As wages remain low and prices go up, many are left to depend on tipping even more than before. While tipping is always optional and up to the audience member, customer or client, here is what to reasonably expect…and what to give when you are receiving a service in the course of your work. 

You and your band are being paid to perform at an event. 

The standard tip is $25 to $50 per band member. This tip is typically offered by the event’s host or coordinator. If you’re playing a wedding, for example, a member of the wedding party or the wedding coordinator will be most likely to offer you a tip. 

There is an open mic at a local business, and you are a performer.

Don’t count on the money from the tip jar. Unless otherwise announced, the tip jar money is for the event’s host, not the performers. Tips for people who take the stage to read their novel or poem or play or sing a song are placed in a jar, basket, or case onstage. If you play an instrument, tips are customarily tossed into your instrument’s case. If someone chooses to tip, they will probably contribute between $5 and $10. Anyone who requests a song will probably add a few more dollars. 

You’re performing online. Your audience is watching you via livestream. 

The standard tip for an online performance is $10 minimum from each audience member. Fans who have been following your career, audience members who request a song via the chat function, and anyone else who simply wants to offer extra support may offer $20 or more. 

The event is live and offstage. You are the D.J. or music program host.

Tipping the DJ at the rate of 10-15% of the total charge for the performance is customary. The person who hired you will offer the tip. Audience members may offer anywhere from $1 to $5, but that is typically done only when someone requests a song.

You arrive early for the open mic or gig, or hang around after your performance. You are seated in the dining area and a waiter serves you food or drink. 

As with any other situation in which you sit down at a restaurant staffed by waiters, tip at least 20%. If the person went out of their way to provide excellent service, quickly bringing drinks for late- arriving band members, carrying trays around your guitar case, or doing anything else extra to accommodate you, increase the tip to  25% or more.

The rehearsal or writing session has taken up more time and energy than expected and you need to order food and/or drinks. You use a delivery app like Uber Eats, GrubHub, or DoorDash. 

If the driver does nothing more than show up at the door with the correct order packaged neatly, you need to add a tip of 10% to 15% to your total bill. Delivery drivers who go out of their way for you, waiting at the door until the band finishes a song, bringing extra plates and utensils so orders can be shared, or walking up an especially steep hill to get to your rehearsal space should be tipped 20%-25%.

You are unable to drive yourself to the performance or rehearsal. Nobody is available to give you a ride. You depend on Uber or Lyft to get you there. 

Rideshare drivers should be able to count on a tip of 15% to 20%. This is for the average safe, clean, pleasant ride. You may want to offer a slightly higher tip to the driver who helped load your instrument or other equipment into the car. 

The band is taking a break and everyone is hungry. You run out and pick up the takeout order. When you get to the counter, there is a tip jar next to the cash register or order pickup window. 

In the past, tipping was not expected at self-service windows. Today, a tip of 10% of the total bill is customary. While you are picking it up yourself, the tip is for the staff who carefully prepared and packed your order. 

Writing this song (or poem, or novel) has absorbed so much of your focus this afternoon, you completely forgot you were supposed to run to the store and pick up some items you forgot the last time you went grocery shopping. And you have to do it fast because you need to be at a venue to perform this evening. At the store, a floor associate goes out of their way to help you gather the items quickly, and the cashier bags everything according to the room it belongs in to save you time. 

Retail employees at “big box” stores are one of the few categories of service people you should not tip. They will certainly deserve it, especially if they have gone out of their way for you. But tipping them will likely get them reprimanded, if not fired. And don’t try to sneak them some cash when the manager isn’t looking. Large corporate retail stores have cameras all over the place. If the manager doesn’t see them, somebody else on staff certainly will. 

Some appearance maintenance is in order before your next performance. You head to a salon for a cut, color, professional skincare service, or manicure or pedicure. 

Tip professionals who help you look your best at least 25% of the total cost of the services. As with all other tipped work, if you asked for something that was especially difficult or time consuming, tip a bit more. This applies to time spent in consultation too. If your goal was to adopt an obscure retro style, and the stylist took extra time to scroll through multiple web searches on your phone with you, or if you weren’t sure what you wanted when you walked in, and they spent time helping you make a decision, show your appreciation with a higher tip. 



