Highlights from Chapter 2 in our forthcoming book.
Many of our Gen Z friends wrote in to tell us about the high-profile jobs they’ve landed at very young ages! Meet Danielle from Homeland Security in Florida, Kamrie in real estate staging and photography in New York, and Kelly who works at Hulu in NYC.
Danielle
Age: 25
Job: TSA Officer for the Department of Homeland Security
Location: Tampa, Florida, U.S.
Working for the Department of Homeland Security as a Transportation Security Officer (TSA), Danielle from Tampa, Florida says, “I help protect the nation’s transportation systems, especially in my home airport. I earn approximately $33K a year. What I love about my job is that no two days are the same. I get to interact with people from different walks of life on a daily basis. I also enjoy knowing that the work I’m doing is helping people travel with the assurance that they’ll be safe flying from one destination to another.”
Kamrie
Age: 24
Job: Freelance Real Estate Photographer and Stager
Location: Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Kamrie ranks upward mobility and making money as her two top career priorities; however, she believes that her career will differ sharply from those of her parents because “because I’m actually pursuing my dream career rather than simply being after a good job that pays the bills.”
“Currently,” she says, “I work as a freelance floor-plan artist for a company that provides services (photography, floor plans, virtual staging, videos, etc…) for real estate agents for all their property needs.
Simply put, I meet brokers at the address of their listing(s) and then draft the floor plan for the space. How much I am paid is dependent on two things:
- How many floor plans I draw during a pay period, and
- How many rooms are at a specific listing.
This means that my paychecks are never the same and are dependent upon the real estate season. Some paychecks can be upwards of $3,000—while during the slow season, which is around the end/start of year holidays, paychecks can be as low as $200.
What I love about my job is the flexibility. I can take off whenever I want without having to get approved and I can make myself unavailable during specific points in the day if that was my desire. Another thing I love is that I get to travel to many different neighborhoods and go into homes/apartments that are amazing and sometimes worth millions of dollars . . . Literally places that you would only see on television or that someone would never get to experience in their life.
However, with good comes bad; so, some places I go to you wouldn’t want to walk in if your life depended on it (usually foreclosures).
As a result of my position being considered freelance I don’t have an office. This means I spend my days outside and I am constantly exposed to the elements. The burning sun, the pouring rain, and the harshest snow are all things I have to be willing to deal with in order to do this job.
The last thing I hate about the job is the fact that it is a freelance position. That means no benefits from the company, since I am not an employee, as well as having to pay money back during tax season.
Kelly
Age: 17
Job: Office Admin for Hulu
Location: New York City, New York, U.S.
Kelly from New York City, New York may be only seventeen years old, but she makes $22/hour as a temporary contractor for Hulu, filling in as a workplace experience assistant during an employee’s maternity leave. She’s essentially an office admin, responsible for all the facilities and office-wide events. She maintains all food and office supplies and provides assistance wherever it’s needed.
She says, “I love being helpful and essentially do not hate anything about my job—just that it can be very time- and energy-consuming.”
Cover photograph from Hulu; interior images courtesy of Alec Couros for Flickr “Homeland Security” by courosa is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, kinga-cichewicz-DqaPyAPtl8M for Unsplash, and proxyclick-visitor-management-system-ZRC0Hj_2kY0 (https://www.proxyclick.com) for Unsplash.
This post comes to you as a portion of the book:
MY JOB Gen Z: Finding Your Place in a Fast-Changing World
(c) 2021 by Suzanne Skees and Sanam Yusuf
An open-source, narrative nonfiction book full of true stories of jobs along with best practices for how to make your dream-job come true.
Note from the authors:
Join us each Tuesday and Friday as we release highlights from our new book, that will be FREE to our community members.
Share with your friends and followers; it’s FREE, open-source, and available to everyone.
No one makes a penny on this book project, which is intended to inspire and empower Gen Zers to launch their careers and land their dream jobs. Suzanne and Sanam have volunteered their time, and we’ve chosen this platform to transmit our book so that YOU don’t have to pay for publication costs.
However, if you feel inspired to help someone in poverty to have access to dignified work, jump here to donate directly to the nonprofit job-creation program of your choice–all vetted and supported by Skees Family Foundation.
Thanks for being with us! We’re excited to share our book with you.
–Suzanne & Sanam