Tell me about your first job?

I was 16 or 17. I dug trenches and helped install pipes for sprinkler systems with my girlfriend’s dad. I did it because I wanted money, and he paid me well, under the table too, of course.

My mom killed my dad when I was ten years old. I got Social Security until I was 19 and 2 months. I had odd jobs but it was mostly getting paid to help old people do crap they couldn’t anymore as favors for family members.

My first job was at a movie theater. I needed the job for food money and rent.

Fish processing factory
I was sixteen
My careers teacher from school sort of bagged me the position.
As an interesting side note, his name was William Shakespeare! Just thought i’d drop that in for no good reason.

I was 14 and had to have a work permit. I was a janitor working with my sister’s boyfriend. My parents agreed and I was determined. The rules my parents laid out were 1) I couldn’t spend any of the money I made. My paychecks had to be deposited in my bank account. 2) I had to be waiting outside the businesses we cleaned at 11 p.m. sharp to ride home with my Dad.

@johnpowell, wow. Really?

First “real job I was 14 and caddied at a fancy country club. Before that I delivered papers and shoveled sidewalks and sold vegetables from my garden when I was 10.

I was 10.
I delivered the Los Angeles Times.
Yeah, I got it because weed was $10 a lid back then, and my allowance was only about $1 a week.

I was 10 years old and worked for my father along with my siblings.
He owned rental houses and a few apartment buildings so when a tenant moved out, we would go in, repaint and clean.I remember slopping more paint on the carpet than on the wall and my older brother questioning how I could paint on a canvas but not on the wall…paint it yourself,!@#$%! XD
The worst was shoveling dried pigeon shit out of a loft in a garage in 90F heat.The man who lived there raised pigeons and never cleaned anything.
Ah,childhood memories! ;)

When I was growing up we had no money and no utilities. At five our parents put us to work shoveling coal with our faces: Richard Jenne.

@Adirondackwannabe My dad made you do that,didn’t he?? XD

@lucillelucillelucille What gave it away?

@Adirondackwannabe The pure joy on your face as you did the work… :)

Soda Jerk at the local drugstore. I got the job as part of business ed in high school. That was my first and last food service job.

Serious answer. When I was 15 I rebuilt a bar. It had been empty for awhile and a family friend bought it. It was a couple of towns away so they’d drop me off in the morning and I repainted the building, redid the interior, and rehabbed a beautiful old maple topped bar. It’s still there today. I think I got $5 bucks a day under the table.

Baby sitting came first, but my first REAL job was at 16 working in a call center selling coupon books. lol

Actually I was pretty good, the saleswoman in me, I readily convinced many a phone customer why their family would benefit from our coupon book with discounts on everything from family hair cuts to local restaurants. I often sold 20 or more in a shift and collected lots of bonuses. I was rolling in the dough! haha

When I was 15 I got a job as an assistant counselor at a YMCA summer camp. In short, I got paid for helping out at a camp that I had been attending every summer since I was around 9. It was a blast!

Oh, I just remembered, I had a paper route before the camp counselor job. I was round 13ish and had to get up before the crack of dawn, fold papers, deliver them along my route, and periodically collect subscription fees from my customers.

First job, I was 16. I worked for a large Canadian Home and Garden Centre (Canadian Tire). It was seasonal work, and I was working in the Christmas department. Sadly, we had to wear these horrid blue polyester wrap around skirts. I don’t wear gotchies now, nor did I then. Anyhow, I climbed up on a ladder to get a few boxes of Christmas lights, and when doing so, I stepped on the belt. Down went the skirt to my ankles. My bare ass for all of the world to see. Luckily, there were only a few customers, and I pray to Heysus that no one saw..

I worked in an Indian restaurant when I was 14. I washed up. No dishwashing machine. Sinks so deep that rubber gloves couldn’t cope. Yes my hands were chapped but I could eat really hot curries! I loved the food.

I was like 9 or 10 we would put our names on the list to be called to be pickers, we would all ride our bikes to the local farm and pick when they called and get paid by the bushel. I always got put on green beans and we got $2.50 a bushel and would walk away with like $10–15 each day we worked. It was a nice summer job for a kid you learned the value of a dollar early and learned how to work for your money. We had to be there at 5am so it was getting up at 4am to get ready and ride our bikes there.

@Jude what is a gotchie? Underwear?

I was 14 and worked at a Chicken Delight. I worked the fryers and the counter.
“Don’t cook tonight! Call Chicken Delight.”

It was my first real summer job. I worked 20 hours at 1.60 per hour.
I still smile when I think about it.

What? No Mr. Pickle in the crowd?
I always crack up at the Mr. Pickle kid on the corner, man…could you imagine being in a Pickle suit on a 100 degree day? haha

@Stinley Yup!

The summer after my freshman year of college I juggled eleven contacts (restaurant job, summer day camp, childcare at the quaker meeting house, four babysitting jobs, and three housesitting jobs). Phew! The most notable was duck-sitting for some neighbors. The ducks were named Lizzie, Nellie, Millie, and Outside, and I had to spread my arms out and say in a stern voice, “Goodnight, ducks” so they’d go in their shed.

@sliceswiththings

LOL..love it! Sounds like my usual 2x a day goose routine over here!

Time for bed!..dragging the flappy footed children out of their swimming pools on summer nights.

Odd jobs aside (I dug a trench once, looked after neighbor’s pets, helped to supply coffee and cookies for a weekly biostatistics conference, mowed lawns, etc.) my first job was as a cook in a pizza buffet place at 16. All was well until i smashed my finger in the dough press. The extra care that I took from there on out drastically reduced my speed, and I lost the position to another candidate. And then they didn’t want to pay me for my three days, saying that it was just a training period.
I had a similar experience with a bookstore near Northeast Missouri University.

My first real job – that is, one where I was around for more than a month, and got a raise – was at a car wash. The pay was $1.25 better than minimum wage (supplemented, pre-recession, by ~$35/day tips and 1 free car wash per week), and the people were interesting. I worked weekends, and earned enough money that I could, for the first time ever, buy my own stuff. I left that one on my own.
Those tips were crazy. Before long, it was routine to have $300 in cash lurking in an old video game box. I bought an external hard drive once, and paid cash – all 5s and 1s. The guy at the store was mildly amused.

I was 16 and I worked on a horse farm near my house. I gave riding lessons.

My first job was at a Claire’s Accessories. I was 16 and I loved the 50% off employee discount. I saved my money for a bass guitar and an amplifier. All of my co-workers were already good friends of mine. It was fun job for the time.

I was 15 and had a summer job as a copier girl. I cant remember how much I got but I sure remember the purse I bought after. Vanity!