I don't mean to seem like a crybaby, but I really need a way to make enough money to support myself and fast (say within the next year or two). I have tried a part time job and hated it. All I did was the same thing over and over, day after day. Even worse I was discriminated against. They thought I had a disability when really I don't (I swear I really don't). After just two weeks I quit the job and have barely looked for another job since afraid it'll just be like the one I had previously or that I won't make it past the interview phase. I never got a chance to enjoy my life. As a child I was lonely and had no friends and as a teenager while everyone else was doing things like hanging out having fun with friends, I hardly had any friends and was constantly suspended from school for picking fights with other students for doing things I didn't like. Now as a young adult I want to enjoy my life for once before it's too late to enjoy it. So basically I want a job I will enjoy and the only thing I seem to enjoy is something that is either creative or where I'm in charge of other people. I have very little work experience, but I have a high school diploma and some college education, but no degree. I kind of think I should go back to college, but I also kind of think that college just isn't for me. Besides a college degree is no guarantee that I'll get a good job that I'll enjoy especially with not being able to find and keep a steady job due to the fact that I can't seem to make a living doing what I like. Please no rude comments saying things like just deal with some 9 to 5 job or that I'm being immature. I want to do something I enjoy for a living. I don't see why I have to be forced to do something I hate for the rest of my life just so I can survive.
http://www.cracked.com/article_16811_5-ways-to-get-rich-without-single-discernible-skill.html See if any of those help. I myself have not done any of them so I have no clue if they're valid or not.
I make a bit buying from garage sales and thrift stores and selling on E-Bay. College is very expensive these days. And there's a guy that does yard work in our neighborhood. He works really hard but in no time half the block had hired him. We pay him $35/hr but he earns it. He could work full time just on our block alone.
get me one of them while you're at it.. you know, a job that changes everyday, where I don't have to do much, that pays well, is near my bed, lets me sleep in everyday, sends me on paid holidays to exotic places... so yeah if anyone knows where I can get one of these too - all suggestions welcome, rude and mean ones be given extra thought to.
Sorry dude, hate to be a downer, but what you're looking for isn't exactly realistic. All of us would love to have a job we enjoy, that pays well. Sadly, the best I can offer you is to apply to work at Google. I'm sorry your high school years were only so so, but most of us have made sacrifices to make money. I'd love nothing more than to sit at home and listen to music while writing full time, but I'm not Stephen King or J.K. Rowling yet. Sorry to disappoint you, but you're going to need to work your way through the jobs you hate before you find one you like. Especially considering your employment history.
How is that rude? That's just realistic. That's what most people have to deal with. Life is a bitch. Most successful and happy people did something they hated long enough to find their passion. The rest got lucky. If you want to manage other people you have to work your way into that position. You won't get gifted anything.
Aaah, Crystal. I hate to say this, but you are so very young. Everyone thinks this to some extent, but eventually reality sinks in. Very few people are lucky enough to find a job that they truly enjoy and fulfills them and enables them to earn enough from it for a decent living. But even when those people DO find that job, it takes them years and years of searching, because you don't really know what it is that you enjoy until you find it. Jobs that I was dying to get and was thrilled to get turned out to be some of the worst ones ever -- true nightmares. And jobs that I didn't really want, but ended up taking out of desperation, figuring I'd keep looking, turned out to be jobs that I loved. I've also noticed that there's a huge relativity component -- that is, some jobs I had, I appreciated merely being treated with some dignity and respect, and I could overlook some of the policies or procedures that I didn't agree with or thought were asinine, because I could see the big picture, and overall, the work environment was pleasant. Other people in the same job, who hadn't previously had jobs in Hell would focus on the asinine policies and rant and rave and make them think that the workplace was terrible and miserable. So, in many cases, it's a mindset that makes a huge difference. A job that is truly terrible -- one where you really aren't treated with dignity and respect, and where you have a pit in your stomach just starting your commute, where you count the hours until lunch just so you