When you are in a position to receive a tip, of course you will respond with grace and gratitude, regardless of the amount offered. When you are in the position to offer a tip, always err on the side of generosity. You are supporting your fellow artists and community members. 


by Jess Szabo'
Originally published on Artist Cafe Utica
​www.artistcafeutica.com 








​

Artists’ workspaces are always pictured as colorful and inspirational. While we do not all fit that expectation, most of us do all we can to make the place where we create and practice our art as comfortable and productive as we can. 

When we’re working our second jobs and day jobs, workplaces today can be rather stark and even a bit cold. Decorating trends favor a lot of white, gray, and black. There is little color, and when it is seen, it is usually in the form of traditional “lobby furniture” and “office furniture.” This type of furniture and decor is of course easy to find, more affordable than filling the space with more comfortable furniture intended for a home, and much more durable. Still, it does little to help customers, clients, potential employees, or collaborators feel welcome or remember the business. 

Many public places add works of art to their lobbies, offices, or meeting rooms to generate pleasant feelings in their customers, and make their businesses stand out among the many similarly furnished and decorated places around town. This has been shown to be an effective tactic. Looking at art can cause similar reactions in the brain to falling in love, or looking at someone you love. Reduced stress, improved memory, and greater feelings of empathy have also been noted in studies that examine the impact of viewing works of art. 

One way local business owners and managers can use the visual arts to make their workspaces inviting and memorable is to lease one or more paintings from the Paul Parker Utica Trust. 

Paul Parker was a  painter, Hamilton College professor, and chair of the Hamilton College Art department for twenty-two years, from 1948 until his retirement in 1970.  He was born in LaGrange, Illinois in 1905. Parker held degrees from the University of Illinois, and the University of Chicago. Before moving to Utica, he served as the Head of the Art Department for the University of South Dakota (1937-1939), Director of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (1940-1945) and the Director of the Des Moines Art Center (1945-1948).

During the 1950s and 1960s, Parker sketched and painted scenes of pre-Urban renewal Utica. When he retired, Parker set twenty-two of his paintings aside to form this permanent collection. 

Each painting in the trust is an original, framed oil painting featuring scenes that will feel familiar to many who grew up in Utica, during these decades, and welcoming to those who moved here after the time reflected in the work. When shown prints from the collection, long-time residents immediately begin sharing memories of Utica’s past, while newer arrivals are typically moved to ask questions about their new hometown. 

Parking Lot, painted in 1956 features a row of five distinctive 1950’s cars sure to bring back memories of first driver’s licenses and first vehicles. Barber Shop, created in 1952, instantly brings to mind the days when men of all ages gathered in these places for both grooming and socializing. Encounter, from 1952, is a street scene in which a group of people meets up on the sidewalk. Seat Cover Installed, a painting done in 1955, contrasts a crisp, clear ad for seat covers painted on the side of a building with the collection’s signature soft, muted tones. Other paintings are named after the specific Utica location portrayed in them, such as North Genessee Street (1952), Park Avenue (1956), Encounter on Bleecker Street (1956), and Terminal Hotel (1953).

The color palette for most of the works tends toward warm shades of rust, reds, greens, and teals, with soft blue-gray skies.

Business owners and managers can lease the works for $250 per month, per painting. They must agree to lease them for at least three months. Businesses of all sizes and types are welcome to display the paintings, but rentals are limited to public places. The paintings may not be hung in private homes. Workplaces that choose three or more paintings for extended periods of time will be asked to pay for insurance on the paintings. But there are no other costs. Representatives from the Paul Parker Utica Trust will transport the paintings of your choice to your place of business and hang them for you. 

Whether your business is in the arts or not, choosing a painting from the Paul Parker Utica Trust supports your fellow Utica artists. All funds raised through the leasing of these paintings are used to support Utica artists. 

“The Trust was a sponsor of the play ‘The Wizard of Was,’ Trustee Cassandra Harris-Lockwood noted, referring to a play she wrote, directed and produced locally. “The Trust also sponsored Utica artist Clint Shenendoah for his entire career.” 

