Idk if this is the right comm, if not, please do not hesitate to beat me over the head with a large stick.
Necessary background: without doxxing myself, I'm 21, I live in the US, in a red state, and I have hella ADHD. I've only ever had two jobs in my life, one when I was sixteen, and one when I was nineteen, both in the food service industry. I live with my dad and stepmom but I've been paying for college with inheritance/social security money I saved up from my mom who passed away a bit ago. Anyways I'm taking this semester full time and I don't have enough in my bank account to pay for it and I REALLY don't want to take out a loan. My family is willing to help out this time but I need a job for future semesters. I have zero work skills and I don't want to get a job in the food industry again since last time was one of the worst periods of my life and I genuinely wanted to 300gorillion myself. Since I have ADHD my motivation and executive functioning are both pretty awful so I'm scared to get a job while I'm also taking a semester of college but it's looking like that's what I'm gonna have to do anyways.
What do I do? Does anybody have suggestions on what would be a good work environment that doesn't involve food but is still entry-level/wouldn't involve working for like Amazon or some shit (although monopolization will inevitably have every job mean working for Amazon so maybe that's not as worrisome as it seems).
Thank you in advance, sorry if it's wrong comm/dumb question.
Are you medicated? That alone makes work a lot more tollerable (in my experience, obv). Does your school hire? That would be the best bet, as they tend to be more flexible and forgiving. Most of those are min wage with about 30 hours/ week max, depending on the school, but the real advantage is the flexibilty tuat manageelrs usually allow. I'm sorry, I can't really think of much else beyond warehouse stuff and what I said before.
I am medicated, and my school does hire, that's a good idea. Only problem is I've heard horror stories about campus jobs but idk if that's unique to our institution or if they're just a product of being work under capitalism lmao
I do email all my profs about my adhd prior to the semester for that reason, but thanks for reminding me about it lmao i definitely forgot (which like, fitting lol) :)
It would also be good to check if the university has acomodations, those can help school be less strenious by changing things profs won't or can't.
I applied for accommodations a while back because my therapist told me to and I qualified but ended up internalized ableism'd myself and didn't make use of them bc I was too self conscious/full of myself/whatever, but I can definitely make use of them this time, thanks for the advice! :)
My campus job was sitting in a computer lab and making sure nothing got stolen for a few hours every week
I know work study jobs don't pay much, but they often require you to do very little work which means you can study at them.
Also, consider getting et a non-Amazon warehouse job. Amazon is especially repressive and shitty to it's workers compared to other warehouses. Not that others are good, but they're usually better than Amazon.
Other options in no particular order:
Sales job, however this takes a certain disposition though that I've never had.
Hospital work cleaning laundry or moving patients around.
FedEx or UPS
Janitor
Can you get a job at your college? A lot of colleges have work-study programs for students, and having your work be on campus will make it easier to manage from an executive function standpoint, since you can schedule shifts near your class hours it can make you more likely to attend both. IIRC a lot of the jobs are like basic office jobs, or if they're servicey your main customers are your peers so they're somewhat more incentivized to treat you decently.
If you're taking all your classes online, similarly try to get a remote job - call center stuff or support stuff is often remote. If you go this route, try to use a specific room for school+work vs sleep if you're able to help preserve the space as somewhere you ONLY do work, this way it's a little easier to stay focused there bc it's a focus space
I'm pretty sure only one of my classes is remote but the rest are on campus. That said, my campus does have jobs but they're pretty limited and hardly pay anything, though they're a good option as a last resort. Thank you for the advice tho I've heard about the idea of separating your workspace from the rest of your activities and that really helped me last semester!
You say you want to become a therapist, there are a wide variety of entry level jobs in the field of psychiatry. Hell my first hospital job was an orderly in a psych ward and that was just with a highschool diploma. But if that sounds daunting they always need people at the desk, even in outpatient settings. Lmk if you want to know more about working in mental healthcare
This actually sounds really up my alley, it alright if I dm you??
