I hate the whole concept of references. I don’t want to ask a favor from someone in my past. I don’t want to keep contact info for former bosses or co-workers.
Our society is like:
Pull yourselves up by your bootstraps.
Have personal responsibility.
Your success or your failure is 100% due to your good or poor choices.
Employers: “By the way, you are going to need help from some strangers in your past in order to get a job with our company.”
Companies are constantly trying to figure out how to pay workers less. I would absolutely take less money if the hiring process didn’t have so much hoop-jumping. How has capitalism not figured that one out yet?
When I started out I used people from volunteer work I had done as references. Most kids should have done something like being a camp counsellor or helping out at an event by the time they look for their first real job.
Most kids should have provided their labor for free? Fuck that.
Volunteer work is good for kids to get some experience. It’s usually a lot less pressure than a real job. It’s just a chance to dip your toes into some responsibility. The entire point is to start small so that you can accumulate some of those references. It’s not some capitalist conspiracy.
That is absolutely not something that most kids do.