The Paul Parker Utica Trust is based out of the local nonprofit organization “For the Good, Inc.” Detailed information about leasing the paintings is available by calling the organization directly at 315-797-2417. Those who prefer to communicate in writing may email For the Good at Forthegoodinc@gmail.com 

Don’t miss out on this special, unique to Utica opportunity to beautify your workspace, boost your business’s reputation, and support your fellow local artists. 

 


by Jess Szabo'
originally published on Artist Cafe Utica
​www.artistcafeutica.com 


​

We have all heard those stories “everyone” swears are true. Occasionally, they do  turn out to be true. Most of the time, they turn out to be the result of poor research, or intentionally invented or exaggerated. A few of these tales and claims revolve around making or saving money. 

Urban Legend: You can start with a penny or a paperclip and trade up to things like cars and houses. 

Reality: This has been done. Beginning in 2005, Canadian blogger Kyle MacDonald set out to trade a red paperclip he found on his desk for a house by gradually trading up. He swapped the paperclip for a pen, and kept trading and making deals until he had his house. YouTuber Ryan Trahan has  successfully duplicated this experiment this past year, starting with a penny, and trading up until he owned a tiny home. 

The process just isn’t as easy or as fast as it appears to be. The original challenge took an entire year to complete. Trahan often does his trade ups in the span of a week, but he uses his status as a content creator with a strong following to help with his trades. People participate because they recognize him from YouTube and want to be included in the video. This is fine, and actually makes the videos fun to watch. But the experience is likely to be a bit more of a struggle for those without a large established following. 

Urban Legend: Dollar General puts items on sale for as little as a penny.

Reality: While penny items have been found at Dollar General stores, this is the result of a mistake, not a  sale. Items that ring up for a penny have already been discounted as much as the store allows, and were supposed to be cleared from the sales floor.

Employees do not know which items may have been missed and are ringing up for a penny. They are not allowed to help customers search for penny items, or allow them to go back and grab another pile of merchandise should they find something that rings up for a penny. The best way to stumble upon penny items is to learn the season and discount codes from the tags, and select the oldest, most out of date pieces in the store. But there is no guarantee any of these will ring up for a penny, and if something should, the staff will be required to remove all other items from the floor. 

Consider yourself blessed if something in your Dollar General haul rings up for a penny. But don’t show up at Dollar General stores and make a mess digging through sale items, make the cashier ring up items and then say you don’t want them when they don’t ring up for a penny, or demand the staff sell you something for a penny because you heard about someone else getting that item for a single cent. 

Urban Legend: You can get anything you want for a fraction of the price by charging it on a credit card, then sending in a small payment with “paid in full” written on the check. 

Reality: This will absolutely never work. The urban legend seems to have originated because it is possible, in some situations, to settle debt for less than what you owe. But this only happens if both parties agree to it. Both the credit card company and the customer would have to agree to discharge the debt for only a few dollars, and put it in writing, for this to happen. 

Credit card companies are corporations. They exist to turn a profit. Nobody working for any credit card company in America would have a job the next hour, never mind the next day, if they allowed a customer to charge up a credit card, and then wrote off the entire balance upon receiving a check for a fraction of that amount with “paid in full” written on it. Charging  $1,000 on your credit card, sending the company $10, and writing “paid in full” on the memo line will get you a $990 credit card balance…plus interest if you don’t send in the rest of that $990 before the next billing cycle. 

Urban Legend: If you follow the example of many millionaires and set up seven income streams, you too will become a millionaire. 

Reality: The “millionaires have seven income streams, so seven income streams is the path to being a millionaire” legend emerged from a misunderstanding of the term “income stream.” Millionaires have too much money for it to just sit around in a bank. They have professionals invest their money for them, in stocks, real estate, bonds, and CDs. These three forms of large scale investment alone count as three streams. Capital gains from selling off assets counts as a fourth. Any royalties the millionaire may be entitled to counts as stream number five. Profits from businesses they own is number six. Their paycheck is stream number seven. 

