5 Best Jobs for Teenagers that Don’t Suck

Waiting tables, baristas, and telemarketing all suck, no matter how old you are.

For teens, it sometimes seems like these jobs are a rite of passage. But, unfortunately, you have to take these crap jobs when you’re younger to appreciate a great job when you find it.

It doesn’t have to be like that!

Finding the best jobs for teenagers isn’t just about pay

In this video, I’ll show you the five best jobs for teenagers that not only make money but will change the way you think about work. Not only that, but I’ll reveal two things to look for in any job that will keep you from falling into the same soul-crushing trap 90% of workers fall for.

Can Teens Make Money While Studying?

There are many ways to generate money, but the problem is that most teens are either too lazy or just scared to get started. But if you want to make some money, you have to go for it, face the challenges, get out of your shell and start grinding! Whether part-time or starting your own business, there are unlimited ways to make money as a teenager.

There are more ways than ever to make some cash as a teenager, and the opportunities are more flexible, too. Part-time jobs can be tiresome or too mediocre for others, but there are plenty of the best jobs for teenagers available. There is a lot of employment worth considering for teens only if they try harder and exert more effort and dedication in doing so.

Breaking the Myth of Bad Teen Jobs

So these videos have been viral on the channel where we look at some of the highest-paying jobs, either one without a degree or for college students. And you know by now that I don’t go in for all the lame types of jobs you see in other videos.

First, if you need me to tell you that a teenager can work as a babysitter or wait tables, you’ve got more significant problems than making a buck. We all know these menial labor, minimum wage jobs are just waiting for kids that companies can screw over for cheap labor.

Also, besides the fact that nobody’s learning anything with these crap jobs, do you want to be mowing lawns for $5 an hour?

Instead, we’re looking at the best jobs for teenagers that you haven’t thought of, jobs where you can make more than minimum wage and lead to something bigger.

But it’s also much more than finding a job that makes money. So what I want you to get out of this list is there are the best jobs for teenagers that you’ll enjoy and can lead to a career that doesn’t feel like a rat race!

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Secrets to Finding Good Jobs for Teens

I will reveal the five best jobs for teenagers, but first, I want to highlight two things you need to look for in any position you consider. Now I know you want to jump right to those five jobs for ideas but bear with me for two minutes because I guarantee these two factors WILL change your life.

First is that you want a job showing you the power of enjoying what you do for a living. Enjoying my work is a lesson I wish I had learned earlier, and the job trap is something 90% of the people out there fall into.

Most teens HATE their first jobs, but that’s just how it is, you hate your job, but you do it because you need money to buy fun things. Unfortunately, this never ends for a lot of people. They grow up and hate their job but feel trapped because they need them to pay the bills and buy fun things like jet skis.

They never learn that there is an entirely different life out there.

I fell into this. I started bussing tables when I was 14. Then I started waiting tables. I worked in a coffee shop, and I worked in telemarketing. I hated every one of those jobs. I was miserable and went from one job to another. When I graduated college, I got a job in corporate accounting, and again, I hated my job.

The thing is, I thought that’s just how it is. You don’t have to like your job. You have to do it. So I rolled my eyes whenever I heard someone say, find a job you love because I didn’t believe in it.

But it is out there. It is possible to make money doing something you enjoy, and I can tell you, as someone that felt that soul-crushing feeling of hating my job, it is a fantastic feeling when you learn how to enjoy your work.

Do not get trapped into that job mentality. Even if you don’t go for one of the five best jobs for teenagers we’ll talk about, look for a job doing something you enjoy from the start.

The next factor that all these jobs have that sets them apart from all those dead-end teen jobs is control over your financial future.

Another horrible thing people learn with their first jobs is that hourly pay is hopelessness. You get paid the same whether you flip ten burgers or 100. So there’s no reason to get better at the job, do it well or even care.

You have no control, and nothing you do matters.

