Six SFF Jobs for Teens Looking to Get Some Work Experience

Are you an improper princess who is good at convincing the palace staff to teach you Latin, cooking, fencing, and magic? Are your royal parents disappointed at your unladylike interests and planning to marry you off to an annoying prince? If that’s the case, you might consider running off to where the dragons live and volunteer as their captive princess. You’ll be required to cook meals, take care of the library, and organize your dragon’s giant hoard of treasure. 

Pros: Your own living space, freedom to experiment in the kitchen and read books from the aforementioned library, and tea parties with the other dragons’ princesses.

Cons: Constantly dealing with pesky knights and princes who are convinced you’re suffering in your dragon’s service and need to be rescued.

If you don’t mind doing some cleaning and serving, you might consider interviewing to join the staff of the magical Hotel Magnifique, which appears in town unexpectedly and takes its guests—who have paid exorbitant amounts to be there—all across the world. There’s magic in every lamp, every corridor, although something darker also hides behind all the enchantments.

Pros: The work isn’t mentally taxing, the other staff is friendly, and you get to visit all the enchanted rooms that have been custom-made for guests.

Cons: Some areas of the Hotel are forbidden, your contract is unbreakable, and you might never be able to go back home again.

If you’re a tween or teen in Stroud’s London, which has been grappling with The Problem for decades, there’s a chance you might have the ability to See or Hear the dead, who emerge as ghosts as soon as it gets dark. While you might train and get a certification from one of the biggest agencies in London, you’ll have better luck applying for a position at the newly launched small agency, Lockwood & Co.

Pros: You’ll work in a small team who lives together in the founder’s house, you don’t need to have a ton of experience, you don’t have to wake up early in the morning, and you get to go after more obscure and exciting cases that the bigger companies overlook. Also, unlike the other agencies, there are no adult supervisors to get in your way.

Cons: Your team occasionally messes up cases and might end up with a huge debt, you’ll be fighting ghosts who can kill you with a touch, and your charming-but-sometimes-cocky boss isn’t always great at following the rules and maintaining the establishment’s reputation (although you might come to forgive him for that).

If you want to try something new and exciting, something called a “coffee shop” just opened in the city. If you’re a native, you’ve probably never heard of the stuff, but trust the owner when she tells you how heavenly a drink it is. Once everyone gets a taste of it, the customers are going to pour in. So if you have any experience in working in the food industry and can juggle multiple requests at once—or even if you’re a total beginner—you might consider applying as a barista at Legends & Lattes. 

Pros: The pay is negotiable, the owner will be more like a friend than a colleague, and you’ll get to sample all the good stuff resulting from the baker’s experiments (he’s already invented biscotti, cinnamon rolls, and more!).

Cons: On some days you might be very busy and people you’ve rejected in the past might start showing up at the shop to get you to consider them again—it’s hard to avoid people when you work at a successful establishment, after all.

For teenagers fresh out of school (or who may have dropped out), there’s an opportunity to join a little building restoration crew that travels around space in their fish-shaped spaceship. Depending on the location, your work might involve anything from patching up walls to restoring faded paintings. 

Pros: You get to work with a small group of people who will train you on the go, and you will feel a deep sense of meaning in helping preserve places lost to time or memory.

Cons: You might still not be over your past, and might feel alienated as the new kid among a crew that has been living together like a family.

If you’re good at art, you might consider training to become a nightmare painter, a group of workers who banish nightmares that emerge from the shroud surrounding the city of Kilahito. It’s not very exhausting, but you’ll require intense focus when a nightmare does show up—or risk harming innocent people and yourself.

Pros: You get the satisfaction of being an essential worker and keeping people safe, and you get to move to the front of the line at parks and fairs as thanks for your service.

Cons: Sometimes people take your work for granted and aren’t hesitant to express their disappointment if you fail. You also might feel creatively limited and find yourself stuck in a rut.

If that doesn’t sound interesting, there’s an excellent noodle shop in the city that caters to the painters. You might want to ask the owner to take you on, especially if you specialize in Anthropology or Psychology; she loves learning about how humans work…