If you already have the funds to make these major investments and earn income from capital gains, the rights to something that pays you more than a few dollars here and there in royalties, and a business that is turning a profit, maintaining all of these income streams may indeed be your key to becoming a millionaire. And there is certainly nothing wrong with getting started on all of these on a smaller scale. But  making money from seven different places will not automatically result in great wealth. 

Working two part-time minimum wage jobs to equal forty hours per week, going back and forth between driving for Uber or Lyft on Saturday, using two of those “points for internet searches” programs to earn the occasional ten dollar gift card, and selling makeup to your sister and cousin through direct sales adds up to seven income streams, and for a lot of people that would barely cover the bills plus earn them a few free items, never mind generate millions. 

Urban Legend: You can save money by making all of your own cosmetics. 

Reality: Creating items like eyeliner, mascara, lipstick, and eyeshadow is a complicated process. By the time you purchase the equipment and the ingredients needed to make a single item, you will have spent more than if you just bought the same thing from a high end brand. Getting around this by using one or two non-cosmetic items in place of makeup, such as spices for eye shadow, does not always work, and may cause irritation or infection, depending on what is placed too near the eyes or lips. 
To truly save money on cosmetics, narrow your routine down to only those items you truly feel you need or want to use. Choose drugstore items, or watch a few videos and read some beauty blogs to learn which less expensive brands offer duplicate shades of your favorite high end products. Wait for sales and use coupons. Some items can be made at home to save money, but makeup, hair color, and many skincare products are better purchased premade from a store or salon. 

Did you believe any of these money making or saving urban legends? What others are floating around out there? 




​

As earning a living has become more of a challenge for many, jobs in the “gig economy” are increasingly common. In addition to being a freelance, or independent, artist, we can now hire ourselves out as independent contractor delivery drivers, transportation providers, or personal shoppers. If driving, spending long periods of time out of the house, or approaching strangers’ homes presents an obstacle for you, or if you’re not already a driver or retail worker and you want to do something within your field, tutoring online may also be an option. Here are some tips on getting started. 

Look for U.S. based, multi-subject tutoring websites that are currently accepting new tutors.

Due to a hastily enacted law in China, opportunities to teach English as a Second Language to Chinese children online are pretty much gone. The law, in part, forbids foreign workers from conducting business inside China. And while you were of course never truly in China when you taught online, the government counts visiting the country virtually, via webcam, as conducting business inside China. Many of the well known companies may still exist, and may even appear to be hiring tutors, but the most you would be able to do is sell pre-recorded lessons. The income potential simply isn’t there anymore. U.S. based sites pay a bit less, but once accepted to one, you will have access to their platform and be able to accept tutoring sessions and/or clients. 

Schedule a couple of “just looking around” days at first.

As with the shopping, driving, and delivery gig work, gig work in tutoring is pretty straightforward. You use their platform to connect with students and to conduct the lessons. Some may require a student to select you and schedule each lesson. Others will allow you to log in and claim lessons students post. Depending on the site, you may have the option of scheduling lessons with specific students or claiming lessons as they come into the website. 

Spend a few days learning the format your tutoring platform offers. Make sure you’re reasonably comfortable there, and that the site is easy for you to navigate.  Give your first few lessons without setting any goals for the money, and get a picture of how much you might earn during an average lesson. Take note of common issues that come up. 

Make safety for you and your family and friends your first priority.

Before tutoring for the first time, check to make sure the company records all lessons for everyone’s comfort and safety. 

The only information students need is your knowledge and insight about the subjects you choose to tutor in. There is absolutely no reason why some guy stuck on his Creative Writing class homework needs to ask the poet who’s tutoring him where she lives, where she hangs out offline, or where he can find her online outside of the tutoring website. Nobody needs to know your last name, any of your financial information, or details about your personal life. If anyone requests video or voice tutoring and says or does something unsettling or disgusting, or types something upsetting or threatening in the chat pod, end the lesson and report the person to the company immediately. 

Log out of sessions that violate the company’s rules immediately.