If you enjoyed your job, maybe you’d work harder to get a promotion or raise, but if you hate your job, you just fall into that zombie-like state of indifference. And this experience creates lazy workers who will be lazy and unfulfilled their entire life. That is until they’re 50 and get laid off because their skills are shit, and they’ve never tried to take control of their job.

An excellent job for teenagers or anyone will give you some control over how much you make. That might mean some base plus commission incentive or work for yourself, creating a business, or an online asset you control.

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These two perspectives on finding a job are crucial. If you ignore them, even if you’re making great money, you will never be happy. There’s no reason to be miserable for a third of your day, whether in a job during your teens or later in life. Find a job you enjoy and one that gives you some control over the future!

How to Find the Best Jobs for Teens Near You

Now we all know you’re pretty limited in what you can get as a teen. We looked at some great college jobs that technically need a degree, but you can talk yourself into them in another video. With good jobs for teens isn’t going to happen.

So we have to make these jobs.

These jobs aren’t as easy as walking into the local Starbucks and taking the Help Wanted sign out of the window. We’ll talk about how to set up and get started on each of the jobs below, but it might take some help from parents to get things going.

This will mean creating an online business or freelance work in something like social media jobs. I’ve hired three people to help me with social media on the blogs, and I could care less if they’re 15 or 50 as long as they do good work. You can find the jobs like this, but you have to put yourself in front of them.

To the parents out there, please, if you want your kids to live happy, fulfilled lives, help them out in this. Help them get a job with those two factors we discussed, and it will be supremely worth it.

Selling Photography for Teens

Our first job for teens is probably the easiest to get started, selling photography through sites like Depositphotos and Shutterstock.

There isn’t much to this one because it’s so simple to start. You can create an account on dozens of photo or video sites and upload your images. You’ll get paid a quarter to two dollars every time someone downloads your image.

That means you can make money on this one for months and years, even after you’ve stopped. You don’t need to be the next Ansel Adams or Andy Warhol on this one. Just browse some images and stock videos on sites like Shutterstock and fotomoto. You’ll get ideas for setting up shots and images people want to buy.

This one is the ultimate for flexibility and ease. Spend a few hours learning basic photography and how many hours you want to create your images each week. Not only will this start making money as soon as you upload photos, but it will also show creativity on your resume.

You get paid per image or graphic downloaded on the site, and sometimes it’s not much, but I know teen photographers are making $300 a week. It’s about building up a library of images you sell on different sites.

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Social Media Jobs for Teens

Our next job idea is tailor-made for teens, a social media assistant on Instagram, Facebook, and social platforms.

We’ve looked at this job in other videos, where we’ve discussed being social media managers for online influencers and entrepreneurs.

The social media revolution has created stars as big as any Hollywood blockbuster. Besides these personality influencers, no business can be successful without obligatory social media following.

Take it from someone that operates three Twitter accounts, two Facebook pages, plus social profiles on three other platforms. Managing all these can be a significant pain. It’s 21st-century marketing and I, along with tens of thousands of other businesses and influencers, want to outsource our marketing department.

Sometimes that means outsourcing it entirely to a social media manager, and sometimes we want a little help from a social media assistant.

I can think of no one better for this job than a teenager that has grown up in the social revolution, someone that tweets faster than I can talk, or that knows what works on Instagram.

As a social media manager, you’d work to plan a marketing strategy. Then, you’d organize social updates for each platform and design graphics that work best on each. The work of an assistant is just taking part in this, maybe just designing the graphics or managing the updates.

Do it right, and you can make a solid paycheck from anywhere with an internet connection. Glassdoor reports the average salary for a social media manager is just under $60,000, with some making as much as $85,000 a year. You’re making $20 an hour or more as an assistant.

This is another one with huge potential to turn into a career. You’ll learn organization and marketing as well as other business concepts.

