[mykroar]

I definitely think that's part of it.

My nephew’s back from Afghanistan and is looking for something part time before college starts in the fall. He’s applied several places, but since he’s going to be leaving for college – he’s not getting anywhere.

[Undecided 2012]

Maybe he should leave out the “I’m leaving soon for college” part.

[Vigilanteman]

Sad. When I was a pup going to college, lots of businesses actually liked kids with a little ambition to move on and up. Some of the college jobs I had included floral delivery man, cab driver, news writer/reporter, parts assembly, editor, freelance writer and telephone connection splicer. None of them paid very well, but all of them gave me good exposure to worlds outside my own.

It was sort of funny, because the businesses which turned me down were mostly restaurant, retail or fast food type places who were considered the major consumers of youthful labor then as well as now.

Nowadays, it seems far too many businesses prefer someone who has no ambition to do anything other than the job they're hired to do. A notable exception was Chick Fil-A, who gave all three of my daughters their first job knowing full well that they'd have them for only a few years of high school and maybe, as it turned out, a few days of the year after that during college breaks.