Over the summer, PHS students take advantage of their time away from assignments and studying, and many take on a summer job. 

The Princeton community offers many opportunities for teenagers to find a job. Some come easier than others thanks to connections through existing extracurricular activities. Jordyn Weber ’22, who has been a club swimmer for the Princeton Piranhas swim team since she was eight years old, was offered her first job by her swim coach. At the age of 13, Weber’s coach hired her to teach swim lessons to younger age groups. For the past two summers, she has worked as a lifeguard at the Community Park Pool. Weber notes that a majority of her co-workers are either her teammates or swimmers from other swim clubs. 

“Everybody I know works [at CP] because a lot of swimmers work there. So it kind of just happened naturally,” Weber said. “I didn't really apply for the job, or anything, [the coach] was like, do you want to work here? And I was like, ‘Yeah, sure.’”

While Weber is very familiar with the pool and swimming, the process of becoming a lifeguard taught her new valuable skills. Weber took in-person and online knowledge courses and passed a swimming test before earning her American Red Cross lifeguarding and water safety certification.

“It's good to know CPR and first aid skills for adults and infants,” Weber said.

Life-saving procedures are just one of the many possible skills PHS students may gain from their job. Shira Kutin ’23 found that her summer experience helped her develop her soft skills. 

Like Weber, Kutin also found her summer part-time through a connection. Introduced by Joshua Stucky ’22, Kutin started working at Jay’s Cycles, Central Jersey’s oldest bike shop, at the beginning of May. Aside from Stucky, she is the only other teenager working at the shop. Despite being the youngest employee, Kutin’s duties span a wide range of tasks. 

“My main responsibilities are selling bikes [and] accessories and keeping the store organized. And then additionally, just writing up repairs and getting people their bikes,” Kutin said.

Kutin’s favorite part of her job is helping customers pick the perfect bicycle. 

Graphic: [credit name="Emily Qian"]

“It’s always satisfying when someone can come in and I can help them,” said Kutin. “They just seem happy [and] it is a really nice thing especially [if] it’s a younger kid and it’s their first bike.”

As she watched children get excited about their new bicycles, she recalls her own experience with Jay’s.  

“It's really nice to see that [happiness] considering that I got my first bike in that store, and it’s just a nice experience to watch other people,” Kutin said. 

Although assisting polite customers in making purchases has been the highlight of her job, dealing with tougher customers is what allowed Kutin to work on her communication skills. When asked how she dealt with difficult circumstances, Kutin says the key was patience and composure. 

“My job definitely taught me a lot of patience. Just for so many reasons ... Either a customer who’s talking to me … for an hour or … we’re waiting for … bikes to come in all the time and customers are annoyed that their bikes are not here. Whatever it be … I've learned to manage that a bit better,” Kutin said.

At the end of the day, Kutin just wants to make sure she has done everything to help her customers.

“Just telling them what they want to hear and making sure I'm helping them just as much as I’d be helping anyone else even if they’re not very nice to me is important,” Kutin said.

Although it hasn’t been easy, both Weber and Kutin felt that their experiences with summer jobs have been rewarding. 

“My summer job has allowed me to be more independent because now I have my own money and an environment where people are relying on my ability to be responsible,” Weber said.