Tutoring companies, at least the honest ones, have strict policies about helping students cheat on tests, doing homework for the student, or in any other way helping them plagiarize writing or any other material. If you are tutoring and realize the student is taking a quiz, trying to manipulate or bully you into doing their editing or writing for them, or is adding a few details to a purchased paper, let the student know that this is not what tutoring is intended to do, and log out. 

Don’t worry about being rude or hurting the person’s feelings. Chances are, they know what they’re doing, are well aware that a lot of people are going to “hang up” on them, and are just shopping around for that one dishonest tutor willing to pretend they don’t see what’s going on. Even if you aren’t bothered by the idea of helping students cheat academically, remember that the tutoring center can terminate your association with them if they catch you. 

Watch out for scammers.

Most tutoring platforms have some type of free communication area. Some have “waiting rooms,” where the student can chat with you free of charge for a few minutes to see if you can help them, and nearly all have some type of messaging system designed to allow the student to arrange lessons. Some students will attempt to ask you specific questions about their work in these areas, in an attempt to get the homework help they need without scheduling a paid lesson. Prompt them to pay for a lesson once. If they ignore you and continue to try to get you to tutor them through a free area, send one last message telling them that you will be online should they decide to schedule a lesson, and log out of the area.

Be prepared to deal with a wide variety of people.

Students may log in from all across the country. Depending on the platform, you may get all grade levels and all skill levels. You will internet meet the most gracious, studious college students, and the ones who clearly got one too many “self-esteem” workshops and just want to sit there while you tell them everything they’re doing is amazing and their teacher is a fool if they don’t give them a hundred for anything they hand in.  Some of them will have trouble paying attention, while others are intensely focused on every detail of their work.  You’ll deal with people who take an extra minute to thank you, and those who rudely hang up on you when they realize you’re not going to do the work for them.  

While leaving any situation that feels dangerous or is truly distressing is something you should absolutely do, a successful tutor is going to be one who can tolerate and/or shrug off typical, expected variations in student attitude and behavior. 

Don’t let tutoring take over your life.

One of the drawbacks of the gig economy overall is that because you can work at any time, you feel like you should be working all the time. You develop a tendency to scold yourself with “I could be making money,” anytime you start a little later than usual or take a day off from the gig. 

Make a rule that there are certain things you absolutely will not give up to spend the time tutoring. You may decide that…okay…you’ll give up a few evenings of watching TV to tutor, but you will absolutely not reschedule rehearsals with your band or your music practice time for it. Or maybe you need to make a rule that the time you spend with your kids is not to be interrupted with tutoring, but you’ll give up going out with the guys one weekend a month to tutor. Even if you eventually turn your tutoring practice into a full-time business, everyone needs time off. 

Don’t count on the money from one tutoring platform, even if it seems to be going well during your “looking around” period. 

People who build gig work into a full-time, or steady part-time business either do it the old-fashioned way, by creating and marketing a service in their community, or they take on a variety of “gig” jobs, and treat each service like just one tool in their overall business plan. They drive for both Uber and Lyft or deliver meals for DoorDash and GrubHub. Gig job platforms are just too overcrowded with workers to offer consistently reliable work. 

Tutoring online is no different. Sticking to one platform, I started tutoring online on November 17, 2021. By November 26, I had earned $117.00 My first month’s total was $318.00. My most recent paycheck as of the time of this writing was $10.40 for the entire week. 

Unless you’re planning to use online tutoring gig work to supplement a larger tutoring business, it can really only be counted on for extra cash, or for small, short term goals, such as earning the money to make a special purchase, pay a single unexpected bill, or pay for your family vacation or Christmas shopping later this year.


Joining the gig economy as a tutor has its challenges and drawbacks, but it can be a flexible and reasonably fast  way to earn some extra cash while doing something that serves others. As with all gig work, it requires a lot of hard work and is far from a get rich quick scheme. Time, effort, realistic expectations, and reasonable limits are the keys to success. 





​

Resolutions almost always fail. Most of them are made more to go along with tradition than to make real, necessary changes. And they are rarely backed up by plans. Instead of making resolutions, why not try setting goals for 2022? By now, most of us have heard of the SMART method for setting goals. Created by consultant George T. Doran in 1981, this goal checklist began as a way to formulate goals in a corporate environment. Today, we can use his method to set goals for our art practice, second job, side hustle, or personal interests. 

