What was your first real job?

[RonBoyd]

Not too bad considering I have no formal education.

I suspect that "formal education" is not that important a factor in being member of this particular group of FIREed/Wanna Be FIREDed. There are many roads that one can take to get here -- education could possibly be the least effective. (As I said earlier about Smart vs Witty.)

Someone should do a Poll. (Way too much w*rk for me.)

 

[bbbamI]

I suspect that "formal education" is not that important a factor in being member of this particular group of FIREed/Wanna Be FIREDed. There are many roads that one can take to get here -- education could possibly be the least effective.

I agree...there are many roads to FIRE.

The education part is a personal thing to me....

(As I said earlier about Smart vs Witty.)

Well, truth be told, I was asked to interview at Megacorp from someone I had seen at a few happy hours!

Someone should do a Poll. (Way too much w*rk for me.)

Umm, hmm...me too....

 

[Meadbh]

First job: local government office during several summers. Paid quite well, but I don't remember the numbers.

First real job: hospital intern, 1980-81. Paid approximately $15000. Worked approximately 70 hours a week, equivalent to about $0.23 per hour. This was in Ireland where, at the time, my marginal tax rate was 65%. So take home pay was less than 50% of gross. But since all my time was taken up working or sleeping, I didn't have time to spend it anyway.

 

[megacorp-firee]

1) deli floor sweeper. ? 1966 timeframe I think. $2 something and hour, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Although I did have to pay dues to the retail clerks union to get this high paying job.
2) enlisted 'dog' for my uncle (Sam), 1970, $300 something a month, and all you could eat at the chow hall and a place to stay, ... no union though

... hmmm I think I was better off with that deli job

 

[Khan]

When very young: farm chores, helping with harvest on family/neighbors farms, baby sitting.

First real paid job: Housekeeper at a summer resort in the Catskills; don't recall wage, was sub-minimum wage because was student, filed to be exempt from state withholding.

Several summer jobs.

First full-time job: US Army Management Analyst, Picatinny Arsenal NJ, GS-5, don't recall amount.

 

[donheff]

1) What was your first real paying job (not paid by a family member)?

Newspaper boy. Followed shortly by drug store clerk.

2) What was your salary/pay (and year) for the first job you held that supported you independently?

I was pretty much independent for the second half of college getting by with a variety of part time jobs (janitor, psychiatric aide, etc). My first full time post graduate job was substitute teacher for $40/day.

 

[ksr]

My first real job was as a paperboy, too. Even now when I have "responsibility" dreams, I dream that I have forgotten to do my paper route for like a week and that my customers are really pi$$ed.

Isn't it funny how we can't escape some of these early stresses? I worked as a waitress through college and I still occasionally have dreams where I've fallen way behind and customers at all my tables are yelling for me!

 

[RonBoyd]

The education part is a personal thing to me..../QUOTE]

As it is to every one of us. That is why a Poll is called for -- you can't get anymore anonymous than that.

 

[bigla]

First job was at a local supermarket, worked the dairy dept and then cashier - this was when I was in high school 1963-64. Did some work study while in college. First real job was in 1968, a Special Education teacher at a NYS dept of Mental Hygiene facility for the mentally retarded. I made $6500/yr to start in 1968. Did get frequent raises with grade increases. I continued working for NYS for 28 years.

 

[LOL!]

I did the paperboy thing in 8th grade with 2 different routes, but I don't think we should count that.

I worked more than 40 hours a week as a short-order cook my junior year of high school. I made $1.60 an hour. I did not work my senior year of high school so my grades would not suffer.

I was a custodian during college for 20+ hours a week for 3 years.

I was a nurse's aide (think soap-suds enemas until clear, pre-op shaving, other minor procedures and clean-ups of dead bodies) at $2.10 an hour, 40 hours a week one college summer.

Grad school paid me a stipend of about $12K a year. I made $1K a day consulting for Genentech and other companies a few times. Started my IRA with that money.

 

[Coach]

My first job was as a library page, age 15 so 1966, .65 per hour. I blew my first paycheck of about $15 on photography supplies.

My first real job was as a salesman for Burroughs Corp, 1973. $700 a month plus commissions, but I wasn't much of a salesman so they didn't amount to much. The salary seemed ample -- every four months or so I'd have $1000 extra built up and I'd buy a CD. We all went out to lunch every day and a quarter each produced a reasonable tip.

Coach

 

[Midpack]

Bonus Question

Bonus question:

3) What is the lowest paying job you've ever had?

And I am the winner! I had a full time job for 3 months that cost me $3.90/hr. Summer of 1975 I was a waiter in a nice restaurant that paid me $1.10/hr (below min wage, allowed for waiters because of tips). However, I had to pay my busboys and bartenders $5.00/hr to subsidize their wages. Before you conclude that I'm completely stupid, with tips I made at least $1,000/month for those 3 months --- but on paper I actually paid my employer for the privilege. At the time, I thought I was rich...

Top that!

 

[Khan]

Bonus question:

3) What is the lowest paying job you've ever had?

And I am the winner! I had a full time job for 3 months that cost me $3.90/hr. Summer of 1975 I was a waiter in a nice restaurant that paid me $1.10/hr (below min wage, allowed for waiters because of tips). However, I had to pay my busboys and bartenders $5.00/hr to subsidize their wages. Before you conclude that I'm completely stupid, with tips I made at least $1,000/month for those 3 months --- but on paper I actually paid my employer for the privilege. At the time, I thought I was rich...

