A series that runs every Tuesday, where I ask questions unrelated to the environment, fair trade, or local politics that I’ve been wondering about but haven’t been able to google the answers to. Any advice is appreciated.
I have 2 options for the summer:
1. Take out a few extra thou in student loans, or
2. Do something that pays enough for rent and wine.
I’m leaning towards the former, but considering the fact that after I get my grad degree, I’ll still be a poet (as in not making money), I’m thinking maybe I should suck it up and get a job.
However, the thought of showing up every day to do something I don’t really want to do seems crushingly painful and soul-killing.
Then again I realize most people suck it up and work anyway, as they don’t have the luxury of avoiding painful and soul-killing work. It’s a v. bourgeouis conundrum I have here — I know that.
It’s not so much that I hate work — though I’ll admit that I do seem to be rather inordinately lazy — it’s that I hate the kind of work that might actually make money. Writing poetry’s work, for ex — but it’s unlikely to pay rent, ever. Same with volunteering to edit Worldchanging LA, or pretty much any other task I’ve taken on lately.
Anyway — I’m not sure what to do. I feel bad about feeling I have to take a job simply to make money, but then I feel bad for thinking I shouldn’t have to do the kind of work you do simply to make money.
If it were a full time gig I was looking for, I’d try to look for a job that has some sort of “meaning” for me — but I’m just talking about the summer here –
Advice?
Don’t get a job for the sake of getting a job.
Going to work (for someone else) everyday IS soul crushing.
I recently quit my job and started tutoring kids.
The pay is less, but you get to keep your soul in tact!
Comment by Josh — February 6, 2007 @ 12:02 pm
When do you graduate?
Comment by Jasmin — February 6, 2007 @ 12:40 pm
Well it’s too late for this summer most likely, but there’s always summer school at the community colleges (I’m assuming that there’s no chance of teaching anyting at USC). The problem is that the assignments for summers are usually made in January with preference given by seniority in the department (so an interloper like you might not be able to get in anyway, especially in English, where there’s a bit of a glut in the market). You do want to make contacts for next summer though as it will give you an edge for post-degree employment.
There’s probably something that you can find through craigslist at some environmentally-oriented non-profit, but try to stay away from doing the CalPirg/Greenpeace/insert-non-profit-here door-to-door fundraising where you’ll be looking at long hours AND soul-crushingness.
Another option would be to look for summer youth programs: In Chicago I taught in a weekend/summer program for minority kids which was a lot of fun (until they moved me from teaching HS students to junior high and I didn’t care to deal with the behavior at that age). Check with the outreach programs at USC and UCLA for starters.
Comment by don hosek — February 6, 2007 @ 12:56 pm
The conundrum is solved easily – don’t work on something that’s soul-killing. Find a job you like. Easier said than done, I know – but the only way to maintain your sanity. Even if it’s only for the summer. Otherwise, you’ll someday look back on it and feel you wasted your time.
Off the top of my head – how about getting an internship at a company that does interesting things? Or, heck, try to work a summer for Starbucks Marketing and change them from inside ;)
Comment by Robert 'Groby' Blum — February 6, 2007 @ 1:53 pm
Because so much of my post-graduate-school existence has been about paying back student loans, I would probably suggest getting a job instead. The daily j.o.b. can defintiely be soul-killing; but so can writing that monthly check to Sallie Mae.
What about getting something with flexible hours for the summer . . . maybe at a responsible retailer like The Body Shop?
Comment by lornadoone — February 6, 2007 @ 2:16 pm
That is indeed a conundrum. One thing NOT to do: Apply at a temp. agency for summer assignments. This is a trap that a lot of educators fall into when prooling the market for extra income in the off-season. Problem is that the agencies only want to employ their workforce for less-than-week-long stints and pay them nothing, assuming they have any assignments at all. Believe me, I know what that ringer is like.
