I'm a high-school teacher. This is what parents should teach their kids before they get their first job.

• As a young teacher, my students often come to me with questions unrelated to my class.
• I wish parents had a more open dialogue with their kids about what is expected at their first job.

As one of the younger members of my school's teaching body, students often come to me asking questions about how they should approach their first job. Whether it's a casual summer job or a high-stakes corporate internship, making the most of a first job means more than just earning a bit of pocket money: It's a chance to learn the fundamentals of working life while still enjoying the security net of life in the family home.

Seeing your child go off to work can be bittersweet. It's a time of huge empowerment, but it's one of their first steps toward total independence. Talking through the realities of work before they get started can help them make the most of this unique moment.

Here are some things I think parents should discuss with their kids before they start their first jobs.

Low-level jobs aren't low-respect or low-skill jobs

Let's get this one out of the way early on: all jobs require a degree of skill and practice to perform well. Even if the job that your child is doing is far removed from the job that they — or you — would like to end up doing, it will require effort and dedication to be successful.

What's more, kids taking entry-level jobs seriously is the most reliable way of ensuring that they get treated with fairness and respect as they go about their tasks. Poor managers are apt to ask more of junior employees. Being able to point to a track record of solid work and reliability makes it easier for younger workers to stand up for themselves when managers attempt to exploit their inexperience.

Young employees should respect themselves and their tasks, and they should demand the same from their colleagues. Any workplace that can't provide that isn't worth working in.

Make mistakes well

Everyone, no matter how old they are, makes mistakes when they start in new roles. Fortunately, the mistakes that young people make in entry-level positions are generally low-stakes, and managers in healthy workplaces understand that young people are especially likely to worry about making mistakes and getting off on the wrong foot.

The best thing that kids can do to get over this fear of mistakes is to ask tons of questions. It's in everyone's interest for junior colleagues to learn the ropes quickly, and implicit in a willingness to make mistakes and ask questions is a commitment to learning fast.

In my classroom, the most successful students are the ones who make a mistake and then immediately seek to improve their answers. In the same way, the kids who get the most out of their first jobs are the ones who accept mistakes as part of the learning process and constantly seek advice and feedback to ensure that they're improving all the time.

Keep the dialogue going

Everything about your child's first job — from the application to the paycheck — will be new to them, and unless they're talking to trusted adults about their experiences, they may not realize it when things aren't going well.

Kids often assume that parents can't relate to being junior employees because they probably got their first jobs sometime at the end of the Cretaceous period, so they might talk about their job only in very superficial detail, if at all. Adults learn over time that talking to friends about work can help them make key career decisions — starting this process at home will help kids gain perspective on their jobs early.