Low Stress Jobs to Have While You're Paying Off the Loans for Your Liberal Arts Education

Video store clerk
Most video stores don't open until around 10 AM, so not only will you be able to sleep in, you'll miss the morning traffic. Once you get to work, you get to spend the day watching movies and talking about movies. You are surrounded by other employees who moonlight in rock bands, as filmmakers, or who go to college, so there will be no end of engaging discussion about everything from music to film to philosophy. And to the customers, your opinion actually counts. They are relying on you to watch all the movies (which you can do for free) and help them make the choice for that evening's entertainment. If you work in a cool independent store, especially in a smaller town, people will actually come in just to hang around and shoot the breeze with you. Not that you're getting paid all that much at first, but you are in fact getting paid to watch movies and talk to people. At the end of the night, which won't be that late as most stores close at 11 or midnight, you just shelve the movies, vacuum, and lock up. Everyone rents movies so you will encounter a cross section of the population, which is great if you want inspiration for writing. Remember, both Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith were once video store clerks, so you too can find great story fodder while leaning on a counter. All of the above also applies to music stores and comic shops. To get in the right mindset for this job, watch Clerks. Again.

Call center agent
You get paid to train, so you'll be doing something familiar for about six weeks: sitting in a classroom. Most of the training is spent learning how to work that center's particular computer operating system and database, so it's not like a real class with twenty page papers to write. Once you start taking phone calls, all you really have to do is apologize profusely all day for what a rotten company you represent. It's the greatest off-off-Broadway acting job You can sound sincerely sorry that someone's phone bill is too high or that their insurance company stinks while you do your nails, read a book, watch TV, or email. Although the customers are usually irate, as nobody calls an 800 number to tell the company how great they are, the situation is somewhat defused compared to a face to face customer service job because you don't have to look at them and they can't see you rolling your eyes. And unlike other Mc Jobs, call center jobs pay well and there are frequent pay raises and incentive bonuses. Just don't expect any respect for having gotten a four year degree, as your boss will probably be someone with a G.E.D. and supreme butt-kissing skills. Watch Office Space or Clockwatchers to regain your sense of humor after a bad day of calls.

Pizza delivery person
This job also starts late in the day and although you may have to wear a goofy uniform, everyone in the place looks just as goofy. Plus you won't spend a lot on a work wardrobe and work isn't a fashion show like it is in an office. If things get tense inside the restaurant, you just leave to deliver some pizzas and drive around for a minute. If you hustle and don't mind closing at night, you make anywhere from 25-40,000 dollars a year. And if you're young or young at heart, the folks who work at a pizza place always know where the party is after work. Just beware the lifer, aka the fifty year old guy who's paying two alimony payments from his pizza jockey job. He will do anything to trick you out of the good deliveries, so learn the area and plan your own routes. Watch Mystic Pizza for inspiration and remember Julia Roberts eventually got better roles too.

Substitute teacher
If you can pass a background check and you can tolerate children, this is the best job for the underemployed college graduate. You will make about 60-100 dollars a day, at least here in the low-wage-having south. You can work as much as you want to and if you don't feel like working that day, you don't go in. You don't have to worry about coworkers or office politics, because you can just go to a different school tomorrow. If a kid smarts off, send them to a regular teacher across the hall or call the vice principal. Believe me, the others won't want to follow Mr. Cool's example after he gets chewed out by a neighboring teacher today and has to look forward to getting it from the returning teacher tomorrow. You don't have to write lesson plans and if you make a mistake, just say, "I'm sorry; I didn't know. I'm just the substitute." Your movie choice to get ready for this job: Summer School.