During the latter half of the 20th Century, the early blooms of spring were also a signal to the nation's teenagers: it's time to find a job. About half of all Americans between 16 and 19 years old spent part of their summer break bagging groceries or slinging ice cream until the early 2000s. Then, the youth employment rate fell sharply and stayed low for the next two decades and through the Covid-19 pandemic. Teenage employment has since rebounded, with about one in three young people employed in July 2023. In this article, the authors ask: How do early workplace experiences affect academic outcomes? They provide experimental evidence from the Boston Summer Youth Employment Program, which has matched high-school students from low-income neighborhoods with summer jobs since the early 1980s. For much of that time, students were enrolled in the program via random lottery to work in local city agencies, businesses, and nonprofits, as seasonal workers in parks, day camps, and other local organizations. By matching academic records with teenagers who are and are not offered the chance to take part, the authors estimate the program's causal impact on high school graduation rates, grades, and attendance.