Dough. Green. Bucks. Cold-hard-cash. MONEY. Everyone needs it, everyone wants it, and everyone can get it. Let's talk about two things that have to do with money. 1) How to get it, and 2) What to do with it once you've got it. Today let's just cover the getting it part.
JOBS:
You might have noticed this before, so I hope I'm not spoiling anything, but money does not, in fact, grow on trees. Oh how lovely the world would be if dollar bills sprouted from your back-yard maple (actually it wouldn't but I won't go into economics, history, and trading methods with you guys) but alas, it does not. So how does more than 99% of the worlds population get their money? (I made that statistic up; please don't come after me.) They work for it. (Technically, yes, robbing a bank is still work. I mean come on. Someone has to be in the get-away car, someone has to crack that big-'ol safe, and there's usually hostage situations involved so don't tell me that's not work.)
So work. Your work. What are you going to do? What kind of job do you want? Do you want to do physical labor? Do you want to work with children? Do you have good people-skills? Find out what skills you have (and by skills I mean something tangible that you can write on an application unlike "Has philosophy degree."), what you can do, and where you can apply it. Because 9 times out of 10, even without a college degree, you can still do something in the field that you want.
But here's the thing: Sometimes, you just have to do some work that you don't want to do. Especially at the beginning. Everyone goes through it. You might have to work for a fast-food chain. You might have to do custodial work. You might put in 10 applications to 10 different general stores and the only one that will hire you is the Christian book store that wants you to sit alone at a kiosk in the mall selling bibles. And sometimes, you really do have to do it. But here's the kicker, the light at the end of the tunnel, the save-all, the happy-place. You may hate your job to hell and back again but I promise you two things. 1) You will have literal money to use however you need and want, and 2) You will not be with that job forever. Okay. Read it again. Know that what I say is true. You will have to work jobs you hate but you will not have to stay there forever.
Then again, it is very possible to find a job in a career field that you want to work in. Start at the bottom and work your way up. Think Monsters University. It's kind of silly but it's accurate. You very well can start in the mail room of a company that you're interested in. You can be a personal assistant to someone with the job that you want. So yes, you may have to take an irrelevant job to help pay the bills, but yes you can also find a job somewhere that will help you on the way to the job you really want if you can't get it right away.
You also very well may have to work more than one job. I certainly did and most people do. You may have 2 to 3 or more part time jobs, or you may have 1 full-time job and 1 part-time job. If you can swing the latter, I suggest that course. Applying for and obtaining any full-time job is a good thing. (Yes, a full time job in your career field is better than not, but given the choice between any full-time job or none, take the full-time one.) Looking for and getting a full-time 35 to 40 hour a week job shows that you're dedicated, willing to work hard, have some plans for what you're doing, and want to be doing what you're doing (Even if you're not, that's what your employers are looking for.).
Also, here's one more tip before we finish up. Working for free at a place that you absolutely love is, oddly enough, still working for free. If you're struggling to make ends meet or are just starting out, working for free should not be an option for you. You are wasting your time and also, you can't afford to not make money. Someone else will hire you with a paycheck included at a place that you are interested in. Unless you have written documentation that after a set amount of work salary-free to "learn the system", look elsewhere. I can not stress enough that you are wasting your time when you could be down the road at a similar place for $7.25 an hour. You don't have the luxury to give away your time at the moment. You may be young and new, but your time is still valuable. This is not to say that your deep connection with this one job isn't important, but unless there is an actual foreseeable future with this company, you can do what you're already doing elsewhere for minimum wage.
But you can't just sit around and hope a job comes to you. You have to be determined and persistent. Make call-backs to the job(s) you applied for (key being that you actually applied for something) a few days after an interview to show continued interest, and be patient! Something will come your way. Look for jobs near you if you don't have a fast way of getting there. If you have to walk to work you won't want to work more than a half hour away by foot. Know what hours you're going to be working and what your salary will look like. Make sure you ask about benefits too and try to get them! In all reality, finding a job sounds like a daunting and scary thing but once you have one, you'll be happy you do. I'll tell you my story now about what happened to me when I left school. Your story will be different but that's the whole point - to make your life yours!
My story:
When I left college in the Spring of 2013, the day after I came home for the last time, I had an interview with a day-care down the road from my mother's house. My passion is to work with children and I was lucky enough to have a mother that asked around about day-care positions back home while I figured out that a Child Life Specialist degree wasn't for me. I had decided that what I really wanted to do was to be a nanny but working in a day-care would suffice for the time being. I had known about this job interview for about a month and it was for a part-time position over the summer that I was interested in when I was still planning on continuing school. It wasn't even really a day-care position, but for a camp that the day-care ran every summer. But it was a job. It offered minimum wage in Pennsylvania at $7.25 an hour minus taxes. It had no paid sick days, no vacation days, no health benefits, and wasn't long term but again, it was a job.
When I showed up for the interview the next day I was wet and tired because I was still without transportation at the time and had to walk 30 minutes up hills in the rain with a broken umbrella. Otherwise, it was an interview like any other and my passion to work with kids quickly won me the position (although they're not supposed to tell you that when you apply but when you're good, you're good). Afterwards my interviewer and new summer boss asked me a bit about myself and what I was doing and naturally it came up that I had decided to leave college and had actually just moved home permanently the day before. I told her that I was actually looking for a full-time position somewhere soon and something sparked with my interviewer because I was quickly asked how soon was soon (ASAP of course) and in no time flat I was whisked away to see the director of the day-care herself.
Upon meeting the director I was asked what age group I most liked to work with (infants), if I had any experience with that age group (yes), and exactly when I could start (Monday). I was then asked if I had all of my certifications to work with kids (no, mine were expired, but they were easy enough to get) and then promptly was told that there was an opening in the infant room that they were desperately trying to fill and offered me the job there. I took the job in a heart beat and in 15 minutes my salary had increased from $7.25 an hour to $8.00 an hour with paid training starting on Monday (just two days away!) as long as I agreed to file for my certifications immediately. I did and that Monday I showed up ready and rearing to go.
That's how I got my first full-time job after moving home. It still didn't have sick days, vacation days, or any health benefits, but I was working 40 hours a week just above minimum wage in a field that I loved. I still had to work weekends and some nights babysitting for extra money and took every gig in my path but I was off to the races and with my new paychecks coming in I could finally start budgeting what I could do with it. It wasn't until a few months later that I was offered a position as a full-time nanny (my dream job!) and took that and moved my daycare job to part-time with added babysitting on the side. I was working over 60 hours a week at that point but making what I appreciated as well above minimum wage and was eventually even able to cut out the daycare all together. It just goes to show that with a little luck, a little determination, and a whole heck-of-a-lot-of time put in, you can do what you want to do and support yourself doing it.
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