I am 21 years old, still live with my parents, currently studying Computer Science, and need some sort of income because I’m nearly out of money (mostly because I never had a job and I need bus fare to basically get around anywhere and I would like to have some money for hobbies).

Tried getting a job, going over my resume multiple times and handing in my resume in person, but that has not been working so far - I’ve been handing out like hundreds of resumes since January this year and got only 1 interview with no follow up (and I even tried places such as McDonalds, TimHortons, and Starbucks and also various programming jobs).

I have recently come up with the idea of mowing other people’s lawns for money. However, when I suggested this to my parents, they said it was just inappropriate for me because if an adult were to do it, they’d do it with tools such as a proper gas powered mower, a weedwacker and possibly even a van, but all we have is an electric mower that doesn’t even have batteries (don’t know if there are any with batteries), so I’d have to take electricity from my customers. I also don’t have enough money for a weedwacker or a new lawn mower.

Anyhow, they think it’s a stupid idea, but I personally think that even if it doesn’t work out and I don’t get any customers, then I have nothing to lose from it, and if it does work, then I get cash, and actual work experience to put on my resume (because right now I basically only have my mandatory high school volunteer hours).

I personally do think that there is a chance that they might be correct, but I personally think that I’d have to actually try it before I could be totally sure.

Plus, I believe one of the main reasons why I’m in this situation now is because in High School they always told me things like that I was stupid, and too slow and clumsy to work in fast food or grocery stores (and other jobs that high schoolers normally take) and should just focus on getting A+ grades to get accepted into the best universities and get a job as a programmer, and I fully believed them and instead of trying to get a job during the summers, I took summer school courses which just ended up in me filling up the resulting empty spots with elective courses and so I graduated high school at the same time as everyone else - and so looking back I do think that I should have just ignored my parents and got myself a job during the summer in high school. During my first few years in university, I was also under the impression that getting a job was not too hard and didn’t take really that long as it’s actually taking for me and that I could just get a programming job right now or when I graduate - and turns out I was wrong.

By the way, I also live in Durham Region, Ontario (which is in the GTA on the east side).

Any advice on this? Do you think that this may actually work?

Also, if I do end up mowing lawns for money with the equipment I have, would a price of around 20 - 25 CAD per mow be reasonable?