Boomer I know but I can't tell if dms are going thru on mobile or not, it just loads. I will dm you from computer tomorrow
Could there be entry level stuff adjacent to what you’re studying? I lucked into my job on Handshake, which seems to be like indeed, but specifically for students and generally integrated into school login shit. Worth spending some time looking at, in my opinion
I'm studying psychology in an effort to be a therapist lmao so entry level doesn't seem too applicable, but I have heard good things about handshake, I'll definitely check it out, thank you!
You have a department academic advisor? Any professors/instructors who you got to know during class? Any chance you can tap them help with finding jobs on campus?
I hear ya, but do remember that, for example, you need a wider support base to cover the needs of the most visible elements of a system! So while you are indeed probably not qualified to be a therapist yet, who knows what kinda of support labor you may be equipped to provide
Thank you, this was very uplifting lmao i need to hear it :,)
See if you can get an entry level job working for the city. I don't know where you live but I know where I'm at they're hiring everything from pool attendants to library assistants to garbage truck driver trainees. There's also temp work - continuing with the city theme you might be able to get a job related to the upcoming election, or if you need something longer term a temp agency might be able to hire you for something like data entry or whatever. It'll be boring work but there won't be customers which is the main reason why I hated food service. My last suggestion is something at a big box store like Wal Mart or Target, specifically unloading the truck/stocking aisles, which is physical work but it's at a time of day where there won't be customers and depending on your management (roll of the dice here) you can probably do it while listening to music or podcasts or lectures.
Honestly not a bad idea, especially the library assistant part, a chill, slow, inside job is something that appeals to me. Thank you! :)
Just throwing stuff out there because it hasn't been mentioned yet. Mostly as temp solutions until you can settle into a job.
If you can handle being in public for a few hours, one of which will be lying on a bed with a pretty big needle in your arm, you can check if any blood plasma places are nearby. So long as you eat decent meals that are fairly high in protein, don't constantly eat the fattiest foods all the time, have no problem keeping yourself hydrated, and have a comfortable place to sleep at night you should be able to donate twice a week. I've been donating pretty constantly since shortly before COVID started and I typically only start getting kicked when the hottest parts of summer start. There's probably going to be a handful of things that make it annoying and inconvienient but it can be a pretty chill way to make about 80 dollars a week while sitting in A/C and either reading or watching something on your phone.
The only "take survey's online for money" that I've tried was Inboxdollars.com. Painfully boring surveys most of the time, lots of surveys that will kick you and you won't get the pennies, lots of surveys that payout several weeks later (maybe), you don't get to know what the survey is going to be about before you start it, payouts are in giftcards or a PayPal depost, you have to complete the full survey for any chance of the payout, etc. When I've been all worked up about money problems and a bit manic I've been able to spent a few hours throughout a day and earn about a dollar. Pretty easy to set up an account, but I think there was some hiccups I had with trying to link it to a PayPal account to actually get the cash (but I can't remember what it was... maybe the survey site wanted the PayPal account to have the same username that you use for the survey site?) Its not great but while you're waiting for call backs for job interviews it can give you somewhere to put nervous energy and you might be able to get enough for a few groceries or a few gallons of gas (if you drive) a month. I think, I could average about $30 a month when I was really trying. Also, if somebody will give you an old laptop they don't need anymore, maybe use that instead of the computer you regularly. Nothing nasty has ever happened from using the site, but :vivian-shrug:.
