So I am currently in need of a job/source of income. With my schedule of gigs and my homebase location, it's hard to find something to fill the time between. And because I have a slightly ridiculous moral compass, I'm not ok with trying to find a job under the guise of "longterm employee" when I know I'm going to be gone in two months. Plus, by the time they put you through the application/background check/fingerprinting/drug test/paperwork process (one to one and half weeks), and then the training (two weeks), I'd be looking at a full week or two of work before I put in my two weeks notice. Not worth it for me, not fair to them, yadda yadda.
However, for the career-minded individual, there seem to be a ton of jobs posted out there (at least on craigslist, which, while it might not be the best resource to find work, still has a lot of legit businesses posting on it). It makes me wonder in passing how many people can be unemployed if so many businesses are looking for people. But if I think a little bit harder about it all, it seems like you really have to spend money to make money. I'm not talking about the costs that you incur when you're creating your own business. I'm talking about the job I just did a phone interview for that pays $9 for manual labor (packing boxes). Ok, not a horrible hourly pay (though with minimum wage being $8 an hour, it's definitely not great). And I get the feeling that there's potential for long hours and some overtime with this particular gig. The problem for this job is that in order to be hired, you have to get finger printed (you'd be working in schools, so they have to do background check-y things. Understandable). They don't cover the fee for fingerprinting. It costs $91.50. You'd have to work 11+ hours at your job to pay for getting hired. (Sidenote: the girl who I spoke with was very nice and understood when I said I didn't have any money to spend on finger printing). As someone who's down to their last tank of gas with an overdue phone bill, that's not gonna fly for me.
Then I had an in person interview today to do some tele-sales. It wasn't cold calling, it was for renewing theatre subscriptions. That doesn't make it 100% better, but a little bit. This position pays $8 an hour, and the shifts are during prime calling times (ie right after dinner). That maximizes your shift time to four hours a day. Now, because I live out in east bumble fuck, it's a 20-25 minute drive for me to get to this job. Plus it's in the city so I have to pay for parking. So you work four hours, making $8 an hour, that's $32 before taxes. Take out gas money (for me might be a little bit more than for others that live closer), plus a couple bucks for parking. While it's a commission job as well, you can't ever count on that stuff. So for five hours of your time (including commute), it's about $30 before taxes. I mean, I know that some jobs like that are looking at people who want to make extra money, because they already have a full time real person job. But the math just doesn't add up really. Especially for someone who's already running on fumes, it's hard to justify putting out the cash in order to get a paycheck (in two weeks)
I just wish one of those "work from home/data entry" things were actually legit. That'd be perfect for me....
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