I’m about to disappear for a few weeks while I teach a short-term program, but before I go, I thought a brief follow-up to the previous post might be beneficial.   I simply want to re-state my main point, and to elevate two helpful comments so that those who don’t read the comments will benefit from them.

Main Point: Working at Starbucks, as a waiter, etc., may certainly be a good learning experience, but after a while, you hit the point of diminishing returns and you should move on (or don’t go back).   Unless Starbucks itself is the goal.

Comment #1 (Sam Neylan):   May I suggest to your reader’s who will take your advice to read and do what’s offered in the book ‘What Color Is Your Parachute?’. it is an invaluable book that helps you evaluate yourself, your gifts, your purpose on earth, what you’ve learned about you and past employment scenarios, etc and tranforms you from a desperate job beggar to a confident work offerer. It’s not a magic pill, you have to do hard work (I photocopied the exercises and did them all! They were awesome). The premise of the book is ‘God created you to accomplish something on this earth-go figure out what it is (or what will get you there) and go do it ‘.   I think it’s one of the only helpful books out there…and it’s been on the business best seller for the last 30+ years…DO IT!   [Ed. note: I found 700 used copies for sale here.]

Comment #2 (Eric Zeller): A good followup post would apply the same thinking to church ministry… Don’t just sit through church all summer because you don’t think there is any ministry you can do before going back in the fall. Set up a meeting with your pastor the first day you are in town and say “I am here for three months, how can I serve?” And if you have ministry goals, talk with him about how you can develop your gifts in those areas, stc.

Get to it!

Many of my college-age friends are finishing their school year today and are heading home with plans to get a summer job.   I have some advice for them: don’t work at Starbucks.   Or at Wal-mart, or as a waiter or a babysitter.

I know, I know, I’m going to make somebody mad.   Too bad.

Actually, there’s nothing inherently wrong with working at Starbucks.   The problem is that you worked there last year.   And you know the manager and you’ve got your job back.   So it’s easy.   Nothing wrong with easy.   What’s wrong is that the job isn’t taking you where you want to go.   Now maybe I’m wrong.   Perhaps you’re interested, like one of the IBEX alumni, in starting a coffee distribution business in Africa.   So perhaps working at Starbucks would better prepare you for that.   If so, do it.   But if you don’t think it is preparing you for the future, then why are you wasting these precious months?

Indeed, that is what is at stake.   You have a few precious months this summer; how can you make the most of them?   That’s the key question.

I think most people have one of two goals in working a summer job.   1) Make money.   2) Gain experience.   I think those are good goals, given 1) the outrageously high tuition charged at private Christian colleges in Santa Clarita, and 2) you’re going to graduate in a very short time and be thrust out into the real world and you really don’t have a clue.

But here’s the key: accomplish at least one, if not both, of those goals.   Which precludes working at Starbucks.   I’ll say it a different way: if you’re not making bank, you better be learning something.   And I don’t mean how to make a dark roasted mocha express blend.   You can learn something as a waiter or babysitter, but there becomes a point after which you’re going to be learning very little for the time you’re spending.   That’s the point that you need to move on.

I suggest this: instead of taking that easy-to-get, low-paying job that you did last summer, look a little harder.   Yes, it takes patience.   Yes, you may have to trust God to provide.   Yes, you may have a few weeks out of work.   But a better job may make you better able to do what God has for you in the future.

Maybe you should work construction this summer, just to learn some basics.   That will almost certainly come in useful later in life.   (Exhibit A: my dad, who also met my mom while working a side job in construction.   He can build all kinds of things.)   You’ll be a lowly grunt, but you probably will make as much as you would as a waiter, and you will profit from it later.

Maybe you could find a job in a business firm.   This is a business world and you won’t understand it if you don’t live in it, at least for a little while.   This goes for all you future moms and future pastors.

I know that it can be hard to find a job like this on short notice and for a short time.   It really helps to know someone.   Perhaps you can ask around at church, or put a notice in the newletter.   Or just go knock on some doors and tell them that you’re a hard-working college student who wants to serve and learn.   Don’t be afraid of rejection; you’ll get over it.   And if someone offers you a job that’s not best for your goals, don’t be afraid to pass on it.

I have another suggestion from personal experience: work with a temp agency.   I did that in my seminary years.   It was ideal because it was flexible (I called in when I was available), paid good money ($14/hour usually, and that was back in 1995), and I learned a lot.   I worked in a lawyer’s office for a month.   I worked in the Nestle tower in Glendale for a while, helping create business simulations.   I worked on the U.S. Space Station team.   (Ok, mostly all I did was make photocopies and teach myself MS Excel, but that’s ok.)   I even worked for the Chabad headquarters for a while.   Imagine that – a Christian seminary student who knew some modern Hebrew  spending 40 hours/week  with the black-coated rabbis in Los Angeles!

I learned all kinds of things in those years.   They were invaluable for helping me to understand people, increase in my knowledge of business, and know that I really wanted to be a college teacher.

That doesn’t mean it was easy.   I remember plenty of hard things about it.   But those things I especially wouldn’t trade because of the things I learned and the perspective I gained.

Probably later in life, you won’t have the chance to work around in a variety of places.   You’ll have a career, you’ll have bills to pay, and you simply won’t be able to work a variety of jobs.   Now’s the time.   Don’t waste your summer.   Don’t work at Starbucks.