ABSTRACT
This chapter presentsthe literature on young people and work by examining how young people themselves understand their experiences navigating a rapidly changing and economically prosperous city. Much of the research conducted on young people's experiences with changing labour markets in contemporary times has been situated within larger debates concerning the opening up of opportunities for young people to direct their own life courses. Fort McMurray then, presented an opportunity to examine young people's work experiences within a city that was rapidly changing and had a booming economy centred around a single industry. Interviews were dynamic and contained open-ended questions leading in various directions. Hyper RESEARCH allowed to assign codes to relevant themes in the interview transcripts. Individual agency was often prominent in high schoolers' responses over that of structural constraint. It appears as though young women embraced the feminine' qualities of their service jobs and utilized these to help construct a feminine self.
