Social anxiety and waitressing?

Have you tried counselling?

Well since you will be working with your friend at her workplace then maybe you could ask her to help you while you are working there? You wont feel that bad if you have someone behind your back.

Although waitressing, or indeed any job working with the general public, seems terrifying, it has the potential to do the world of good for your social anxiety. I've struggled with SA in the past and unfortunately, one of the only ways to deal with it is by putting yourself in uncomfortable situations as it's the only way you'll learn how to deal with them. Working with a friend would be a bonus - if she knows about your SA, she could help ease you into the role and you'd have a familiar face should you start feeling overwhelmed or distressed.

From my experience, food service industries don't tend you throw you in at the deep end when you're customer facing. It's likely you'll be paired up with someone when waitressing tables so you get a feel of how everything works.

I’m 19 and have been really pressed for money lately. When the pandemic ends, I want to get a job but I don’t know what to do because of my social anxiety.
I struggle immensely to talk to people and usually end up blurting out strings of incoherent words. I just get extremely nervous. This is the reason why I’m in my third year of uni without a single friend, because people are either weirded out by my lack of social skills or wary to approach me because I’m basically mute.

I’ve had two jobs in the past, one in an assistant role at a clinic and the other as an assistant teacher at a primary school.

Both experiences were pretty traumatising lol. In my first job, I would literally walk into the building with heart palpitations. Because I was so incompetent and kept on messing up, my boss hated me. No exaggeration, every day she would nitpick me to the point where I’d go home in tears.

In my second role, I couldn’t even control a bunch of 7 year olds. They basically walked all over me and the only way that I could get them to focus was by bribing them.

The thing is, almost all jobs that I’ve come across require some level of social interaction and the highest paid jobs are for some reason, waitressing jobs. My only friend has offered to recommend me at her workplace which is a restaurant/bar business, but I’m really unsure.

If I couldn’t even handle the pressure of sorting documents and teaching 7 year olds basic math, I don’t know if I could handle dealing with fully grown adults in a fast paced environment.

Any advice???

Thank you for the encouragement, I think the most discouraging thing for me however is the fact that I've had a very similar mindset about forcing myself into uncomfortable situations, but at least the last two jobs that I had honestly worsened my mental health. However, I know that I'll have to get a job sooner or later... so I'll try and take your advice and make the move!