By: Charlene Yang
Let’s say you’re looking for a job. At first, it looks like there aren’t too many options to pick from. You don’t need me to tell you that most kids nowadays probably have a job in retail or at a milk tea or fast-food place down the street.
Those jobs are the most common thing I’ve heard of when I ask people where they work, and going off that, they’re probably the most common jobs amongst the MHS students. However, there are a few students on campus that have jobs unlike that of the norm.
Take, for instance, Seniors Charles Young and Mealaud Mokhtarzad who work as math instructors at Mathnasium. The two teach students from grades two to twelve in any topics that the tutees are currently working on in school, Mokhtarzad said.
“One of my friends went to college, and then he worked there before, and then he recommended me,” Mokhtarzad said. “I managed to get a job there, and I realized that I really like working and having a busy schedule. I also just like tutoring a lot,” he added.
Mokhtarzad has been working for about a month now, one week more than Young, Mokhtarzad said.
“I chose to work there mainly because I wanted a job. I wanted to do something, make my own money, not really rely on my parents, and start saving up for college. Also, being a math tutor felt like it’d help me be able to talk to more people more often,” Young said. “It’s really fun. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it’s easy. I like it. It’s like playing a video game,” he added.
While Young and Mokhtarzad have the same job, they have their own reasons for liking the work they do. “I feel like the best part of it is the multitasking,” Young said. “Whenever you start having more visitors. And you start having more people to tutor at the same time, it gets super busy and having to multitask and manage each individual person and make sure they’re all doing well is really challenging and fun to do.”
As for Mokhtarzad, having his tutees understanding the material he explained to them is the best part of his job, he said. “It’s just incredibly satisfying because then you see, like, their eyes light up. They just start to enjoy it, or at least they’re not confused,” Mokhtarzad said.
Both can agree on the least desirable part of the job. While the tutees comprehending the lesson can be seen as a good thing, this can make time pass slowly for the tutor, Mokhtarzad said.
“Sometimes, on the really slow days when everybody knows what they’re doing and there’s nothing to do, it’s kind of boring,” Young said. “Those are the fewer days.”
Suppose you don’t want to teach math. Senior Leon Huynh has been teaching kids as a swim instructor at Star Aquatics.
He has been working there for about a year and a half and is currently taking a break until this December, Huynh said. “It’s quite busy on some days, especially in the summer, but it’s usually pretty tame on weekdays,” he added.
So, why did he take the job? “Well, first of all, it’s convenient because it’s right next to my house, but I also enjoy helping children,” Huynh said. “Honestly, I didn’t want to work. However, my sister was already working there, and she was about to leave for college, so she forced me to apply and get an interview. Eventually I saw that the work I was doing was quite fun, and I got money, so I continued to do it.”
Huynh also said that his favorite part of his job is seeing the kids he’s teaching enjoy their time with him. “When little kids actually start to swim, it’s actually pretty fun to see because they’re really happy,” he said.
Of course, there are always parts that people don’t like about their jobs, and for Huynh, it’s when the children he’s teaching are not behaving. “Kids are very annoying,” he said. “Some days, the kids are just way too hyper and do not listen to me. This is quite frustrating because I don’t like yelling or punishing the kids, but I have to do what I have to do,” he added.
Maybe teaching isn’t your forte. Senior Jonathan Van worked as a construction worker at a corporate construction company before being promoted to an office position as a blueprint estimator, Van said. However, Van quit his job at the company, and currently works for the City of Milpitas, he added.
“I left the company because I wanted a job where I interacted with humans more, as I want to be a police officer in the future, so now I work for the city and have more human interactions while serving the public,” Van said.
In his job, Van receives blueprints from architects and estimates prices for jobs ranging from big buildings in San Francisco to apartment complexes in San Jose, Van said. He would go from jobsite to jobsite to do surveying and take measurements, he added.
Van also talked about his enjoyment of the view from the top of the scaffolding on buildings at work. “One time, I was at a jobsite in Saratoga Hills, and then the site was this big mansion,” Van said. “There was an elevator in the house; like, that’s how big it was and then the scaffolding at the top, tons of hills. The house was already at the top of the hill. I could see everything. The whole Bay Area is really nice.”
However, Van also acknowledged that the work he does is dangerous and recounted a particular moment that highlights this.
“One time, a lift was coming through, and I needed to get something that was on the ground, so I was going to go step over and grab it. My conscience told me to stop because then I’d be under the lift, and I didn’t do it,” Van said. “Right when I didn’t do it, something came crashing to the ground, like, a steel beam, so that would have hurt me or killed me.”
Van said that his job has helped him grow as a person. “I learned how to work hard and have a good work ethic. It taught me a sense of responsibility and made me have some pride in the work I did because it’s not easy work, and most of the people here work at, like, Target or McDonald’s. There’s nothing special about that. In my job, I was able to have growth in terms of money and experience. I can put that on my resume now. It makes me stand out,” Van added.
So why not head out there and search for an uncommon job?
