I said it would never happen, I swore, up and down, over and over that I would never go back.

I went back.

For seven hours yesterday, I soft-served, scooped, rang-up and cleaned in my crappy kiosk (not even a real store! I think I deserve at least four walls) while the newly-installed security camera recorded. I sold my summer to TCBY for $7.50 an hour.

But this is not enough, I fear. Actually, I know.

It's a small store, they don't have that many hours to give out. I need hours. Lots of them. I need money. Badly.

By my calculations, I'll need something like a thousand dollars per semester (that's $2,000 for you slower ones) to survive in a mildly comfortable way at school. By my records, I have much less than that remaining in my bank account.

I like there to be at least some padding. Ideally, I will go back to school with something like four grand in my account. Realistically, $3,500 would be ok. At current rates, I would be just fine — if school started in, say, November.

And so I look. I look high, I look low, I look everywhere. I need a job.

Ok, so maybe I only filled out a few applications and stopped by a few places, but still. It's not looking good.

I am not a picky person about jobs. I mean, really, I am the person who spent two years at TCBY with Satan as my boss. Prior to that, I worked at what was essentially a cult's living quarters as a servant. I cooked, I cleaned, I scrubbed toilets, I served food, I washed dishes (in that order too, ew...). They made us listen to lots of brainwashing-type religious talk. ("How is your relationship with God doing, Caroline?" *).

So you see, I am pretty desperate here. I am not looking for much, just maybe $8.50 an hour or so, and if at all possible, nothing before 8 am.

I don't mind food. I don't mind retail. (OK, I do sort of, but not that much. If it comes down to it, I'll do it.) I am ok with money, I like computers, and I type like a mean mother-fucker (ok, well, I type moderately fast with a fair number of typos, but up until college, most people seemed very impressed by my typing abilities. Then I went to a school where everybody is a geek, even if they pretend they aren't.)

I am ok with kids, I show up when I am supposed to and I am so polite to customers that I made $21 in tips all by myself yesterday evening.

So you see, what you are looking at here is a goldmine of untapped opportunity. I am young, fairly strong, fairly desperate and I have no social life to speak of this summer so what you've really got is an unlimited ability to exploit me.

And if not, well, it currently looks like I will be forced into either the wonderful world of telemarketing (Please! Kill me now! I hate confrontation, I hate making phone calls, I hate asking questions and I take "no" for an answer almost immediately.) or filing papers in my dad's office which really, I don't want to do.

So please. Come on. Hire me. I'll work hard, I promise.

* My boss actually asked me that once. It was hard not to laugh. (back up)

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Replies: 4

Posted by beth @ 05/25/2001 12:52 PM EST

Ouch. Hey, at least it's not minimum wage. My last two jobs were working at a library afterschool computer program for kids ($6/hour), and doing an art gallery's website ($7.50/hour).

The library one was lots of fun; I worked there for two years, and really enjoyed it most of the time. Having to deal with idiot adults, however, always put a crimp in my day.

The website job wasn't good at all. I mean, all the people were nice and everything, and the pay was better, but the job went something like this:

THEM: "We want to be the Amazon.Com of the art world. Build us an enterprise-level e-commerce site."

ME: "OK. What tools will you provide?"

THEM: "We have Notepad and FrontPage."

Posted by Brendan @ 05/25/2001 02:50 PM EST

Caroline-
You should get a job at a temp agency. The pay is good ($10-12/hr) and you don't have to deal with food or customers or children. A good one in Boston is Hollister (617) 742-3020.

Posted by Melissa @ 05/30/2001 06:40 PM EST

I'd hire you too, if I weren't, y'know, just a poor college student myself. I completely commiserate with your troubles. Summer job-hunting sucks; I agree with checking out a temp service if you can handle mind-numbingly boring work. At least working with customers (food, retail) you have some variety. But with data entry (which I've done)? Ha. Kiss your brain cells good-bye. If you do end up with office work try reeeeally hard to make sure filing is *not* involved. Data entry is gold beside filing. Your hands will hate you forever if you file. Trust me.

Personally, I'd go for retail before food or temp stuff, but that's just me. Waitressing pays well, of course, tho' I've never tried it (only fast food, which is *evil*). At any rate, good luck!

Posted by Martha @ 05/30/2001 08:59 PM EST