If you’ve got a social profile, you’ve got all you need to start. Reach out to bloggers or other influencers and discuss how you can help them with their social marketing. Be flexible and discuss learning from and some project ideas to boost their social influence.

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Teen Jobs from Home

Another job we’ve discussed before, and one you can do from home, is starting a meal service business.

This one isn’t as complicated as it seems. The average family spends over three thousand a year eating out, and some groups, like my own Gen X spend over four grand a year.

That’s over $350 a month eating out and doesn’t include the thousand or so a month on groceries. I think people would spend more eating out if it wasn’t so damn expensive, and that’s where you come in, offering home cooking at half the cost of a restaurant. Think about it, the average dinner out for a family of three is over $50 and most families are out just because they don’t want to cook.

You don’t have to be a big business. If you cook just three meals a week and have, on average, three customer families for each meal, you’re making $200 to $300 profit each week. It costs less than $5 a plate to cook at home, and meal delivery businesses typically charge at least $10 to $15 per serving with delivery. That’s a 200% profit on your costs. You can do a few things to make this an even bigger money-maker.

First, you want to plan a menu for each week. These plans mean you’re not making dinners to order. People aren’t calling up like it’s a restaurant. Instead, you plan on making a specific mean each night. You take pre-orders from a website or social media a night or two in advance to know how much to make. Planning like this cuts down on costs because you’re making one meal in bulk to feed your family and all your customers.

Also, while preparing your meal plan, look for the meals you can make with the most significant profit. A study by Wellio found the difference between restaurant prices and home cooking as high as $32 per serving for some dinners. Some dinners like Teriyaki Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo Pasta even cost less than two dollars a serving to make.

Of course, the most obvious challenge here is that you need to learn how to cook, but that’s something you’ll use your entire life. So you’re all set to spend a month learning how to cook a few dinners.

Selling Crafts on Etsy

Another job for teens that involves some creativity is selling handmade crafts on sites like Etsy and Artfire.

This method is a great one for the creatively minded because it will involve ideas like production, marketing, and business organization. More than 33 million people visit Etsy monthly, a built-in market for your crafts. The site makes it easy to set up your listing and sell.

It costs just $0.20 to list something on the site, and Etsy takes 5% of any sales. You get paid right into your PayPal account and can list as many items as you like.

This one helps to have another source for marketing your crafts, like a blog or social media profile. Like some of these job ideas, this will take a week or two to set up, but tools on Etsy make it very easy, and you’ll learn how to market your products fast.

Teen Jobs Online

Our fifth great job for teens is blogging or as a blogger assistant.

Nothing stops you from starting your blog, but as a teenager, you may want to start as a blog manager or help an established blogger run their site. Getting this position means you only have to focus on one task like content writing or graphics, or scheduling instead of everything that goes into the business of blogging.

Bloggers can make tens of thousands a month through affiliate marketing, ads, digital downloads, and their products, but it’s a full-time job with a million moving parts. Believe me, if you can take a part of the workload and do it well, that’s easily worth twenty or thirty bucks an hour to the blogger.

Like that social media assistant job, you’ll look to bloggers or online influencers to get hired. The best way to do this is to go to a blogging or social media conference and talk to people.

With any of these jobs, there’s the possibility that you won’t make a lot of money, but what did you miss compared to the lame, typical teenage job? The take-home pay on minimum wage is about $6 an hour, which means about $350 a month on a part-time schedule. You can easily do that in any of these jobs; even more, it’s all up to you because you control how much you make.

You’ll notice common themes in many of these jobs. Whatever teen job you choose, make sure it’s one where you’re learning and can apply that knowledge to do more. You also want a job that gives you control, which means you will need to take the initiative over starting the career and doing more than the bare minimum.

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With many of these jobs, not only will you be getting paid, but you’ll also be creating an asset that could keep making money. In addition, you’ll be learning something other than how to bus tables and will have a great story that will get the attention of any college recruiter.

Read the Entire Jobs for Teenagers Series

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