Tried the Amazon Mechanical Turk thing a few months ago. Fewer surveys but they typically are better constructed, other tasks are actual work that somebody needs doing but every completed task will be pennies and you have to wait for the submitter to approve your work before getting the credit, there is a way to report broken tasks and "return" them that can help keep the "incomplete" and "rejected" submissions down, you actually will need to take some time to look at the user interface before starting to attempt tasks as you can "preview" a task with no penalty for not attempting and "return" tasks if you realize you cannot complete them. There are metrics that can be used to filter you out from tasks, get you blocked from specific submitters tasks, or get you kicked off the mechanical turk site all together. Its harder to grind through these than the "survey site" but there are also genuinely interesting things to do sometimes. Also, a submitter might have 1000's of tasks that need doing but will be broken down into little units. So you can get paid a few cents for spending a minute or less on a tasks but keep working on the rest of the task pool from that submitter. From my experience, I think I didn't make more than $20 in a month due to other life things and my brain calming down. It also took a while to set up as you are required to give actual employment information that Amazon says it needs to verify.
These are really helpful tips, thank you so much! As for the first one, I have POTS so idk if the blood thing would work but I'll still definitely check it out because imagining myself getting paid for just vibing in a clinic and reading Lenin is giving me really happy feelings lmao
As for the survey thing that idea also doesn't sound half bad bc I could at the very least use that money to pay for a VPN lmao
And regarding your other comment, I do have an advisor, and while I'm not super close with any of my profs, I could definitely try to get close with them, so that's another option.
Once again, thank you for this!!
And regarding your other comment, I do have an advisor, and while I’m not super close with any of my profs, I could definitely try to get close with them, so that’s another option.
I guess "getting close" might not be the best phrasing I could have used. I was thinking more like, did you have any face to face talks, good interactions, are there any people who seemed like they recognized you as more than just another student?
Also, POTS? I'm unfamiliar with that. What is it?
I can't think of any off the top of my head, but there's a few professors I talked to that would definitely be willing to help if I asked them!
Also Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. Basically my circulation is awful and my pulse, O2, and BP go fuckwild every time I stand up or yawn or do dishes. It's; so fun :,)
I'd imagine that what my local places does is pretty standard, but if you don't pass the heart rate/blood pressure range the first time you get to go sit in a chair for a bit and try again before getting kicked for the day. The place is also staffed by at least one Registered Nurse and a part of the initial process is talking to them about the plasma donating process and how it can affect/interact with specific conditions and medications.
If there is a UPS sort facility nearby you could work there. Union job, tuition assistance, and healthcare for part timers. Pay probably sucks, but it's only for a short time.
I think this should have a caveat that working nights at UPS for tuition is certainly doable, but it really depends on the major they're trying to do. I've watched many an engineering student for example find out that you cannot realistically do both.
As someone who only worked retail and not food service, this is a terrifying thought
Food service is a lot messier, and you're more likely to encounter drunk people
i'm undiagnosed but everyone in my life (me included) is pretty sure i have ADHD or just conventional adult ADD. i needed constant reward stimulus to be able to stick with a job, and have some control over my immediate work environment as well as easy step by step directions with enough variety to keep me from getting bored. best job for my brain pizza delivery which puts you outside the food service bubble and you get cash every day which can be a great motivator. i did it while going to college and stuck with it longer then anything until my current desperation retail slave job.
That is something I considered, especially since I love driving around (American brainrot, i know lol)
I made it through 3 years of college on my savings. Then it was either get a job, quit college, or take out loans.
I took out the maximum loans that i could. Retroactively for all the years.
It’s been a long time since then and i haven’t paid back a dime and it has worked out perfectly fine for me.
Take all the money you can and pay back as little as possible. That is how you win at this game of life under capitalism.
I was in a similar situation and landed a clerical job at a hospital that is affiliated with the university. Might want to see if there is any health research program or something you can help work on. Paid a little better than sweeping up trash at the student union and they get a lot of students there so were pretty flexible. Since you are studying a healthcare related field that could be a good entry point too.
This is a good tip, thank you! I am starting to think that a front desk job will be a really good bet for me tbh
Could you grab a job at your college? I know when I was in college there were definitely like student job opportunities. Not sure what kind of pay it is
1 adhd meds. They keep me in a job. Does your state have a robust ems system? You could be six months of night courses away from a career as an ambulance driver which is a decent place to start for stuff
