Bonus Job #8: Character at Birthday Party!

Job Title: Angelina Ballerina

Job description: I have a wonderful friend who asked me to be Angelina Ballerina at her daughter's 6th birthday party. I danced for 9 years when I was younger, so I still remember a lot of ballet. Thankfully, I haven't grown too much since my last recital, so I was able to wear my old costume and pointe shoes. I did a dance for the children at the party, stretched out with them, and taught them some fun dance moves. I also took a pair of pre-pointe shoes I still have and let the girls try them on and get pictures in pointe shoes. I know that would have fascinated me when I was that age!

Advantages of job: I got to play with children and get paid to do it! 

Job Salary: $20/hour

How to get this kind of job: There are several agencies that hire out characters for birthday parties. I got this job from my friends knowing my background in dance, and that I love working with children. 

Thanks for reading my blog!

The End of Summer :)

This Wednesday, my summer officially is ended and I will be back to classes, homework, reading assignments, and lab sessions. In the past 13 weeks, I have applied for over 20 jobs, been interviewed, and worked 7 different jobs! I didn't reach my goal of 10 jobs, but 7 seems pretty close to me. My odd job summer adventure was a blast, and I have met so many new people and had so many exciting experiences. I'm so glad I made the decision to pursue a working summer.
Some of my jobs will continue during the school year, while others are officially over. It was so much fun teaching violin lessons this summer to 2 very special students, and I hope that is something I can do in the future too. I will continue banquet serving on weekends, and I will also keep posting ads on craigslist for Job #7.

Thanks for following my blog this summer! I hope you had fun reading about my experiences and maybe were inspired to try a new job or experience.

P.S. Keep a look-out for a bonus Job #8 in the coming weeks!!! 


~Kaelin Priger

A Day to be Lazy...

Besides doing my daily posting for my Job #7, I have had a fun-filled, lazy, work-free day. Went bowling with my coworkers at the Marriott for our 2nd Quarter Bowling Outing today and won a 1-night stay with breakfast for 2 at a hotel in Atlanta!!! Can't wait to go sleep like royalty sometime with the family just for fun :) 

Also, raked in about $2,000 in cash and assets this afternoon...............................in Monopoly with my friends :P Good times. Which leads to the official 'answer-back' for this post: What's your favorite board game to play with your family? Make sure you comment with your answer!

 

As always, thanks for reading :) Keep checking back for more posts.

Profile of Job #7 - Advertising Aide for Real Estate Agent

Job Title: Advertising Aide for Real Estate Agent (I sort of came up with this job title, 'cause I wasn't sure what you would call what I'm doing. Sounds pretty cool, though, huh?!)

Job Description: A family friend of ours is a real estate agent and the real estate firm he works for advertises one of their house-searching sites via Craigslist. So, he asked if I would be interested in posting their Craigslist advertisements, 10 each morning and 10 each evening, 5 days a week. The ads are already made, I just have to copy and paste. This must be the easiest, work from home, odd job I've had!

Job Salary: $100/month

How I got this job: Letting people know that you are open to work and that you are responsible and good at a lot of things really helps when looking for jobs. I've said it before, but repetition is everything, right? :P - The majority of jobs you get will be because you know someone involved with the company. Networking isn't just for professionals - you can do it too!

3 more jobs to go before I reach my summer goal!!! Post on this blog if you have any ideas for my future jobs :) 

An Afghan Wedding!

So, after working many Indian weddings, this Saturday was a day of change - an Afghan wedding! The wedding party was experiencing their second wedding celebration; they got married and celebrated in Afghanistan, and were celebrating with their American friends this weekend. These people have quite a sweet tooth compared to the Indians! The tables had almonds, sugar-coated almonds, and chocolates on them. The desserts included wedding cake (white with strawberries), baklava, and jalabi. Jalabi is something new to me. The Indians eat it as well, and it is like a honey-filled funnel cake. Here's a picture:

It's really sweet!!!

I've recently started my 7th job, and the profile will be up ASAP. Keep checking back for more about my adventure :) 

What's up?

Actually, a day off of work is what's up for me! After this past weekend, I think I deserve a day with absolutely nothing to do. This past Saturday, I worked 14 hours at the hotel as a banquet server!!! I didn't get home until 2am on Sunday morning. It was another wonderful Indian wedding. For this wedding dinner, they hired a photo booth for the guests, which stayed busy for the entire night. The decorations were modern and very lovely, and the DJ did an amazing job.

