Thanks, Perna. I did send off emails to various companies, but didn't get much back. The most promising one said that he'd talk to his boss about it and let me know, but that was almost a month ago...other than that, I've either had replies saying they're not hiring interns, they haven't made their minds up yet as to whether they're hiring interns, or just no reply at all. I'd basically given up on getting a job that way. (I was talking to dad at the weekend, though, and he said not to give up quite yet - one of the people I emailed was a friend of his, who passed it on to his boss, and apparently the boss is still on holiday, so may not have seen the email).

I think I'd agree with that!

Thanks for the suggestions. I think the "rod man" job sounds the best (teaching sounds pretty stressful to me as well, to be honest ), but I Googled it and I can't find any results in the UK - is it an American term? I can't think of a British equivalent.

I did actually try and get a job in a hardware store when I was 16...that was my first job interview, and also my most intimidating - there were two of them there, one of them making notes of everything I said. I didn't get the job, and after the interview I was glad I didn't - although they'd told me it'd just be 6 hours on a Sunday, at the interview they told me it'd be 6 hours both days at the weekend, plus extra time during the week, and this would have been during my busiest year at school. Might be worth trying again if I can't find anything else, though, I guess.

I was considering finding work doing data entry...I made a similar post to this one last year , and it was one of the suggestions. It still sounds like quite a good one, although there's a chance I'd be asked to do general admin as well, which would mean phones... Then again, I've had a bit of practice at phoning recently, what with phoning the engineering companies and phoning around about flats for next year, so maybe I'd cope.