Tired of this...

[MaseMan]

Your parents seem like they're being kind of unreasonable. Frankly, I would think working in a library would look better on a resume to most employers than working at an amusement park anyway. To be honest though, after you graduate college, most employers aren't really going to care where you worked when you were 16.

I agree with the advice from another poster that you should sit down with your parents when they are calmed down and lay out your thought process on this.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I am officially not going to apply. My mom slammed on the brakes at 50mph as we were discussing it, threatened to abandon me on the road if I pursued it any further.

You will just have to talk about something else. Why don't you tell them, in excruciating detail, all about the suckiness you have to deal with every day from customers, coworkers and bosses? Repeatedly, ad nauseam, etc.

I know, but I can't talk to them again. My mom says that if I do, she'll force me to call into my current job and quit, leaving me jobless.

Gee, that would mean you would have to find another job.

[octopi23]

You may even show them this thread? I agree, let the emotions cool off but I think the answers here are very well reasoned.

I know, but I can't talk to them again. My mom says that if I do, she'll force me to call into my current job and quit, leaving me jobless.

[Mikkel]

Let the emotions cool down, then sit them down and talk again.

You may even show them this thread? I agree, let the emotions cool off but I think the answers here are very well reasoned.

[octopi23]

the world is very different now than when our parents were our age. My Dad kept his job for 30 years, but that's almost unheard of now.
If you can get a teacher or repected neighbour/uncle to support your job hunting and explaining to your parents, that might be useful.
otherwise, be reasured that you are in the right, and that later, your correct and sensible attitude will help you get a better job, even if it ain't going right right now.
good luck.

I have a personal friend that works at that library who referred me to it. I just hate working where I work right now because of the customers (although that's a given), the hours, and the fact I stand outside in 90-degree heat for up to 10 hours on end (given one small break in between) and waiting an hour to get a damn bathroom break.

[scruff]

the world is very different now than when our parents were our age. My Dad kept his job for 30 years, but that's almost unheard of now.
If you can get a teacher or repected neighbour/uncle to support your job hunting and explaining to your parents, that might be useful.
otherwise, be reasured that you are in the right, and that later, your correct and sensible attitude will help you get a better job, even if it ain't going right right now.
good luck.

[Geek King]

I am officially not going to apply. My mom slammed on the brakes at 50mph as we were discussing it, threatened to abandon me on the road if I pursued it any further.

Ok, I know a lot of kids thing their parents are unreasonable. But in my professional opinion,

Octopi, your parents are being completely unreasonable.

Since the 90's, no one in hiring really care how many jobs you've worked if you show good reasons for moving around. Good reasons include losing the job for one reason or another (not fired! shop closes, temp work, ect.) or bettering yourself money- or time-wise. Your parents are stuck in a different time, and do not have a grasp of the realities of the current workplace.

Of course, being sixteen, this still leaves you in kind of a bad situation. Let the emotions cool down, then sit them down and talk again. Take the time before you bring it up again to look up articles on the internet studying the effects of multiple jobs on a resume. You should find enough to make your point. Be calm, but insistant. Don't rise to the bait to raise your voice, as that will let your parents just dismiss you as being disrespectful. If they threaten grounding, or somesuch, stay calm and remind them that you need to learn how to make these decisions on your own sometime, and you will be moving out in a few years, even if just for college. Learning how the workplace operates is part of that. You should also point out that the Library will be a better position for all the reasons you mentioned. Show them you've thought about it.

Good luck, octopi. You sound like a good kid, and I hope you do well.

[octopi23]

I am officially not going to apply. My mom slammed on the brakes at 50mph as we were discussing it, threatened to abandon me on the road if I pursued it any further.

[Overnight]

Like others have already said, it's the gaps in employment, not changing jobs, that employers and interviewers are going to care about.

None of the interviewers with whom I've spoken cared that I've done a bit of job hopping over the years. They don't expect potential employees to start a job at age sixteen and stick with it until age twenty-eight or some such thing. They care if you've been fired from a string of jobs for joyriding in your supervisors' cars or some such thing, I'm sure, but simply changing jobs? Not so much.

But they do care about employment gaps. Back in February, when I interviewed for my temp job at Voldemart, the managers wanted to know about a small employment gap from 2002. I offered a good explanation (medical discharge from the Army in late 2001 - bad knee had to recover so, while I was working on that painful little problem, I was getting my merry butt into college, which I started in '02 along with a work-study gig).

The interviewers ceased to care about the gap after hearing the reasonable explanation and one even said, "Oh, okay, that's fine. It's not like you were lying around the house not wanting to get up and go to work." (Exactly.)

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

[Marmalady]

Try for an interview at the library. After all, even if they do offer you the job, you're not forced to take it if you then decide it's not what you want. But as others have said, every interview gives you experience and helps you hone your interview technique.
As for 'sticking' to one job - tenacity and endurance are great qualities, sure, but what intelligent person (whatever their age) would pass up the chance of getting a better job, with better pay, at somewhere more convenient to where they live?

[Racket_Man]

I am, in fact, 16.

and at that age a resume is not really going to reflect much anyway. as those above have said your father is putting too MUCH stock in jobs right now as you are just starting out in the work force.

as a teenager I had 3 different summer jobs 3 different summers. only at the beginning of your career will it really matter but if you go onto college then post-college most companies will see that you did INDEED have a summer job(s) but really only care about the most recent ones esp if they are career related.

[csquared]

My dad says it's important if I stay at my job; he says if I move around, then my resume looks weaker.

Summer employers, like an amusement park, will often give preferred hire status to last year's employees. Does your park do that. Leave now, and you may not be able to find a job next summer. What about the library?

On the other hand, if the library is a year round job that you would keep, that would not look bad on the resume.

I would say try for the library. If you get an offer, tell them you will think about it and discuss it with your parents. If your parents are against you interviewing (sounds like you might need a ride to get there), tell them that it will be good experience to interview. Job offer or no.

[octopi23]

MOVE THE F OUT!

I am, in fact, 16.

[Willis]

My dad says it's important if I stay at my job; he says if I move around, then my resume looks weaker.

Like Eric said, all due respect to your father, but your resume looks weaker when there are gaps in employment. Moving around isn't bad if you aren't jumping from job to job every 3 months. When you have gaps, companies start to wonder what were you doing during that time and they will ask you if you even get that far for them to ask. They'll more than like not consider resume if there are too long or too many gaps.

[EricKei]

My dad says it's important if I stay at my job; he says if I move around, then my resume looks weaker.

With all due respect to your father -- and to you -- someone should inform him that a wageslave job of any sort isn't exactly the opus of any resume. If you stick around for a decade or more AND wind up in management, sure, but not on the bottom rung. Having zero "time between jobs" is, if anything, more impressive, as it shows that you come prepared when things go south.