooms and buckets with soap around the neighborhood to see if anyone wanted a siding wash.
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Those jobs for teens, it appears, are gone. The typical ways teenagers made money just a decade ago have gone the way of the paper route, with teens’ ability to earn pocket money largely now tied to their digital skills.
“It is impressive to see how fast things change. I indeed belong to that generation when it was normal to improvise a lemonade stand or go to my neighbors’ house to wash their cars to earn a couple of dollars,” said Maciej Kubiak, the head of people at PhotoAiD, a start-up in biometric photography. “But these two jobs for teenagers are certainly disappearing. First, technology has disconnected us from the real world. Teenagers are more likely, during the summers, to stay at home in front of a screen. Secondly, COVID-19 has dramatically changed the perspective in which we socialize.”
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Indeed, teenagers have found new ways to make money. So taking a walk down memory lane, what are some jobs for teens that have vanished, and how are young people today cashing in instead?
The Old Guard
GOBankingRates asked today’s professionals — now the people who are doing the hiring — for their recollections about how they and their friends made money as teenagers, and they remembered jobs that today’s teens might not have ever had a chance of working.
- Video store clerk. “There were so many rental stores for CDs and DVDs 10 years back. In those stores and shops, teens used to guide other kids, teens and people about which CD/DVD they could rent,” said Stephen Curry, the CEO of CocoSign, an electronic document signature company. “Today, CDs and DVDs are out of fashion. So, those jobs don’t exist anymore.”
- Messenger. “One job that doesn’t exist anymore for teenagers is the messenger job,” said Craig Miller, the co-founder of Academia Labs in Austin, Texas. “Before, we used to hire teenagers to carry our letters and deliver them …….
Source: https://www.gobankingrates.com/money/jobs/5-teen-jobs-dont-exist-anymore-how-to-make-money-instead/