You’ve done a tremendous amount of work on Starbucks. Why not apply for a barista job? I know. I know. The work’s routine; the pay isn’t great; and (sometimes) you’d have to really hustle to keep up with demand. It would also be a great extension to the SBux Challenge, because you could push fair trade from the other side of the counter.
If that’s not acceptable, apply at a bookstore; tell them you want to make a career there and then quit right before fall semester. That’s been done too.
Comment by Fletch — February 6, 2007 @ 5:49 pm
I always think dogwalkers have got it good. Outside, exercising, hanging out with pootches.
Sure, you wouldn’t be using your genius writing skills and witty humor….but you like dogs!
Comment by Summer — February 6, 2007 @ 6:38 pm
Go to work at Starbucks for the summer. Call it investigative journalism. (Grin– semi-serious.)
R.
Comment by Roger, Gone Green — February 6, 2007 @ 7:52 pm
Two things:
1) the more student loans you take out now, the more time you’ll have to spend later (possibly) doing something crushing and soul-killing until you’re debt-free and can do what you love; and
2) even a job you love can be crushing at times. I have an awesome job (as a green lawyer) and I generally love it, but every now and then I still have to work on something that’s painfully dull and pointless (but pays the bills). There’s no getting away from it, and there’s really nothing wrong with it, provided it doesn’t last too long.
So just tell yourself you’re banking these three short months against the future. No matter what you end up doing, I’m sure it’ll prove to be a source of interesting observations for your blog, if nothing else. Good luck!
Comment by Ineluctable Moe — February 6, 2007 @ 8:10 pm
i was having the same thought–should i live off my savings for the next coupla months til i figured out what i *wanted* to do or do i get a crappy job just to pay a few bills whilst i figure it out?
i totally entertained the thought of infiltrating starbucks or wal-mart–i had grandious thoughts of being a whistleblower or at the very least doing some investigative journalism : )
but i accidentally ended up getting a real job so i’ll hafta hold off on that dream for now lol
i have been tutoring part time for $25 an hour (which is amazing for tucson!). i would check into tutoring places like sylvan and whatnot. maybe they need help for kids in summerschool? i dunno. or put up flyers on all the college campuses offering your tutoring services for the poor saps who take summer classes.
craigslist is an excellent source for market research gigs. (under etc jobs) i’ve done those before for quick cash–you spend 2 hours talking about some crappy product & they pay you $75 cash
: )
unless you really *really* REALLY think you will spend your summer wisely not working & doing things you need to do–i of course never did lol
good luck!
Comment by nici — February 7, 2007 @ 10:47 am
My loans go away in 20 years. Whatever you find, try to make it at least one small step to how you ideally envision your day to day life. This is long term planning here. Best of luck!
Comment by adriana — February 8, 2007 @ 2:37 am
Instead of getting a meaning less job in LA how about get a meanless job in europe or oz?
Comment by simon — February 8, 2007 @ 3:59 am
Just think though, that you will have to earn 1.5 to 2 dollars of future money (interest added) to pay off the loan that you are taking out this year. So even if you took a job that paid $8-10/hour, you’d be earning $16-20/hr in “future money” – as long as you used it to pay for school.
What about an unsexy job that pays you tips? When I was a waiter, I socked away the actual paycheck and spent the cash. A few shifts a week could go a long way towards your school payment and would leave you with considerable time.
Comment by Steve — February 8, 2007 @ 5:34 am
I’ve had a lot of college and graduate school loans, all of which have been a pain in the butt to pay off. They’ve taken most of my discretionary money, and I’ve felt forced into jobs to earn a bit more to pay the loans rather than doing something that I truly enjoy.
I do think that you can find meaning in your work, almost no matter what you do, but a lot of these suggestions (dog walking, tutoring) seem like good places to start.
Comment by Steph — February 8, 2007 @ 8:30 am
Hmmm… It appears that the general consensus is that I should get a job — It’s def. true that by not working now I could just create more painful work for myself later –
The Q is what to do — Mainly I want something that 1. won’t require me to spend a lot of time traversing the city via bus, and 2. won’t make me wanna kill myself (this rules out Starbucks and any sort of door-to-door thing).
