Where should I get a job?

[TheWall]

I'm 18 years old and I just graduated from high school. I've never had job but I want to work part-time this summer before I start college. I definitely cannot work behind a counter where I will have to deal with customers. Does anyone have any suggestions for a low-key job?

thank you

 

[tpdarlo]

Work behind a counter where you have to deal with customers.

Trust me - if you want to solve your problem you need to expose yourself to the situations you find difficult.

 

[ljwwriter]

Try book stores or the library. If you do end up working behind a counter with customers then I still suggest you do it in as low-key setting as possible. You may think putting yourself in a high stress environment will help you in the long run due to the exposure, but if you're wrong (as I was) you'll be absolutely miserable everyday and lucky if you manage to stay there for long.


But yeah, I think book stores and places like that are good. You still have some interaction with people, and yet you're not going mad with countless difficult customers in your face for 8 hours straight like you would be in a lot of other retail stores. Personally, I've found that in the long run exposing yourself to that kind of stress often does little more than make you even more uncomfortable in social situations. But I guess it helps some people deal with their anxiety better.

 

[Volcano]

Join Police Academy!! If only there was one.
I wonder if I'd still have social anxiety if I had AUTHORITAAAAA!

Seriously though, maybe like work in a garden center / plant nursery. I did that over summer once. There were some awkward moments when people asked where such things as point settiers are. WTF is a point settier? I still have no idea. Once I pretended to not speak english, I think they bought it but the embarrasment has burned itself into my permanent memory for _ever_. Then I learned to just point them in a random direction, as politely as possible.

Mostly I got left alone, and never once did I get put on checkout (everyone else _wanted_ to do that to avoid the manual labor).

I'd never do it again though, the pay was shit.

 

[Coper]

I briefly worked at a pet store and later briefly for a pet groomer after high school. The work was a drag at times, and the pay was low, but being able to spend all day working with cute dogs and cats more than made up for it. In both cases I hardly ever had to interact with customers; that stuff was handled by my bosses.

 

[hapt]

Like mentioned above, you really should *not* avoid the contact. I really suggest finding a job where you will have at least one such contact per day. I really got so much better after leaving college and started working. At the time you wont feel that of course, but looking back now, I really am so different than then.