can have a brief respite, can really wreak havoc in your life. So much of your waking working day is spent at work that if it is really a miserable, stressful, demeaning experience, everything can seem very bleak. And if that is the case, then yes, you must find something else. But, if the job is at least tolerable -- if you are treated with respect, if it's just go in, do the job, and leave, and thinking about the job doesn't make you almost physically ill, you can live with that -- you can concentrate on other things. You can make sure that your outside life, hobbies, and interests are maintained. You can find fodder for stories in your coworkers, or in events you witness. If you are doing some kind of drudgework where you can listen to an iPod, you could listen to audiobooks, or lectures about writing (or whatever other topic interests you.) You say you can't get a job doing what you like -- well, what is it that you like? There may be some way to finagle that, at least tangentially, into some position that can give you some rewards. You say that college isn't for you, and that financially it might not be worth it. Well, yes, it is true that in a lot of cases, especially these days, the financial pay-off just isn't there for many people. Especially if college really isn't for you, it may be true for you. However, higher education give you SO much more than just a potential financial payoff. The skills you develop (beyond just the academic things you learn in class) are beyond measure, and will help you so much. I can't even describe to you how much I loved college. Someone once told me that college is the greatest time ever in your life, and that the worst day in college is better than most of the best days at work. I agree with this statement. I always remembered that advice when I was in college, and always appreciated what I had there. Especially since it sounds like you didn't have the best experience in high school, college might be just the fresh start you need, especially if you are able to move to a different area from where you grew up and are able to really immerse yourself in college life and make new friends who are in similar situations to you. If you want to be a writer, college will really help -- not just in taking actual writing classes, but in meeting different people and learning about new subjects. A college with a good English department will have classes in fiction writing, where you can get good critique. There will be grad students in writing who can help you. There will be professors who write who are happy to share their knowledge. (I'm assuming you want to write, since you're asking this on a writer's forum.)
crystal... this is just an expanded repeat of your other pity-poor-me totally unrealistic thread... posting the same plea over and over is not going to get you the answer you want, any more than it did the first time... fellow members, see: https://www.writingforums.org/showthread.php?t=62331&page=2&p=1039042&highlight=#post1039042
I am thinking that you will view everyone's comments as "rude and mean" unless they somehow agree with you on how simple it is to make a living writing, with instant results. However, if it really was that easy, don't you think that the rest of the writing world would have figured it out by now? Yes, I enjoy my day job, but would give it up in a heartbeat if I could just sit and write full-time, and be able to make a comfortable living doing so. Unfortunately, life isn't that easy; food costs money, as does a roof over your head. This fact is a no-brainer. It is okay to pursue your dream, as long as you have something to keep you afloat until you are able to achieve it. Yes, even if it means working 9-5 for a while, as it is going to take far longer than you currently anticipate ...
I made buttloads of money in college as a server. It's no-one's ideal job, to be sure, but I graduated from U.F. without a penny of collegiate debt and having supported a rather healthy affinity for the consumption of cannabis. Plus, without having had to slog through a few shitty, dead-end jobs, how will you appreciate the benefits of a good one? And more to the point, if you've not had a few shitty, dead-end experiences in life, how can you hope to write?
If you're asking people on a writing forum what job you should get, then maybe you should take the time to consider what you want in a job and find jobs that fit your criteria. There's a lot of info about salaries and work hours that you can find via Google, not to mention you can ask people in certain jobs what the job is like. In regards to whether not you can write while having the job, it depends on what you write. Short story authors(Such as Anton Chekhov and Raymond Carver) held a main job that let them have time to write(Chekhov was a physician while Carver was a waiter,worked at a sawmill, etc). Novelists tend to be full time writers with no other occupation(Though this comes after they establish themselves in the literary world). I'm 18, and I plan to become a chemical engineer and a short story writer.