Specific goals are more likely to be reached. 

One of the problems with resolutions is that they are often vague. “I want to improve my finances” doesn’t really offer anything to work toward. You could be talking about a complete overhaul of your budget, getting an entirely new job, and completely changing your lifestyle and spending habits. Or you could be talking about spending five minutes looking for dropped change and plastic bottles to redeem for dimes. 

“My goal is to have an extra hundred dollars after paying all the bills each month,” or “This January, my goal is to rewrite the family budget to allow us to put $200 aside for our summer vacation in July,” are specific financial goals. 

Measurable goals encourage you to keep going. 

One of the easiest ways to give up on a goal is to lose sight of your progress. Making sure your progress can be measured is one way to keep yourself from losing track of where you are and how much further you need to go. Some goals are measured in an obvious way. If it’s my goal to save $500 in the first six months of the year, I’m going to measure my progress by how much money I have stashed. Other goals aren’t as easy to measure. If my goal is to sing onstage again by the end of July, how do I measure my progress? Will it be measured in the number of people I sing in front of offstage? Will it be measured in the number of songs I learn and rehearse enough to be comfortable performing them onstage? Am I going to set a number of hours to practice each week? 

When a goal is achievable, we are less likely to give up out of frustration.

Making our goals achievable isn’t “politically correct” these days. We’re supposed to tell ourselves and each other that we can do anything as long as we put our minds to it, adopt the right attitude, and never give up. But this simply is not true. Everyone has their strengths, weaknesses, things they’re called to do for a living, things that they can do, but will only ever be hobbies, and things they’re terrible at. This includes people you admire, people who seem like they can do “everything,” me, the person next to you, and you. 

 We also have to take our family, finances, professional obligations, health, and other goals into consideration when setting goals. 

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t dream, or set far reaching goals, just that they should be something we have the ability to do. Someone who has been playing guitar and singing professionally for twenty years, has been in bands, written songs, and played for live audiences could absolutely set a goal of making an album every other year. Their friend who just picked out their instrument yesterday is probably not going to be ready to be a professional musician in six weeks.. 

Keeping goals relevant helps us keep going by making the goal part of something already important to us. 

Setting meaningless goals just because that’s what everybody else is talking about doing is a surefire way to fail completely. If the goal isn’t meaningful to us in some way, we are likely to honestly not care enough to put in the necessary work to achieve it. 

Money saved toward splurging on  a designer bag or coat is likely to be spent before it reaches the necessary amount if the saver does not truly enjoy wearing designer labels. Setting a goal to learn a language simply because your family insists it will help your job prospects is more likely to end in a pile of discarded books and software than language proficiency. 

Time-specific goals, also called deadlines, prevent excuse making. 

Vowing to learn to play the piano, make a new budget, get your house cleaned and painted, or finally get a professional wardrobe put together “someday” leaves an overly easy way out when you don’t do anything. Setting a deadline holds you accountable. If you set a goal to have the living room professionally cleaned and painted by the middle of June, you know you will feel a sense of failure if it’s August seventeenth and you’re still looking at the coffee stains on the carpet and the twenty year old paint on the walls. This wish to avoid that feeling will keep you motivated to keep saving money, clearing out clutter, getting estimates, moving furniture, or any other steps you need to take to achieve that goal. 

Forget making new year’s resolutions. Have you set your 2022 goals yet? 

by Jess Szabo 
Originally published on Artist Cafe Utica 
​www.artistcafeutica.com 


​

The “What really happens when you apply to 100 jobs” challenge ended with only 25 job applications, but a blessing nonetheless. Here are my final journal entries of the challenge:
 
 
Day 15: November 10
 
This morning I found out I didn’t get the artisanal cheese job. It does stand to reason, since I do not have years of specialty cheese experience.
 
On a serious note, I put in for another open position at <adult education provider>  as a part-time adult literacy instructor., I applied for a very similar position at the beginning of this challenge, and this is one of the few jobs where I have to say, I don’t understand why they completely ignore me.
 
