Kelly Makiha: Why being a hard worker and good talker may be the best skills you need to survive in the job market

A young Rotorua teen is working three nights a week in a fish and chip shop to save for his first car. Photo / Getty Images

I was at the rugby club the other day and found myself yarning to a young teen.

With all due respects to our younger generation, finding a young teen capable of looking up from their phones and having a mature conversation can sometimes be as hard as finding a perfect avocado in a rotting specials bin.

But thanks to 14-year-old Heretaunga Mikaere, I was pleasantly surprised.

He was telling me about his job. That’s right. He has a job. He works three nights a week in a fish and chip shop.

So are his mum and dad related or friends with the owners, I asked?

“No”, he said. He applied for the job.

Wow. Cool.

Turns out, the Rotorua Boys’ High School youngster has his sights set on the future - as in when he’s 16 and can go for his learner’s licence. He’s starting to save already for that first car.

I know a bit about Heretaunga. It’s not like this kid has got time on his hands. He’s also a top rugby and league player, so he’s no doubt juggling his work and school commitments with trainings and games.

The impressive youngster topped off of our chat by saying: “So, how have things been lately for you?”

It made me smile. So I politely told him how I’d been.

His attitude reminded me of the type of work ethic and manners our generation grew up with.

I had a rather lucrative chicken poo fertiliser business in my early years at secondary school. School holidays and weekends were spent with a shovel bagging the stenchy substance into white fertiliser bags. Dad agreed to deliver them to buyers answering my advert in the newspaper, if I agreed to put in the hours bagging it up.

Between that and washing dishes for $5 an hour in a Mexican restaurant on Saturday nights, I was able to buy my first car - a red Honda Civic - at the age of 15 (you got your licence earlier all those years ago).

Today we report job listings in the Bay of Plenty have fallen 15 per cent in a year on the employment site Seek. And for those jobs that are advertised, some are going to migrant workers because employers are finding it hard to find Kiwis who want to work.

Once Kiwis wake up and realise the recession is real, having the basics to secure a job is going to be more important than ever.

Education and skills are key, of course, but not being afraid to work and being able to hold down a conversation are going to be more important.

It’s my opinion that teaching young people the value of money, work ethic and the skill of looking someone in the eye and having a conversation is what will see them through.