Your First Job: Onboarding, I-9 & Direct Deposit

Why this matters

A driver's license and a Social Security card feel like plenty of proof until a new hire has to check them against the I-9's actual List A or List B-plus-List C rule and realize the combination might not even count. Jordan Ellis runs into that exact problem on a first shift at Brightway Grocery, and students work the real government form instead of a summary of what it says.

Most students have never seen an I-9 or a W-4 up close, let alone had to explain what either form tells an employer to do, so I keep the emphasis on the two concrete numbers, routing and account, that actually get someone paid. Building their own onboarding plan afterward is what turns day-one paperwork from a mystery stack of forms into something they have already handled once.

From one teacher to another

Students work through this one following Jordan Ellis, a senior starting as a stocker at Brightway Grocery, and the centerpiece is the real USCIS Form I-9 itself, not a description of it. They study the actual document to find Section 1, where the employee attests they can legally work, and Section 2, where the employer verifies it, then apply the List A or List B-plus-List C rule to decide whether Jordan's driver's license and Social Security card actually satisfy the requirement. From there they complete a sample W-4 for Jordan's first day and explain in their own words what that form actually tells an employer to do with each paycheck. The direct deposit section stays concrete and practical: students name the two exact numbers payroll needs, the routing number and account number, and where to find both on a check. Everything closes with students building their own onboarding plan for an imagined first job, naming their real documents and putting the steps in the same order Jordan followed, so they leave with something they could actually use on day one.