I got a phone call at about 11am today, and when I crawled out of bed to answer it, it was a woman from the recruitment agency I signed up with on Tuesday offering me a job. It's a data entry job, I figure if I'm going to spend all day in front of a computer I may as well get paid for it. Its going to take me a few weeks just to earn enough to pay off my overdraft, but its a nice relief to know I will be able to pay rent next year. So in short: Hoorj!

I did data entry last year, and if things go a bit sour this summer, I may be doing it again. It was horrible at first, but by the end I loved it. Initially I was spending 5 hours that I normally would IRC in typing in silence and I felt I would go mad. After three weeks, I was typing up tax returns for money, having a break from IRC (heh) and listening to music for 5 hours.

My two biggest tips are (these REALLY helped me out):

1. make an effort to talk to your fellow employees in the break. I met a new mate Martin, someone I knew called Ross and a postgrad called Steve who were very good to talk to, made each day different from the previous and made it feel a lot less mundane.

2. Give the job _AT_LEAST_ three weeks before you pack it in. My mother told me this, and I thought it was probably nonsense, but I stuck with it for three weeks (by the end of the second week I felt I was going insane and cried at the prospect of going back). Little did I know that when I got past training, moved to a different site, got the priviledge of a walkman etc. it was a huge improvement.

The hours of a job actually meant I got more done in the summer than if I had nothing else to do but piss around on my computer: a bit of structure does wonders.

One final thing: after a good 3-4 weeks the process of typing up forms becomes subconcious, and you can let your mind wander. At first you can't really think about anything but the process and thats what gets to you. But fear not, it does eventually become second nature.

Good luck!

Posted by Jon from 62.31.255.83 @ 06/20/2003 05:40 PM CST

Yeah, I'm really not expecting it to be a whole heap of fun. But the fact that I simply have no choice but to earn some money, and that the only other option is factory production line work, means I'll just have to stick it out. I'm really hoping that they'll let me bring in in a cd player in though, if I'm not working with other people.

Like you say it'll probably be good to have a bit more structure. Currently I spend half the day asleep and the rest just messing around. Actually having to get up for work, and doing something productive with my days will be useful.

Posted by Jon R from 81.98.186.136 @ 06/20/2003 06:11 PM CST

i want a job like that. working at a toy store with people (especially children) is a nightmare.

Posted by jonc from 68.184.33.243 @ 06/20/2003 10:28 PM CST

Dude, I got a job porting stuff to IPv6 all summer. How cool is that?

Posted by fraggle from 212.159.87.48 @ 06/22/2003 12:25 AM CST

beard++

Posted by aurikan from 24.102.100.203 @ 06/22/2003 11:42 PM CST