Having a part-time job is an important part of growing up for American teenagers. It can teach them important skills that will be useful for the rest of their lives. And many of them find that making their own money gives them a sense of pride and freedom (自由).

American teenagers are allowed to do part-time jobs at the age of 14. During the school year, teenagers may go to work a few times a week after school, and work for longer at weekends.

In summer, top part-time jobs for teenagers include at camps, swimming pools and amusement parks (游乐园). These jobs are great for those who want to be active and have fun while making money.

Some of the most stressful (压力大的) jobs include teaching, nursing, and police work. These skills help to prepare teenagers for their later lives. When they grow up, the students with work experience are more likely (可能的) to succeed than those without work experience.

A favourite job for many teenagers is babysitting. As long as they stay in the house and make sure the kids are okay, babysitters can do their homework, watch TV, or talk on the phone with their friends. After the kids go to bed and before the parents come home, babysitters have lots of freedom.

It can be stressful to balance school, homework and a part-time job. However, many American teenagers value their work experience and the skills they get from the job.

“I’ve seen a huge difference in Irina since she started talking to a life coach,” says her mother Sylvana. “I get on very well with Irina, but she can’t always talk to me about everything. Talking to someone who listens but is not a close family member is very important.”

What is a life coach?

An athlete improves because he trains with a coach. A life coach can also guide you to success. A life coach encourages you to think not only about what you want, but also about how you are going to get it. Until now, life coaches have helped adults, for example business executives who need to make decisions or parents who want some advice on bringing up their children. Now it’s the turn of our young people.

Life Coach Simone Waltz

Simon Waltz, a former radio producer, set up her life coaching company five years ago. “I offer teenagers a place to talk, to decide on their future plans and to sort out problems, ” says Waltz. Jem’s parents are delighted with what Waltz has done. Jem has got a place at university to study medicine but he has decided to take part in a volunteer project in central Africa first. “Yes, we were surprised, but Jem is still very young. This experience abroad will help him grow up before he goes to university here.”

Life coach Tara Newhouse

Tara tells the story of a 15-year-old who was failing in science, until they found out she learnt best through music. Once she made up songs to learn by, she achieved 99 percent in her tests. Tara has also helped Sylvana’s daughter, Irina, who was not sure whether she would go to university. Now she hopes to get into a top university. Irina now feels more confident about everything. She has even taken up exercise for the first time in years.

Life coach Mo Ahmed

Mo Ahmed has coached children as young as five years old, “It could be something as simple as leaning multiplication tables—asking them how they’re going to do it, how are they going to make it fun?” Mo has also helped teenager Regina who was having problems making friends when she moved to a new school. They talked together about the things Regina really enjoyed doing. By joining the school basketball team Regina has made several new friends.

If you can speak good Arabic(阿拉伯语) and English and you don’t mind working in Iraq,you could find a very well paid job as an Arabic translator.They are required to help army officials communicate with people in that country.A translator can make 150,000 dollars a year,but the good pay also means the danger in this job.Translators have to travel a lot and work in unpleasant and dangerous situations as the country is now at war.

Alaskan crab(螃蟹) fishermen are some of the highest paid workers in the world,making as much as 50,000 dollars for 3 to 5 days’ work.However,the work is seasonal and it’s also very dangerous as you sail deep into the sea.If you run into trouble,you are on your own.The working conditions are also hard with most fishermen only sleeping for a couple of hours every day.