What Do Employers Want From Their Teen Workers?

Learning to find ones way in the job market can be a challenging trip for a young person. They want to be themselves but the employer may have other thoughts about how they should be. Author and speaker, Bob Miller, who speaks on management, among other topics, surveyed more then managers nationwide to determine the traits they considered most important for teens starting their first job. By consolidating the responses of the managers into the most frequently expected traits and then having managers rate them as to the most important, the top desired traits were isolated. While there are no surprises to managers, or experienced workers, it may help teens to know that some of their personal preferences may conflict with what the boss wants. Here are the most desirable traits, ranked in order of importance, which employers look for in teenage employees: . Honesty, integrity and trustworthiness . Reliable, dependable, dedicated, conscientious, loyal and committed . Enthusiastic, positive attitude . Inquisitive, curious creative . Takes initiative, self-motivated . Customer-oriented, helpful . Promptness, punctuality . Quality-minded, pride in work, thorough . Team worker, works well with others . Courteous, polite, respectful, personable . Willing to learn, ambitious . Persistence, perseverance . Appearance, grooming . Mature, self-controlled, responsible . Fast worker . Listens . Outgoing, willing to speak up, confident . Flexible, adaptable . Organized . Other Teens who think about What can I do to help our company help the customer will most likely be successful in their new job. Bob Miller can be reached at: bobm@orphancommunities.org