Holiday Jobs

dude_moose · Post by **dude_moose** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 4:35 pm

Well, the holiday season is fast approaching, and my mom wants me to get a job for my five week winter break from college... I've looked around at stuff, but I'm still not too keen on the idea... even though I know I need to get one whether I want to or not, since I'll be going crazy having nothing to do at home for so long.

I was looking at getting a job at like Waldenbooks or Barnes and Noble, since I have library experience and am comfortable handling, shelving, and finding books and dealing with the public or at like FYE (music/dvd store). My mom thinks I should get a job at like Kohl's or Sears or something unloading trucks or doing the night stocking shift, since they make more money...

Any suggestions, experiences, etc?

sailorsv13 · Post by **sailorsv13** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 5:03 pm

My only suggestion is to do what you enjoy...and not worry so much about the money unless you should be worrying. My reason: I personally despise retail jobs. I have worked at a clothing store before doing all jobs (cashier, customer service, truck unloading), and I always find that it is never worth the money to be treated poorly. Because you are simply one little piece of their gigantic system and they do not care about what is going on with you at all. I worked at one particular retail company twice and each time when the new school year came around, they refused to recognize me as a student and reduce my hours by only 10 hours so I had to quite both times. I personally tend to let stuff like that effect my attitude and always end up completely miserable at a job like that. I have wanted to work at a small, local book store (something not as commercial as Barnes and Nobel or Borders) or a local coffee shop for a while; the pay is not large but I feel that the atmosphere for me is important. I always love the feel of a locally owned shop, and they are almost always looking for new employees.
Wow! That was the rant of the currently unemployed student! Good luck!

~ Bri ~

blueheaven · Post by **blueheaven** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 5:05 pm

Electronics Boutique/Gamestop, Suncoast, and Toys R Us have staff on 24 hours a day during the holidays. Plus you get discounts.

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 5:05 pm

Did you get paid for working on at one particular retail company twice and each time when the new school year came around they refused to recognize him or her as a student and reduce his or her hours by only 10 hours so he or she had to quite both times?

RoboFlonne · Post by **RoboFlonne** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 6:12 pm

I agree with your mom... She has your best interests in mind. It's not just the money....

Manual Labor will build your muscles and save you money on going to the gym!

If you bring your own protein drinks you may be really buff in 5 weeks!

Not Sir Phobos · Post by **Not Sir Phobos** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 7:57 am

You are an adult now, do what YOU want to do. If it's a mistake then in the end you learned something. Either way you are working and either way you make money. Your personal happiness is the only factor that I can see, so the choice is simple....the coal mine.

Ronin · Post by **Ronin** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 11:05 am

Not Sir Phobos wrote:You are an adult now, do what YOU want to do. If it's a mistake then in the end you learned something. Either way you are working and either way you make money. Your personal happiness is the only factor that I can see, so the choice is simple....the coal mine.

What he said. Do what you want to do. But remember it'll be cold, so working indoors is a bonus.

bulleta · Post by **bulleta** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 11:26 am

You should do what you want, but I've worked in bookstores before so I thought I could tell you some of my experiences. My first job was actually at a Waldenbooks during Christmas. I've also worked at Barnes & Nobles before... roughly 5 years in the book business. This is all from my experience, so it very well could be different now.

The thing to be careful for if you go for a mall chain book store like Waldens is that many have calendar kiosks seperate from the stores. When they hire for the bookstores, they also hire for those. That's where I got stuck at first. And I hated it. But with your library experience I would hope they would place you in the store.

For a larger B&N like chain, you mostly have two jobs. Help Desk and Cashiering with light recovery (reshelving books) to be expected. Although you hardly have time for it during Christmas. Too many people to help that don't know what they want. There are section "leads" who care for individual sections (stocking shelves with new releases and the like) and we also had a couple employees who worked early morning hours doing general stocking.

The perks: Waldenbooks offered a 33% discount to it's employees, not including magazines or sale items. B&N offered only 30% but it worked on magazines... I think. Both will have a special day during the holiday where you can get 40% off. B&N also used to own Gamestop... not sure if that's true anymore, so I also used to get 20% off there, 30% on the special discount day. B&N also used to offer 10% off items on it's website for employees. That's on top of sale prices on the site. You can sometimes get a hold of advance copies of books, but the good ones usually get snagged pretty quickly. The B&N store I worked at allowed us to take home "stripped" books or magazines (or zeroed out books - mostly bargain books that didn't sell), but Waldenbooks did not. It's frowned upon through most stores I would imagine.

Of the two, I liked Barnes & Noble better. Nicer company I think. Borders owns Waldenbooks, and I always felt like they made Waldenbooks employees feel like second rate citizens. Again, just my experiences.

If you go to any bookstore it will probably mostly be cashiering, or answering the phone or customer service. You would probably most likely make more money doing what your mom said. But if you're a people person, you might enjoy the interaction with customers more. *shrugs* It's up to you in the end. ^_^

Woah... long post. Sorry. Anyway, good luck!

dude_moose · Post by **dude_moose** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 1:22 pm

thanks for the input guys!!

bulleta, thanks for sharing your bookstore experiences with me!!

NSP.. I hadn't concidered the coal mines... hmmmmmm