I don’t mean to sound narcissistic. Most jobs, I can see a reason why I got rejected. The entry level customer service job people don’t want somebody who, on paper, looks like they’re going to have a lot of chances to find something better and quit. A lot of those “writing coach” jobs  require you to have a teaching certificate, it’s not just a “preferred” qualification. (I do not have one.)  Others seem to want somebody who makes their living as a freelance writer. I barely make spending money as a freelance writer. But I would be almost perfect for a job as an adult literacy instructor. It’s pretty much what I’ve been doing for the past six and a half years already.
 
This application also marks the one quarter of the way finished with the challenge point. I have applied to 25 jobs. So far, all I’ve gotten were “interviews” from places that have a bot automatically schedule an interview anytime somebody applies, and one job offer…..for a temporary holiday cashier position at <big box store>.
 
November 11: Day 16: No activity
 
November 12: Day 17
 
Yesterday this challenge was inactive because there was nothing to do. The number of jobs I can even reasonably apply to is dwindling.
 
Last night, I did receive another one of those auto responses, this one from a place looking for someone to basically run the laundry service overnight in a nursing home. And the thing that stands out about it is the title, “Laundry Aide.” I’m noticing a lot of that…job titles that sound like one thing, but actually have the job requirements of a very different job.
 
 November 13-15: Days 18-21
 
These three days can be summed up in one quick entry. Every time I check Indeed, there are fewer and fewer jobs I can even apply for, and the same jobs that I already applied for listed over and over again.
 
Day 22 November 16, 2021
 
This is the day the challenge ended. There were no more steady wage or salary paying jobs that I could even feasibly apply to, and I needed to find some side hustle, second job, or other income source.
 
 
December 22, 2021: How it ended
 
The “What really happens when you apply to 100 jobs challenge” ended on November 17, 2021, but the ending had begun to take shape around a week earlier.
 
Tutorme dot com looked like gig work. Looking over their site, it appeared that working for them meant you had the same job as someone who drives for Uber, delivers for UberEats, DoorDash, or GrubHub, or shops for Instacart. You just offer online tutoring instead of rides, restaurant meal delivery, or grocery shopping and delivery.
 
Something…the Holy Spirit…just kept telling me to apply anyway. At first, I resisted. I had to be misinterpreting the message. Making money tutoring online seemed impossible. That’s why I made that rule for the challenge.  I kept picturing myself working all week and coming away with a dollar. But I just kept getting the message, that little voice that you know is coming from your own thoughts, but feels like a loving parent talking to you, uring me to “Go on…apply to work as a tutor for this company.”
 
When I prayed about it, I got an even stronger answer…yes…apply. That time, I listened, brought the challenge to a close, and applied for the gig work.  By November 17, I was hired, set up, and ready to give the gig economy a shot after all.
 
I earned my first paycheck on November 26. It was $117.00. My second check on December 3 was for $93. On December 10, I earned $64. The following week, on December 17, I earned my final paycheck for my first full month, $45. I’m rounding of course, but my first month’s income from Tutorme was around $318. I went back just to earn some extra cash and am expecting a deposit today or tomorrow for $17.60. This brings my 2021 total to $336.27.
 
Earning more would have been possible, but I purposely put tutoring on hold for the year before I reached $400. Once you earn $400, you have to claim it on your taxes. And while I have no problem paying taxes, I am not at all prepared to file freelance income taxes for 2021. If you only have taxed wages, you can file for free at my income level. If you have freelance income, the fee is around $100. I will be fully prepared to pay that next year, when I tutor as a steady side hustle, but the end of 2021 was a trial period for me.
 
Looking at those numbers so far, online tutoring looks like a strong source of extra or supplemental income. It’s a way to bring in some money to pay that one bill that’s still left after you budget the income from your main source. That $336.27 could be somebody’s electric bill, grocery budget, or the amount they need to put aside for school expenses throughout the year or an emergency fund.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I would like to wish everyone a Blessed and Merry Christmas, and thank all of you for reading the “Library 315” section of Artist Cafe Utica throughout the year. I hope you come back for one last article of 2021, about setting goals for the new year, on December 31. In 2022, look for more about online tutoring, additional challenges, and more free content for and about Utica artists.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

In part three of The Challenge that Failed in the Best Possible Way, we finish out the first two full weeks of my “What really happens when you apply to 100 jobs?” challenge.
 
