Good On-Campus Jobs
nerdygirl
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Joined: 16 Jun 2014
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,645
Location: In the land of abstractions and ideas.
Why do you think you wouldn't be able to handle working in a kitchen?
It depends on the type of job in the kitchen - I used to work in a college cafeteria and was actually a manager there for one year (I didn't like being a manager so much.)
"Salad Prep" was the best job (if you don't mind making up early.) We prepped all the veggies for the salad bar, grill, and sandwich stations. It was a very methodical job, required no interaction with customers, and there were very few people working in the kitchen at that hour. Most people there were too tired to talk much, so we just cut things up and listened to music. It wasn't loud or chaotic at all.
Dishwashing is very hot, but I found I also liked that job because I was all by myself.
Both jobs motivated me to have mini-competitions with myself to see if I could do my work faster.
Cashiering is not as good, but I didn't mind it once in a while because I only had to deal with one person at a time. The worst work was when I had to take orders from several people and keep track of making the various things.
Overall, I liked kitchen work.
Kitchen work in a restaurant is a completely different scenario than kitchen work at a cafeteria. I have worked in restaurants before, and don't want to ever again. Even when I was bussing, the chaos in the kitchen bothered me. I have a few stories!
One of the most interesting campus jobs I've run across was taking care of pets at Texas A&M. I understand that these jobs are pretty much limited to undergraduates in a pre veterinary medicine program.
Years ago, Texas A&M built a house for pets who's owners had died. The owners can leave the pets for A&M to take very good care of for the rest of their lives when the owners died. That includes all the daily needs plus any and all medical care needed. I'm not sure what it costs to have the pets transferred there.
Most of the pets are dogs and cats, but may be others as well including horses.
They hire a few students to live in the house and take care of the pets.
See http://vetmed.tamu.edu/stevenson-center.
For anyone who loves animals, this could be a really ideal student job.
During my undergrad years (when I was at a mid-sized university) there were various work opportunities on campus. Some of them were working at a busy pace with lots of people and some of them were quite the opposite. I'll give you a few ideas based on more "Aspie-friendly" options that I either did myself or thought would be fitting.
1.) Apply through financial aid office for work-study, be sure to check this option or ask someone about these opportunities. For instance you could put in a special request an assignment working a few hours a week doing something like typing for the school newspaper, working in a lab, re-shelfing materials/books at the library, or manning the main desk of a small computer lab.
2.) There was a main bulletin board in our university center that had people place their contact information for one-on-one tutoring subjects for people who wanted to make some extra money. Often, since parents like to see their kids succeed in college this could sometimes be a decent source of income depending on the person/situation and how many you preferred to take on.
3.) I assisted a secretary in a small department/psychology one summer (it was sort of like a graduate-assistant) except I was payed to help her when she needed/wanted time off with her grandkids. That was one of the easier jobs I ever did. Some light typing, the occasional phone call, sorting mail, etc. Made about $10/hour doing that.
_________________
Your Aspie score: 154 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 56 of 200
You are very likely an Aspie
AQ Test Score: 37
The kitchen is loud, all the food places are. I actually like being a cashier, but because they're so loud, I wouldn't be able to understand what they're saying. I like cashiering in retail rather than food.
I think I will try this out!
Thanks so much guys
AspergersActor8693
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Joined: 7 Aug 2014
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 1,231
Location: At Duelist Kingdom rescuing my brother.
I applied for work-study through financial aid when I transferred to a 4 year university. It is for $2k a year and one good thing is the max hours I can work is 9 so stress levels are kept to a minimum. I would definitely recommend doing a job through this if possible.
As for a good job for an autistic student, I've got something that fits that bill pretty dang well, the problem is I don't think this is something that is on every campus. I work in the preservation department of my school's library, where I make custom preservation boxes for vintage, antique, and rare books that were in the library's circulating collection or were part of a special collection that was donated, acquired, or was part of the Methodist Theological Library on our campus. What is great about it is that I am far away from any possible source of noise, there is no interaction with anyone in the main library, the work is repetitive aside from adjusting measurements for different books, and it is just me and the 'boss' working there right now. He plays classical music on the radio which is nice and comfortable and I really enjoy getting to 'save' these old books. I'm currently in the process of making a box for a book from 1707. That's older than the United States! How many people can say they've held something like that in their hands?
In my opinion, for an autistic student like me, I can't think of anything better to do. The problem is I don't know if this is at other schools and if so where. I also got the job partly because I sell vintage books online and knew how to handle them. They wouldn't just give the job to someone who didn't recognize the importance of handling a book from the 1890's, 1860's, or from 1707 with care. If your school has a library, see if they have one of these departments and if they hire students. If not, then I would still try to find something in the library since it is quiet and non stress provoking and depending on what it is you are doing, can do some school work during that time. Hope I've helped you out a bit.
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