What was your first ever job?

[REWahoo]

That "gone traveling" designation is going to prevent any reply from Hbk4894.

[Meadbh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo That "gone traveling" designation is going to prevent any reply from Hbk4894.

I missed that.

On another forum that I frequent, new members have limited posting privileges for a probationary period. I don't know the details. Would it be worthwhile to institute something similar here?

[scrabbler1]

My first job was in 1979 when I was 16. I was a page at the local public library. I shelved books and did other menial tasks but soon moved up to working in the magazine room in the basement, and also being the film projectionist on Friday nights in the summer. The job paid below minimum wage at the beginning but by the time I left in 1981 I was earning MW.


What I learned about libraries and the Dewey Decimal System for arranging books has been very valuable over the years. I later worked in my college library for a year as a page, this time with the Library of Congress arrangement system.

[travelover]

Internet troll. I'd post "What was your first........" threads under various names.

[DrRoy]

Picking strawberries.

[Revlefty]

mowing lawns. First "real" job was burger King.

[6miths]

Oh yes picking strawberries (and peaches and cherries). I can remember getting picked up at 530 am to head to the fields. Was like the migrant labour pool. Incredibly difficult and low paying job to do day in and day out.

[pjm-7]

My first W-2 job was working for a contract concession company in a city park. If you want to see my first work location go to the original intro for WKRP in Cincinnati. The small stone concession stand in Eden Park was the spot.

[FIREmenow]

My first summer full time job was working for the government (civil service). It was a real eye opener.

I was billed as a "computer guy" to the group I was to be working for (this was in the '80's punch-card era).

So, when I got there on the first day they had to find me something to do. I asked what I could help with. Well, they had some database/spreadsheet thingy that needed some programming for sorting the data. I said, "great!" and went off to my metal desk in the corner.

Around lunchtime, I came back and proudly showed my manager the program and the data all sorted in order. He looked for a bit at the computer screen, and then he got a really strange, almost angry, look on his face. I got really scared.....

He looked right at me and said (in a really slow South Carolina drawl), "Boy!?, you gonna work yourself right out of a job!" "Now go get yourself a magazine and sit back down over there....."

Apparently, that one task was supposed to last me the WHOLE SUMMER!

Over that summer, I began noticing the general efficiency and productivity of that office and the blatant attempts to execute the keeping-the-job-while-doing-the-minimal-amount-of-work task. It was unbelievable. There was literally NOTHING for me to do - and yet get paid for it. The days just drug on and on..... I would seriously have rather been digging swimming pool holes in 100 degree heat.

My first, and lasting, impression of our government at work......

[gcgang]

First job, where I had to get a Social Security number (when did babies start to come out of the womb with them?), was when I was 16. On Saturday mornings, at the high school gym, I ran the clock/kept score for the "30&over" basketball league. On change of possession, the league rule was to wait 5 seconds before crossing mid court. We'd have to hit the buzzer when the 5 seconds were up. We'd have fun sometimes letting the "old guys" run, beeping after 2-3seconds and watching the out of shape guys about fall over. But the good players loved it.

[RE2Boys]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red Badger PT - chucking newspapers. Not bad even in ND winters at 6 AM. What sucked? Having to collect $$ each month. Probably 20% of "customers" required repeat visits to get the $3 per month. /

Yep. Delivered 60 newspapers to suburban doorsteps/screen doors, $2.71 per month collecting. I think my profit was two cents on dailies, nickel for Sunday paper. Age 11 to 16.

FT: Worked as a day camp counselor for YMCA day camp, great fun.

[FIREmenow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red Badger PT - chucking newspapers. Not bad even in ND winters at 6 AM. What sucked? Having to collect $$ each month. Probably 20% of "customers" required repeat visits to get the $3 per month.

Reminded me of some of the funniest scenes from the movie Better off Dead - "I want my two dollars!!!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z9Cg46Nktw

[Car-Guy]

mowing grass, not the smoking kind

[Spokane2303]

Dishwasher at local Italian pizza place at 15.

Made $1.35 an hour + a free meal.

Retired at 57, 42 years to the month from taking my first job.

It taught me the value of time vs money and helped me develop a lifelong habit of saving and investing.

They also made GREAT pizza!

[imoldernu]

YMCA Summer Camp... when kids went for two weeks at a time, not like the "day camps" of today.
Went since I was age 8, became junior counselor @age 12, and full fledged counselor @age 14, when I went for the whole summer... responsible for a cabin of 7 kids, in a camp of 200 boys. Also a lifeguard and swim and archery teacher.
Best I can remember, 1949 or 1950, '51 and '52
Was a job, in that being a counselor, paid for summer camp in R.I. for the whole summer, when the price was $28 for 2 weeks. Since my mom worked days, and my dad worked nights, it saved them not only the price of food, but the worry and care of watching me all summer.
You grew up early... independent and self sufficient, and learned leadership at a fairly young age. The "Y" was right place.

Paid off again, after college, when my interim job, before the army, was Waterfront Director at the Maine State YMCA Camp in 1958.

[HFWR]

Mowing, for around $2.50/acre. Pitching hay bales, for a couple bucks plus lunch.

First real "j*b", for a paycheck, was gas station attendant, $1.25/hr, 1971.

[devans0]

My first job was with a cement crew. I was 14 or so. It was an eye opener. I learned to build forms, calculate volumes, analytic geometry in real life applications, and most importantly to not haul around liquid rock for a living. It was a family business.

All good things came to an end when we (the work crew) were to grade and ready a driveway for an afternoon pour. The boss (my father) took off. It was a miserable 100° high humidity day and everyone sat down in the shade...except me. I didn't want to be in trouble when my dad came back. Just as I was nearly finished, he drove up at the same time as the preordered cement truck, saw the crew lying in the shade, a 14 yr old boy doing the work, and blew up.

They ended by telling him that they weren't going to work with the bosses kid around, it was either the entire crew or me that left. I was fired. Best thing that could have happened.