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.
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!!
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.