Top that!

Off the books as a cocktail waitress when I was 22. No pay, no benefits, Saturday evenings; I did get some food.
I was good at the job and made good tips, and the management made clear to customers that employees were not to be touched.

 

[RonBoyd]

Bonus question:

3) What is the lowest paying job you've ever had?

I went to work for McDonalds as a Manager "trainee." I had been there for a couple months when they were forced to give me a raise because the Minimum Wages had gone up to 95 cents an hour. (I was salary but the government computation upped my monthly take.) I did stick it out, however, and several years later was a District Manager with five stores under me. Even then, I got a big increase in salary when I left them and went on with life.

 

[charlie]

1)I started as a paperboy in grade school and worked up to "grunt"
on a power line crew by graduation from high school in 1952.

2)My first career job after graduation from U of Texas in 1957 was
with Temco (an aircraft co. in Dallas) at $475/month. Big money
at that time.

Cheers,

charlie

 

[aaronc879]

I worked more than 40 hours a week as a short-order cook my junior year of high school. I made $1.60 an hour.

Isn't there a law against that? I thought high school kids could w*rk a max of 20-something hours a week while in school? In 1997 I was in a co-op program at school where I got to leave school a couple hours early every day to go to w*rk and I still wasn't allowed to w*rk a full 40 hours a week.

 

[bbbamI]

3) What is the lowest paying job you've ever had?

Housewife...no pay and no end in sight...

 

[samclem]

1) Paperboy from 1972 to 1975. I made approx 40 cents per customer per month (if I could successfully collect from them). I only had 35-50 customers, so it didn't pay well. But, I got tips. I also got $12 per month "hill credit" from the newspaper because my route was a mountainous mess. I wore out a lot of brake pads on the Schwinn Varsity. I also had a parallel weekly route for "throw away" papers that got delivered to every house--Mom and dad drove me on that, I threw the 1000 papers from the tailgate of the station wagon. That paid better than the daily bicycle route.

2) Worked in fast food in high school.

3) 2Lt in the USAF. In 1984 I earned $1143/mo plus $232 for housing and a bit more for flight pay. And I've never felt that rich since.

 

[LOL!]

Isn't there a law against that? I thought high school kids could w*rk a max of 20-something hours a week while in school? In 1997 I was in a co-op program at school where I got to leave school a couple hours early every day to go to w*rk and I still wasn't allowed to w*rk a full 40 hours a week.

There probably was a law against it, but who would report a violation? I worked Mon-Fri from 4 pm to 11 pm in a small pizza+subs diner and on Saturday from 4 pm to midnight. Often I was the only employee present, so I ran the whole restaurant.

 

[Shawn]

1) I had a few paper routes between ages 11-15. That was followed by McDonalds. I believe my starting pay at McDonalds was $2.35/hr.

2) Not counting summer jobs as an undergraduate and RA/TA positions as a graduate student, I was a "Research Specialist" at MIT beginning in 1985 (I was between an MS and PhD at different schools). The MIT position was software development and geophysical research. My starting pay was $25K/yr.

 

[kumquat]

My first 40 hr/wk job paid me $2.42 per hour, 1965, age 16. Pounding spikes (literally) for the railroad. WE worked 12 hr/day, 6 days a week and could go to 16 hr if we wanted, I did. I lasted 7 weeks.

At 17, I took over the family farm and financed a farm rental that was my income. Made about $3500-4500 for the next few years.

My first "career" job was 1974. $8500/year as a Systems Programmer for IBM mainframes.

 

[heyyou]

Worked in family business stocking shelves after school from junior high on. After the Army, my first job was at a corner gas station in Phoenix paying $1.25 an hour. After two years, I got a part-time job unloading semi-trailers of packages at UPS in Phoenix for $3.75 an hour in 1975, then full time work for $5.12 an hour. I was rich. By end of '76 I had $10K saved and thought that I could retire when I saved $100K with 10% CDs and $10K of annual expenses. Hit some big potholes on that road, shown by retiring 30 years later.

 

[hankster]

I worked on a cattle ranch in the high country of Montana for three summers during high school. $12/day the first summer, $16/day the second and third. Most of the work involved irrigating and putting up grass and alfalfa hay. I also got lunch each day. We're not talking soup and sandwiches here. The ranch owners wife made lunches that were more like feasts! The table was always full of fresh meat dishes and their garden produce. It was almost worth working just for the meals

The first job living on my own was laborer for a heating and air conditioning company. IIRC the pay was around $2.35/hour. The [-]slave-driving tyrant[/-] guy who owned the company went through laborers like toilet paper and I bailed out after two miserable months. That turned out OK as my next job ended up being in my present field of work and led to a great career of 30+ years so far.

 

[Rustic23]

I sold Cokes at Rice Stadium. If I remember correctly you bought a bucket of Coke and Seven-up $2.40 for 12 and sold them for $3. On a good day you could make $5 or more.

 

[Walt34]

The first job was a gasoline station pump jockey in 1967 at $1.25/hour. I worked two or three nights a week until 10:00 PM and most weekends. Three of us had small motorcycles like my 100cc Yamaha, paid for from the work income, and after work we went either riding the back roads or to Shakey's Pizza Parlor. No riding gear, no helmets. At that age you're invulnerable.

It was a thrill to have my own income but I can't say I spent it wisely. Mostly on wine, women and song.