Teens can learn more from retail and service work than at a fancy summer internship in an office
Teens may gain more valuable life skills from retail and service jobs than from traditional office internships. These experiences can foster resilience, work ethic, and personal growth. Real-world challenges often provide lessons that are not found in more comfortable environments.
- ▪Working in retail or service jobs can teach teens grit and self-efficacy.
- ▪Many successful individuals attribute their achievements to lessons learned from early, often low-level jobs.
- ▪Facing fears and overcoming discomfort in challenging jobs can lead to significant personal development.
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Opinion Teens can learn more from retail and service work than at a fancy summer internship in an office By Lenore Skenazy Published May 31, 2026, 12:00 p.m. ET See more of our coverage in your search results. Add The New York Post on Google Burger King or Goldman Sachs? That’s not the exact choice most teens get to make when choosing a summer job, but the question is: What’s the better bet? Well, if Goldman Sachs is really calling . . . hmm. But a grueling, sweaty summer gig can give kids more grit than they’d get at any air-conditioned accounting internship. And grit can take you places plain old resume-building can’t. “For two summers in Ireland when I was 16 and 17 I worked on a farm,” says Mike Neill, a writer in New Jersey.
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