 I finally got to see the Indians dance with sticks (I'm not sure what they are called), and it was pretty cool. The sticks are about a foot long, and everyone gets two of them. They get in two lines, and hit sticks with the person in front of them. Then, they step to their left to change partners. It may not sound like a lot, but they love it, and danced like this for a very long time :)

TTYL :)

What keeps me going!

Ephesians 6:7 ~

     "Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people."

It's verses like this that keep me going on a daily basis. The Bible encourages us to not just work, and not just do the bare minimum, but to 'work with enthusiasm'. AND, not just that. We are supposed to work and do every task of our lives as though we are doing it for the LORD. He is watching us and wants us to put our 100% effort into everything we do, whether it is working at your job, helping your parents around the house, babysitting your younger sibling, doing your homework, or training for a race.

This verse in Ephesians is definitely not the only verse from the Bible that encourages us to work hard and for the LORD. What verse encourages you?

BINGO!

Ok, here's the inside scoop. At my hotel job as a banquet server, the whole hotel staff plays Safety Bingo. Everyone is issued a bingo card, and on every day that we do not have any accidents (excluding weekends), a bingo number is posted in the Loyalty Packet (our daily newsletter). I received my bingo card with my first paycheck, and every day I would check to see if I had the daily bingo number. Well, after a month of working at the hotel, I won!!! I got 5 in a diagonal :) My winnings = $56!!! I love winning stuff, especially cash. Now, the pot goes back to $25 (it goes up $1 every day until someone wins), and I've got my new card. Let the games begin!

Keep checking back for more of my summer fun and adventures! Have a blessed day :)

Update on working 6 jobs :]

I'm having such a blast this summer! Here's the update:

Job #1: Violin Teacher--- I now have 2 students in my little violin studio! They are both beginners, and I'm having a great experience working with them and figuring out the best way to teach both of them. For the older student, I'm so excited because SHAR (a music company) just sent out free patriotic song downloads this week, and the version of Yankee Doodle is right at her level! I think she'll have fun learning a new song for this weekend. My music teacher when I was a young teen always gave me fun, new music, and I hope to do the same with my students. She knew I loved River Dance and would teach me some of their fiddle songs, as well as other fiddle music (even to the point where I played in a fiddle competition one year!). By following her example, I hope to be a wonderful violin teacher as well!

Job #2: Banquet Server---- I've now worked 3 weddings at the hotel, as well as several meals for a business conference. In the next few days, I'll be going in for my official "orientation" for the job, which will include touring the hotel and learning more about the standards of the hotel. While at home, I've started lifting weights on a daily basis in hopes that lifting all those trays will come easier by and by.

Job #3: Violin Player----Haven't played any more events lately. I'm practicing currently for my instructor's concert in August, when I hopefully will be playing Concerto No. 1 by Bach from Suzuki 7. It's a fast song, though!

Job #4: Babysitter-----Just finished 4 weeks of babysitting the cutest little boy in the world!!! We had so much fun taking him places like the zoo, park, pool, library, etc.  Looking forward to more babysitting throughout the summer.

Job #5: Student Assistant at Tech Camp----This is the last week of  Tech Camp! I'm going to miss these kids. They are so smart and creative! I've had fun building balloon vehicles with them during the Amazing Race (one of our team-building activities), taking them on campus tours, and making sure that camp is running smoothly.

Job #6: Petsitting----This job is always a treat :) I get to cuddle cute animals for a job, how cool is that?!

Job #7-#10 are in the works, but I still need some ideas and help from you! As always, thanks for reading :)

Profile of Job #6 - Caregiver of little creatures (AKA Petsitter)

Job Title: Petsitter


Job description: Sit on pets. Haha, just kidding!!! Take care of pets while their humans are out on vac. Clean up after them, give them their daily food, and play with them!


Job salary: $5/day for cats (includes 1 visit per day) and $15/day for dogs (includes 3-4 visits per day). Rates vary for other unusual animals, but they are usually priced according to how many visits per day are required.


How to get this job: Word of mouth works great. Just let your neighbors with pets know that you petsit, and maybe make up a few fliers and give them out. People love having nice petsitters who will visit their home and do a great job, because many animals don't enjoy getting boarded. Click here to make your own cute business cards and fliers in a flash!


