The desire to work through college is a noble one and something I am considering this fall. But jobs that I have experience in and will do well for my future career are hard to come by. I worked at a doctors office in high school, but getting a desk job in a college town is much harder to do. Everything around me is all food service or a retail work. It's really hard trying to find people looking to hire a secretary or a file clerk in a town catering to college students. The amount of professional work environments in the area is incredibly low compared to the town I came from that had a law or doctors office on every corner. Finding a job can be difficult when you're particular about what you're looking for.
Office work is my thing. Phone calls are easy, fax machines, scheduling and multi-tasking are things I'm good at. Walking around a store all day offering to help a customer that very well may not want my help is quite honestly frightening to me. The horror stories I've heard from people in retail are enough to scare anyone away. Especially someone like me who is pretty comfortable behind a desk and not at approaching people. Working retail is something I am trying to avoid like the plague, but seems to be inevitable. When the outlet mall is the closest attraction around, it's hard to find much else.
From the time I was 15, I was a file girl in my dad's chiropractic office. When the opportunity came for me to potentially start at the front desk I was thrilled. I loved working with the computer and phone lines. Entering data was actually fun to me. The people part of it was always a little scary because people can be unpredictable and get mad at your for no reason or because of something that isn't your fault.That's part of what worries me about working at a job based entirely on other people's reactions such as in retail or food service: people are just so unpredictable.
Food service is smelly. There are hostesses and hosts that don't like you, cooks that screw up and screaming children. It is not a very reliable job if you're looking for something routine every day. There will always be difficult tables and people that just don't like you for some unknown reason. Basically your paycheck depends on if the people sitting down like you. That is terrifying.
The job hunt is exciting, but in a little mountain town like my college is in, it's difficult to find the kind of job you want. It's an incredibly frustrating process that often results in long periods of waiting or failure. It's not as easy as I hoped it would be.