 
Day 8 : November 3:
 
The jobs I can even reasonably apply to are dwindling. I didn’t even apply to any jobs today, and simply checked my applications and updated my list of jobs.
 
Day 9: November 4
 
The only job I could even apply for that would fit into the rules of this challenge is for a spa receptionist at the nearest casino. I would have to either arrange to use the Call a Bus service, or make one heck of a side income to honestly accept something like that, because it is something like a forty mile drive from me.
 
So far, I’m up to 17 jobs for the challenge. I have still only gotten an offer to work as a temporary cashier at <Big Box store>. I didn’t even get an interview on the two jobs that I would actually take as second teaching jobs.
 
Day 10: November 5
 
My day started with working my real job, teaching writing to adults online as an adjunct English instructor. But my day of this challenge started with a rejection letter from <well known cell phone company>.
 
One of the reasons I have trouble getting job offers from entry level jobs is because it looks like I have too many options. They want people who would appear to have no choice but to keep working for them. They want kids with no previous job history and no education they can take someplace else. They want adults who have never worked, and would have trouble getting another job for a very long time. They want retired people, because althrough they would have the skills and experience, there is still so much ageism in our society, once it’s clear that you retired from a career, it’s hard to get re-hired back into it.
 
My resume, with my graduate degree, more than a decade of experience in two fields, and an active multi faceted career in a third, looks like I can just go out there and get a desirable job anytime I want. That is clearly and obviously not true, as second teaching jobs do not even appear to be opening up right now, but that’s the way the corporate types who read my resume and cover letter see it.
 
The second notable moment of this challenge today was a rejection letter from one of the jobs I actually wanted. This is just an experiment to see what job hunting is really like, but I do also have my eye out for second teaching jobs, and this was one of them.
 
I also received a second “just for the challenge” job rejection. These are starting to sting.
 
 
Day 11: November 6
 
Today I made it through one fifth of the challenge, with my 20th job application. It was for a breakfast bar attendant at a nice hotel in town. They demand one year of restaurant experience. For a breakfast bar attendant. That would be the person who takes the empty self-serve pans back to the kitchen, puts the full ones out on the bar, and keeps the dining area the guests use clean. People with a year of restaurant experience can go get jobs as servers and actually make decent money through tips.
 
Day 12: November 7
 
It has been less than two weeks, I’m only up to 21 submitted job applications, and I am already running out of jobs I can reasonably apply for. I even applied for one yesterday and got immediately rejected, because I can’t tutor both English and math.
 
This is a similar problem to what everyone who applies to work at <national chain restaurant mentioned before> is going to encounter; they want somebody who can do the work of three jobs, for low pay.
 
November 8: Day 13
 
I just put in for a temporary holiday job cutting and wrapping cheese for< a specialty food store.> They actually asked me how many years experience I have working with specialty cheeses, and made me take a management skills test to finish the application.
 
This is becoming an absurd pattern.
 
 
November 9: Day 14
 
Break day.
 
 
It must have been the cheese wrapping job application that wore me out enough to need a day off. Overall, this portion of the journal shows that the “all these jobs are available, people just don’t want to work,” claim is flimsy at best, and is in many cases, completely unfounded. The jobs are posted. They are not necessarily available to anyone and everyone who needs or wants to work.
 
Any  job is going to have reasonable requirements. Anyone seeking to fill a position is going to need someone who meets the basic qualifications to do the job. Rejecting my application if I applied to work in a garage or for a home repair service would be completely reasonable. Not only do I have no skills or training in that area, I’m more than a little dense when it comes to that type of intelligence, and would have a difficult time learning how to repair appliances or work on cars in the first place, never mind reaching a professional level in it.
 
But the longer this challenge went on, the more it became clear that many employers are….well….asking people how many years of experience they have with fancy cheese.