The Adolescent Worker Study was designed to provide an in-depth analysis of the job experiences and related life histories of out-of-school working youth. To do this, a team of investigators first identified work sites across a range of industrial sectors that were currently engaged in hiring young workers between the ages of 17 and 21. Then, the team engaged the participation of the next young person to be hired in each work site. As a result, 25 case histories were compiled and analyzed. The case studies of youth in work settings provide an anthology of the meaning of work for adolescents employed in organizationally and technologically diverse work settings. The research has uncovered the nature of workplace processes affecting all young workers' job experience and future mobility, namely, finding a job, combating negative attributions, fitting into a job, receiving training, negotiating authority, and quitting or losing a job. Although it is difficult to generalize, the research indicates that accounts of the transition to work by out-of-school, noncollege-educated youth must consider at least these six processes. All young people entering jobs can benefit by understanding that these six dimensions of job-related experiences are likely to become issues at some point in their work lives. (KC)