Selling Girl Scout Cookies And Gaining Job Skills

As a teenager who has unsuccessfully applied to many jobs, I have noticed that employers favor those with work experience. However, attaining important business skills does not always require conventional methods like internships, according to a recent article by the New York Times. The article focused on 10-year-old Girl Scout Mary Ruiz who sold over 5,000 boxes of cookies last year with the support of her mother. Ruiz’s mother, Pilar, is known among the other parents for pushing her daughter to work 28-hour weeks during the Girl Scout cookie selling season. They have even questioned her parenting skills. But Pilar has her own reasons for pushing her daughter to work hard instead of playing all day like other girls her age. Pilar believes selling Girl Scout cookies will give her daughter a good work ethic and teach her the importance of hard work. Pilar also believes it is important for her daughter to know how to “sell herself” by learning how to wow people with first impressions. Pilar insists that the skills her daughter learns will be useful later in life like when trying to get a job, like counting money, and being able to convince people to buy her products. Ruiz’s mother have controversial methods for preparing her daughter to function in the world. But, in my opinion, the ability to make good first impressions, have good people skills, and count money are definitely useful skills.