President Obama’s first job was at an ice cream store in Honululu (Hawaii). He acknowledged this recently in his LinkedIn profile after announcing the Summer Opportunity Gap initiative, which seeks to help young people find their first summer jobs.

Obama mentioned that his first work experience was not “exactly glamorous”, but it taught him some valuable lessons, such as responsibility, hard work and reconciling work with friends, family and education.  This experience is shared by many young Americans like him who look for summer jobs as their first opportunity to start crossing the bridge from education to their first job.

Summer is usually crucial to some young people who seek to take their first steps in improving their skills and experience for the future. It may even be disappointing if the young person has no previous work experience or only basic studies due to his/her age.

With this in mind, the Obama administration has decided to promote a plan to try to help young people who want to find their first jobs. The programme, with a 5.5 billion dollar budget, aims to help young people find a job during this season of the year. Over the last twelve years, the number of young people getting summer jobs has fallen by 40%. Therefore, this scheme aims to encourage the hiring of young people.

Obama himself, on his LinkedIn account, asked companies and local communities to make an effort to hire young people. Businesses are already responding to this call to action and the American president mentioned the example of a transport company in Baltimore that hired a 16 year-old youth.

The President concluded his letter by saying that despite having lost his taste for ice cream, he will never forget the people who gave him the opportunity to have his first job and become the person he is today.