Being forced to get a first job, people are scary!

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Oh deary me.
So, I'm a 17 year old college student with absolutely nothing on my CV, other than 2 weeks of work experience.
I never went to any clubs, got any awards or volunteered. All I have is my good grades, which won't be enough to get me into the universities I want.
My social skills trainer along with my parents have been nagging at me to get a job, however I cannot seem to get a paying one!
So, my option is volunteering.
I went for an interview at Oxfam, but there were so many people and they were older than me and so very, VERY social . I felt so uncomfortable, they were always chatting and being, well, social. There was nowhere that I could go to in order to be alone.
Don't get me wrong, I am a very hard worker. The only thing that stops me getting a job is my fear of the chatting and friendliness. I am a shy little hermit.

Apologies for the doom and gloom of this post, I suppose I've written it in a very helpless way.
But I'll ask anyway: can anybody give me advice? Thanks!

Well you'll get lotsa practice with your social skills if it's as social as that at oxfam. As long as they know you have some problems in that area, they might be ok. If it's gonna help with your CV you may as well have a go.

Volunteering is a good idea...don't give up if the first place doesn't suit your needs. If you like animals, you can volunteer at a shelter, where everyone is more into animals than other people. Remember, you're doing important work for free, so it's okay if you're not perfect at the job. Good luck!

I've had jobs and still do and I wasn't forced to be social. I still spoke when spoken too and I still talk to people when I want to. I used to be worried about not being able to get a job because of people and socialness but I decided I didn't want to be disabled so I started trying to find a job by applying. It was very tough because no one would hire me, plus I lived in a small town. Then someone decided to try me so she hired me. I had problems at work but she was willing to work with me and I learned to be flexible and learned to multitask. My first real job helped me climb the success ladder. The other two I had in high school weren't real jobs because I didn't even work very long. Only about an hour in the high school library and the hours varied at the folk shop but I have never worked no more than three hours.

Maybe you could apply at Good Will. I heard 50% of their employees are disabled.

Maybe you apply at a place that helps the disabled.

You're neither shy nor a hermit.

It may look like I've missed the point but you're only shy because you haven't had enough contact with people within the working social category.

Ask a parent/trusted friend/elder to teach you some basic ways of getting on with workmates/people in general - here's a common process that might help:-

1) FIND COMMON GROUND. You will pretty much always have common ground with anyone, be it a mutual love for an afternoon brew or a TV program, a genre of music/books or merely that you both had a weekend.

2) Ask a question within this common ground, e.g. "What did you get up to last weekend?"

3) Listen to their answer and process the information

4) Find something interesting within their answer

5) Get them to elaborate further on an interesting point ("Oh, I haven't been shopping there, what's it like?"), or, if you feel you can make a concise contribution, make a contribution yourself on this point ("Yes, that place is great, although it's a bit expensive")

6) Observe their reaction and MENTALLY NOTE IT for your people-studies

7) Base your next contribution/question (if any) upon their reaction

8 ) Move back to 3



I hope this helps. Let us know how it goes.