Other tips: I only petsit for people who live within 5 minutes of my house, or the drive makes the job not worth it. Make sure you know where people live before you commit to a job! And, it is usually a good idea to ask to meet the animals before you say "yes" to the job, so that you can see if you really want to petsit for them, and to change your rates according to how much work the pets will be. Don't give in to a neighbor who is a Scrooge - your time is valuable!!! Think about how many hours you will spend taking care of the pets each day, and use minimum wage as a guideline for rates if need be.

Thanks for reading my blog! If you want to know more about the inspiration behind this summer blog, go down the right side of this page and click on April's posts for more info. Don't forget to leave your comments and reaction at the bottom of this post, and "follow" the blog if you aren't already :)

....

Ok, so I'm really tired. Not just sort of tired, but REALLY tired. Working non-stop is taking it's toll on me. Yesterday, I worked 3 different jobs - tech camp, babysitting, and teaching 2 violin lessons. Some people think I'm crazy to work 10 different jobs this summer. Sometimes I think I'm crazy. What do you think? I've still got 5 jobs to go, and over a month left of summer vacation. But right now, I'm going to catch up on some reading. Bye, bye!

What has been your favorite job???

Hello friends,

So, I've been writing a whole lot about me lately, but I would absolutely love to hear more about you! Please comment below with your favorite job of all time :)

Looking forward to reading your posts!!!

Thanks,
Kaelin

Profile of Job #5: Student Assistant at Teen Tech Camp

Job Title: Student Assistant at Teen Tech Camp

How I got this job: My mentor at college sent me the link to apply for this position. I've heard that many colleges have these summer camps, including GA Tech. Sometime in  mid-spring semester, check at your college to see if they have something like this. You will have a personal connection and better chance of getting the position, compared to applying to other camps.

Job duties: Make sure the teens are having fun and behaving. Give campus tours and plan fun team-building activities. Make sure that the teens are picked up by the authorized picker-uppers. Take pictures of students with an awesome iPad-like device called a Galaxy Tab (this is super fun!).

Job Salary: $8.25/hour

Advantages of job: This is a pretty easy job, especially if you are used to working with younger children. I pretty much just spent the day making sure the kids were having fun, that they were in the right locations at the right time, that they didn't hit too many random buttons and make the world blow up, and that they learned something and listened to the professors.

I'm halfway there!!!!! 5 more jobs, and I'll meet my goal. I have 1 more job lined up, but I need your help to land the other 4! Here's some ideas I have:

1) Birthday party planner. I've helped plan TONS of birthday parties for all ages. I'm creative, organized, and can stick to a budget.
2) Character at a birthday party. I'm a great fairy, princess (or fairy princess), ballerina, Rapunzel, mermaid, etc.

Thanks for reading, and please let me know that you did by either following my blog, commenting, or adding your reaction at the bottom of this post.

As Always,
Kaelin

Another day on Job #2

Had an amazing, but very tiring, time yesterday working at the hotel. We had a very beautiful wedding to set-up, serve at, and clean up. There were a gazillion fresh flowers everywhere, and the colors were white and red. They danced the night away to a DJ and 2 bands. It lasted until 1AM!

I learned something new last night - When you break something, everyone starts singing "Happy Birthday" to you.......................................guess how I found this out...............................................yeah, you've got it :(

TTYL, 

Kaelin

Profile of Job #4: Babysitter/Nanny

Job Title: Babysitter

Job Salary: $7-$10/hour

Job requirements: Be willing to care for children for long lengths of time, read the same book over and over again, fight with toy knights 'unto death', and count to "fifty fifty twenty and a half" (actually, I lie. I couldn't do it. Please call me if you can!).

Advantages of job: Work from home on some occasions. Have a blast playing like a kid! Plus, if they are little, you get paid breaks during nap time :)

I absolutely love babysitting and have been doing it as a job since I was 12 years old. Little sister was first job. I've babysat too many kids to count since then!

Thanks for reading my blog - Please comment and add your reaction at the bottom, plus "follow" my blog so I can see how many people are reading :)

Profile of Job #3: Violin Player

I feel greatly honored to be able to present to you this analysis of a most prestigious

job I have been endowed with.

Oh...sorry. It's just that my last job included sitting through a graduation, and all those big words and eloquent phrases are going to my head. Well, as I was saying, here's the scoop on Job #3:

Job Title: Violin Player

How I received this job: Through people at my church who know that I play violin.

