What was your first job?

[lizcam]

This thread is inspired by my son, who worked his first full day of work today. He\'s a human sign-post! I\'m so proud!

Here he is hard at work;

Now my first job, other than the odd babysitting job, was as a clerk in a craft store. I got a %20 discount on everything in the store. What I wouldn\'t give to have that today! I left because I got a job in fast food that had more hours. Minimum wage at the time was $2.50 and hour. It\'s $8.00 now. Alex is making $11.00. Boy do times change!

What was your first job?

 

[Ogrebane]

Bag boy and shelf filler, although I think I had a paper round before that and my 4 younger brothers and I use to collect bottles and cans and cash them in as well.

 

[Shawn R. L.]

Washing pots and pans at Kaiser\'s Doughnuts. Definately started at the bottom.

 

[mattrock]

Sacking groceries. I made minimum wage which at that time was $4.25/hr. but I quickly learned that I could make an additional $8/hr in tips by hustling to help as many customers as I could each hour I worked and helping them get to the car. I\'d literally run back in after loading their groceries. Most of my coworkers spent all their time trying to avoid work.

To this day I work for commission and still try to see as many people as I can. My coworkers still spend most of their days trying to avoid work. lol

As an interesting aside: This lesson I learned early on made such an impression on me that I have been trying to instill it in my son too. My four year old already gets paid weekly, but not an allowance, he gets commission. He has chores that he does because he lives in my house and I feed him, and then he has some extras which, if he does them each week, he is paid based on his productivity. He can choose to not do them but then he makes no money. I want him to make the connection that work=money. It seems to be going well so far. The little guy is going to break me and you haven\'t lived until you\'ve seen a four year old vacuum and dust the entire house voluntarily.

 

[Dragon Forge Design]

Paper boy.. at 14 I was making bank... probably $60.00 a week and this was 1980 ish.. At 16 I had turned it in to a large route on weekends and I also had a drop station where I counted and set up papers for other carriers.. I was probably making $150.00 a week at that point.. all my friends were working the standard grocery store and fast food jobs working twice as many hours for 1/2 the wages s I was..

 

[DaN]

He\'s a human sign-post! I\'m so proud

Couldn\'t they find a suitable stick for the job? lol

Sorry Liz :innocent:

I started as paperboy too, then worked as general dogsbody assistant in a supermarket (Iceland) but I liked to spend most of my time in the -35°C cold storage room as you didn\'t get pestered

 

[Thunderhawker]

I was a porter in a bowling alley. I was 14 making $4.35/hr. I cleaned up behind slovenly bowlers, retrieved stray pins, took out the trash, cleaned the place top to bottom.

 

[miniDrake]

My first job was in the Modellers nook in Belfast .Got hooked on D&D and Games Workshop games when I was 12.Got to know the owner well and at 14 asked for a Saturday job only made £5 for the day but in those days £5 could get you 2 blister packs with staff discount.

Had tons of fun got lots of tips from a few other people that worked in the store.Did commission painting and for a year or 2 after working there I sculpted a few figures for the owner.

 

[Theomar Pius]

Groundskeeper at the local little league. I would chalk the baselines before each game, rake the infields, clean the dugouts, 6 days a week, for $20 after school. I was 13 years old at the time.
The next year, I did that as well as umpire the baselines. for $10 a game.

 

[Arma]

I had a paper round for a short time also applied to work at some agencies. Ended up doing night work in random factories for very little pay (the highlight was working in a quiche factory sprinkling parsley!).

I remember at that time being so into Warhammer FB that I would consider my pay in miniatures (for example, COOL!! That hour I just worked will pay for the Red Duke!).

Fun times

 

[PegaZus]

Not counting being paid slave labor for my father\'s business, my first job was cleaning up at a car dealership. During the summer, I got to be the parts man as well. E8TZ will forever be emblazoned upon my brain.

 

[BarstoolProphet]

I delivered newspapers starting at the tender age of 8 years old, and was making $50 a week, then. I did that until I was 13.

Then I did odd-jobs for a year, including being general labour for neighbours that were doing construction, shovelling driveways in the winter, and anything else I could do for money.

 

[Gilvan Blight]

Telemarketer for Meat Cleaver Frozen Food:

Good morning Mrs Jones, my name is Moe and I am calling for Meat Cleaver who are doing a short survey about grocery shopping. Do you have a freezer Mrs Jones?......

It was quite the scam as I could legitimately tell them I wasn\'t selling anything, as all I did was run people through a series of test questions. If based on those questions the people fit a certain profile (own not rent, 2 adults and at least one kid in their teens or more, and a large floor freezer) someone else would call up with the sales pitch that was something like, \"...a recent survey done in your area indicated that you would be the perfect candidate for our services ....\"

I made $7 an hour, Canadian which back then was like $4.00 US, which was above minimum just barely.

 

[olliekickflip]

Wow, I totally forgot that I was a paperboy as well. I am NOT a morning person so that job really sucked! I did enjoy collecting the money though as it took place AFTER school and involved regular trips to 7-11 to get slurpees and peanut m&m\'s! Very nice. I gave it all up though to persue my passion which was to be a female stripper...unfortunately I am a male so that is a major hurdle...oh well, whatcha gonna do??:cussing:

 

[Sand Rat]

Groundskeeper for a baseball field.

 

[Fizl]

Saturday assistant in a public library.

I had the shelving fu in those days....

Shaz

 

[Dragonsreach]

Like everyone else Paperboy.
Then did a school holiday job helping out with the scoreboards at a Golfing Competition. Good money £100 for a weeks work in the 70\'s.
Then started as a Trainee Computer Operator Waaaaaay back in 1974. IBM 360/145 Mainframe with a huge 1Megabyte of memory. Largest private Company Computer in the North of England. See picture below ( £15.75 per week)

 

[Amazon warrior]

Waitress/cleaner/dogsbody in a hotel in Cardigan, at just about minimum wage (about three quid an hour then). I hated it! My most distinct memory of the place was getting lost in a short section of corridors and stairs while cleaning rooms- I swear the place didn\'t conform to the normal rules of physics! And I was lugging a trolley full of cleaning stuff and a hoover at the same time.

Fortunately it didn\'t last long, then I became a shop assistant in Boots the Chemist. That was great- it was over the Christmas holidays, and I got a staff discount of 22.5% on Boots own products, and 12.5% on everything else. Guess where everyone\'s Christmas presents came from that year! lol

 

[tooshy]

Waitress in a local hotel. Served breakfasts to guests Saturday and Sunday mornings and then for a bit of extra dough, I did the washing up for Sunday lunchtimes. That was a lot of dishes I have a dishwasher now, can\'t think why....

 

[War Griffon]

I have been doing my first real job for the last 32 years come July

Don\'t think you can count the paper round I had as a school kid