I would suggest looking at a variety of normal starter jobs, and consider what makes them different from one another. I'm a computer programmer now, but I held a number of jobs before I finished my education and got my permanent job. And programming, while it has a lot of scope for creativity and has many elements that I like, is certainly not a job that has no elements that I dislike. I think that there are hardly any job/employee matches where you enjoy all, or even most, of your working hours. Examples of starter jobs: After my junior year of college, I worked the summer full-time at one of the smaller college libraries. I kept an eye on the desk, shelved books (and shelved books and shelved books and shelved books), did various-low-key paperwork. A few times a week I was the interlibrary loan - I strapped on a backpack of requested books and walked to the neighboring university to drop them off and pick up the books to return. There are high-stress days at my current job when I wish that I had that job again. It was low-stress, quiet, involved minimal interaction with other people, and once I had shelved books for a couple of dozen hours I could do it almost automatically, and could focus on my own thoughts - I could have spent almost all of my work hours using my mind to plot a novel, while my hands were working. It also brought in enough for rent (in a room shared with one person in a house shared with five people) and food, so it was the first time in my life that I was self-supporting. That added some joy to it. And the fact that the library staff in charge of me were all calm, sensible, well-behaved people of course made a difference. It wasn't a career, and it probably sounds horrible to you, but my point is that it, unexpectedly, wasn't the least bit horrible. I probably could have done it for a couple of years before looking around to see what else was out there. At one extreme from that would be being a tipped waiter or waitress, a job that involves tons of human interaction and barely a moment to be with your own thoughts. It's a job that, while it doesn't require formal education or training, _does_ require a lot of intelligence and initiative, and people skills, to do well. Really good servers can make seriously good money, and even merely adequate tipped servers can make substantially more than minimum wage, or at least could last time I looked. Heck, I was a _terrible_ server, in a terrible restaurant, and I still made more than minimum wage. (Edited to add: Huh. Y'know, I realize that I completely forgot the other, non-terrible, restaurant that I also worked at. And the cafeteria. Apparently it's the lousy restaurant jobs that you tend to remember.) But I'd rather shelve books; the constant jugging demands and dance of serving and chitchat, which inspires some people, just exhausted me. At another job, for a temp agency, I spent most of my time going through outdated order printouts and sorting the pink from the yellow from the green. You'd think that that would be similar to shelving, in that it would be automatic and would free my thoughts, but, no. Dreadful. At another job, also for a temp agency, I filled in for the departmental secretary for a group of engineers, managing paperwork and duplicating notifications - I'd say that I was sort of a human email server. That was suprisingly pleasant, though I could see that the interest would go out of it as soon as I knew every task to the point that there was nothing at all left to learn. The fact that the company had a good cafeteria also helped to make that two or three weeks pleasant. One thought could be to sign up with a temp agency and try a few jobs, on the theory that you'd be doing something new with every job, and you'd slowly learn what you like and dislike in a job.
Man, I thought everyone who knew how to write was on the wagon with this how easy this "make money" thing is? just start writing, no it does not matter how goo, or how much, it is amazing they just start handing out cash for writing not sure what one of these "job" things are that you reference, but they sound like absolute asshats there.
Sounds to me as if your problem isn't with working; it's with people. My advice to you is simple: don't have a problem with people. Enjoy those people. I do a shitty legal job that I'd really rather not have to do on a daily basis, and have for 18 months, but my colleagues make the day worthwhile. They might not be people I'd go for a drink with (although that's what inevitably happens on a Friday evening), but I enjoy their somewhat diverse company. Get yourself out there. Get yourself a job. Stick at it. It'll do you no end of good, no matter how shit it is.
Be sure to use good quality paper and ink. But the Treasury Department will track you down eventually anyway.
To spend time over a few beers with people you work always works wonders. It can take the edge off many people. Like my 6th period high school science class a few years back. Loaded up the school bus and drove to the closest bar that served under aged kids. The class saw a teacher they had never seen before...But some principles and parents get so pissed over the smallest of things.
It's not doing what you like but liking what you do and that quite simply is attitude. Management is often overrated and might not be for you if your history of behavior is picking fights and many 4 year degrees are about as useful as tits on a bull. One good litmus test is this: How many branches of the armed services would take you? Marines and Army turn away few while the Air Force and Navy are more selective. Or Tech School, many one or two year programs throw you right into work and can lead to self-employment. Did you know some truck drivers gross more than 500k/yr driving their own rigs? And guess how they got there? Doing the same frigging thing day-in and day-out for years. My guess, you already realize you're there, getting up everyday just to survive and hate it. That's a life without passion and circles back to attitude. Pretty much boils down to a simple decision, you will work to make something of your life to be proud of or you won't. And whatever you decide...It's all downhill from there.