Job salary: Varies for different gigs - this one paid $150 for 1 hr of music.

Prerequisite for job: Must know how to play instrument.

Getting ready for the gig includes: Meeting with client, arranging the selection of music, practicing, and rehearsing with other players. Keeping a selection of nice, easy, classical music on hand, and keeping it up with regular practice, comes in handy. Also, I have gone through and timed how long certain pieces are at regular speeds. This helps when figuring out how many songs I'll need to play for the length of the event.

I had a wonderful time tonight at HCA's graduation! All 70-something of their graduates are awesome, and I'm sure they are glad to be done with highschool. Their valedictorian was right when she said that their class is energetic! They even had one graduate who be-jeweled her cap!!! That is evidently one thing they forgot to put on the dress code.

By the way, my current violin favorite is David Garrett. Check out this video.

Just a reminder -

If you would like to read the story behind this blog, go to the right side column and click on "April". Then, click on the "Story Behind" link, and you will find the background of this blog.

I don't know if I mentioned this, but one of the reasons I'm writing this blog is to give other students ideas about odd summer jobs that they should try out. Many people apply to grocery stores, jobs at the mall, etc. and these are all great jobs, but there are many more out there that aren't the generic summer job. If I've inspired you to seek an unusual summer job, let me know! I'd love to hear that my goal is being reached :)

Also, if you would like to comment on my blog, click the "Sign in" link at the top right corner of this page. You can sign in using gmail, yahoo, or your twitter account. I would love to hear your thoughts!

Profile of Job #2: Banquet Server

Job Title: On-Call Banquet Server at the Marriott

Job salary: $10/hour

Job description: We set up tables, clear tables, refill drinks, keep banquet materials well stocked, and serve plated dinners if needed.

10 Things I didn't know before today:

#1 - It is possible to carry 6 full glasses by yourself....just not possible for me. I've gotten up to 3!!! (hey, don't be mean, that is a ton for my first day)

#2 - Serving trays weight 3 lb each with nothing on them.

#3 - Standing on your feet for 8 hours hurts...quite a bit.

#4 - The dessert fork is the one they place above your plate.

#5 - You serve from the left, and clear and fill drinks from the right.

#6 - You have to have a liquor license to be a banquet server (getting a liquor license is on my 'to do' list for this week).

#7 - More guests use Equal sweetener than regular sugar or Sweet and Low.

#8 - That wearing slip-resistant shoes is required for a reason - it is very slippery 'back stage'.

#9 - That banquet servers get to sometimes eat the extra food not served at meals!!! (Free lunch = happiness)

#10 - That I really need to load up on the calories in the morning, because lunch break doesn't happen until 1 or 2pm.

Today, I worked 9-6pm for training, and everyone was so nice and helpful! I served at a buffet-style lunch and an hors d'oeuvre reception in the restaurant. :D

If you like reading my blog, show me by "following" it -------------> Thanks!

Profile of Job #1 : Violin Teacher

Job Title: Violin Teacher

Job Schedule: Teach 30 min. lessons to students each week

Pay: $15/lesson

Perks of the job: Getting to do something I love as a job! I love being able to use my knowledge of violin to help other children excel in the art. Also, knowing that I will be teaching each week gives me an incentive to practice the violin myself. I know they are practicing each day, and I need to practice too.

Challenges of the job: Making sure I'm not going too fast! I want to teach them proper position, scales, vibrato, and bowing techniques in the first lesson. They need to go slower than that, one step at a time.

Wish me luck as I continue this job this summer!

Job #1 is set!

On May 17th, I'll be starting my first job of the summer.

I've been playing the violin since I was 5 years old, and although I've often thought it wasn't going to pay off, it has this year! Earlier this spring, I was able to play my violin at a vow-renewal ceremony, which was my first gig. It was pretty special, since it was the first time I was paid for playing my violin.

Violin is paying off over the summer because now I have my first violin student!!! I will be teaching her beginning violin over the summer, and I'm so excited. I'll be teaching her once a week, and I'll let you know how it goes.

Also, might have a gig lined up for playing at a graduation on May 27th. This is still up in the air, but I hope it works out!

I'm so glad all those hours of practice are finally paying off. God is so good!!!

Please keep following my blog :D Summer hasn't even started yet, and I know when it does, it's going to be quite a fun ride for me! Keep up with all my various jobs, and please feel free to give me advice along the way. Make sure you log-in and follow my blog ---->