Job where a shy character comes out of her shell?

What if she was a teacher? It would definitely allow her to come out of her shell.

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High school band teacher
Flight instructor
Karate sensei

Maybe a librarian or a librarian's assistant? Pointing people towards books and discussing them may be the key that unlocks her shyness.

Landscaping. No, seriously. I've met some of the shyest people, and then I bump into them at my landscaping job and they are the most energetic, outgoing people ever, but if you see them on the street, you'd never think it. Actually, there are three girls coming to mind right now.

The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everyone else.

- Umberto Eco

A small retail shop.

I am really shy. Stupid shy. I hate going up to people to ask for something. Even teachers. I work at a small yarn shop. There are seven people that work there, and that is including the owner and her husband, the accountant. I have to answer the phone, help people find the right yarn, teach classes, help people that just come in with a problem, and I do register. I can ask people if they need help, show them where the yarn is that they are looking for, fix mistakes for people, whatever. But I am really shy.

Anything in hospitality or where she has to plan or coordinate events. Like a hotel events manager or someone who is in charge of events at a banquet hall.

That will force you out of your shell in a hurry, and you need great multitasking skills.

Acting? Johnny Depp is very shy in real life, but you would never guess it from his movies. Maybe she could be in film or theater.

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To go with what Stellameredith said, I used to be horribly shy, even into my late teens/early twenties and then I got my first real job as a Reservations Co-ordinator at a hotel, where the phone never stopped ringing and I was forced to talk to people all the time (and some could be very nasty). I'd have to be talking to the person on the phone, at the same time checking the computer for availability, booking it, then I'd be trying to check their confirmation fax and the phone would be going again, or the receptionists would be whinging because they couldn't find a booking so I'd have to go and help them, then I'd have to check details with management, or people would want to visit the hotel and check the rooms before they made a large booking, greet coach loads of 40+ people every month... gah, after a couple of months, I was too busy to remember to be shy. But I was (am) still my usual quiet, introverted self outside of work ...

As for going to college, I'm sure some places do Hotel and Catering Management programmes or similar

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars
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I'm going to echo the hotel statements. I'm a desk clerk at a hotel. Normally, I am quiet, but I'm sort of forced to be outgoing and cheerful here at work.

Your Service,
Ket Makura

Hey, that's interesting. I would've thought a hotel would be the worst place for a shy person, because you always have to be "on" and a little phony. But maybe a shy person is better able to fake it than an outgoing person, since they usually have to do some faking in everyday conversation anyway.

So what would be involved in a hospitality job? I like this front desk position. Is that pretty much a minimum wage position or can it pay more? Is there any downtime in the position when my character can be drawing things in her sketchbook? And what does a "night auditor" do? Is that a busy position?

I'm gonna be honest and let you know that the first thing that popped into my head was "hmmm... stripper?".

Not even kidding. I don't meant to say that it's the best option out of the above but its pretty funny.

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The first thing that I thought of is someone who answers phones all day, maybe like a hotline or a helpline. It's probably easier for shy people to talk to others when they're not face to face. What I immediately immediately thought of was this episode of Psych and these people working at a help hotline that talks to people who are depressed.

I've already answered most of the other questions in your other post, but about the pay: Yeah, it's pretty much around minimum wage, as far as pay. You could get more in a more high-end hotel, most likely.

Your Service,
Ket Makura

To some this may seem silly, but i first thought about acting.

Theres this girl at my school who is the quietist, most shy girl you'd ever meet. But, whenever she has to read aloud (my language arts teacher forces us to pay attention by calling on us to start reading), she has so much energy, you'd never know she was shy. Same goes for plays I've seen her in.

Maybe your character is shy because she's uncomfortable with herself, but when she can be someone else, she's fine?

Heh, yeah, that's very true. If you listen to interviews with a lot of the most acclaimed Hollywood actors, a lot of them report having been shy as a kid (and some at least pretend to continue being shy today). It doesn't fit what I need my character to do, but I think you're very very right. Maybe I'll throw it into her backstory somewhere...

I would second teaching or work with children. I'm very shy with people I don't know. When I made my first sarcastic comment after three months in my last office job my colleagues were so shocked. Now I'm back working with children I'm forced to be outgoing, enthusiastic and all the rest for six hours a day. I have no choice. I'm much more nervy with my colleagues than I am with the kids. I work with rowdy teenagers but little kids might be less threatening for her.

Maybe she needs to be somewhere busy? I'm painfully shy at times, but if I have a job, I can do it and deal with people just fine, because I know what I'm trying to do. I'm helping them find something, searching for something for them, doing SOMETHING while I talk to them and work with them. I ran a registration table (I'm a teen, but I was sort of running the registration table because the two adults with me, hadn't actually gotten any instructions, and I had. So I organized efforts.) Anyway, I ran registration for a huge choir competition involving a dozen different choirs of large size. And since I knew what I needed to have each person do, or what I needed to do for each person, I was able to talk to them just fine.

The same holds true for the job I recently got as a Teacher's Aide at a Sylvan tutoring center. I pull books for the teachers, and they tell me if they need extra stuff. Since I'm running around so much and hurrying to do things in time, I don't worry about being shy. I just be me, because I'm too busy to be anything else.

Maybe this will work for your character?

To: PicturesqueEpiphany
lol Psych.... I love Little Boy Cat. And I love the goth/poet phone-help guy; he was hilarious! "I don't care what they say about suicide being so picturesque! Like your serine body floating softly to the top of a pristine lake. It's' not a good way to go!" (I just watched that episode last night too! Since I have all the episodes on DVD.)

*~*Laura*~*

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That's a good idea too. I think a lot of those helplines are volunteer-based, but at least the kids helpline around here is run by paid counselors. Not sure my character would do that, though, because there's a lot of training to be a social worker or counselor that I don't think would fit her shy profile. But I do like the idea of being on some sort of phone line. Not telemarketing, but something inbound.

Yeah, I like that idea. I think being busy has to be a big element of the job. Just have to figure out what that job is. I may pull together some of the suggestions from here though - either she's a hotel desk clerk or she may workat a hotel reservations line (I think some hotels have devoted staff for that) or some other inbound phone thing. Only thing is she's in her late 20s so I'm not sure I want to put her in a near-minimum-wage job. I have her living alone and going on a pretty nice vacation with friends so I want that to be realistic.