There are definitely some teaching / tutoring opportunities at USC, but I’m hoping I can at least stay around the westside since I’m carless and all. Individual tutoring — which I’ve also done before — pays well but usually means driving quite a bit to get to people’s places — and I’d like to take a break from teaching since I teach during the semesters…. Still, maybe I should look into UCLA a bit and see what’s out there –
Dogwalking sounds like a fun possibility, but doesn’t it take like a long time to build up clientele?
This leaves — working at a bookstore (and this would probably be a chain bookstore, realistically), waiting tables, or doing odd stuff I find on Craigslist.
One thing I’m wondering — What about signing up with a temp agency, specifying that I only want gigs in Santa Monica? Wondering if that would give me a lot of time to read novels and stuff while sitting at a desk, so I can feed my soul a bit while “working” — Is that a realistic scenario?
It’s v. unclear when I’ll graduate, b/c it’s up to me to work on my dissertation, and I haven’t been doing that. After another couple years, USC will likely cut my funding — But until then, considering how I have no idea what I’d do after grad school, I have no incentive to finish my degree –
Comment by Siel — February 8, 2007 @ 10:44 am
Go to http://www.opportunitynocs.org (Opportunity Knocks), for non-profit job listings. There are many interesting jobs a body can do without selling their soul!
Comment by Alicia — February 8, 2007 @ 1:47 pm
Don’t expect to be able to read at an office temp gig, but you will be able to write (sitting at a desk reading a novel looks like goofing off. Sitting at a desk writing a novel looks like working).
Since you’re ABD, WRITE THE DAMN THING. Trust me on this one, the most important thing to do in your program is to do you diss. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to be DONE.
The problem with tutoring over the summer is that there’s not a whole lot of it. You’ll be doing SAT stuff exclusively for the most part (unless you end up at an Asian cram school, where you can get more academic stuff, although you will have to generate your own materials for the most part).
I wouldn’t be too optimistic about UCLA, but SMC might turn up at least some tutoring work, but again you run into the problem that academic/educational work is a bit thin in the summer months.
Does USC do a master’s along the way in your program or is it strictly all or nothing?
Comment by don hosek — February 8, 2007 @ 5:51 pm
Have you looked into marrying money?
Comment by Wad — February 9, 2007 @ 10:34 pm
Alicia — I’ll check out Opportunity Knocks :) Thanks for the tip –
I guess I sort of feel like I could bang out the diss whenever. I just don’t feel the need to do it anytime soon –
USC doesn’t have an MA program, but it gives you an MA-type thing once you pass an exam after 2 years. I do have to go into the office and ask for some sort of letter, is what I’ve heard (and haven’t done). If I left now, USC would give me an official MA.
Boys with money tend to be not v. good looking or interesting or sexy or not old(er). I’ve always liked the potential with no credentials types. Also, I don’t like feeling like I owe anyone anything. Also, most people I know who’re married don’t seem v. happy. At all.
Comment by Siel — February 9, 2007 @ 10:45 pm
Hey now – I’d think I’m a rather happy person. (That’d be because I’m married to a fantastic woman!)
Comment by Robert 'Groby' Blum — February 10, 2007 @ 12:02 am
Boys with money tend to be not v. good looking or interesting or sexy or not old(er). I’ve always liked the potential with no credentials types.
That’s the whole point of them having money: to compensate up for their physical, emotional or social shortcomings.
The key is to approach marriage like a business transaction. Make sure your head always leads your heart and make sure your fiance is investment-grade material.
Troy, with it’s $30,000 annual tuition, has to be teeming with trust-fund babies. The getting’s gotta be pretty good.
:)
Comment by Wad — February 10, 2007 @ 6:15 pm
The undergrad population’s prolly pretty wealthy, but not so the grad students in the humanities…. Thanks for trying to help though :)
Comment by Siel — February 13, 2007 @ 9:50 am