What was your first real job?

[HFWR]

I mowed yards for $2.50 ea (acre-sized lots) in the mid-60s. Also "put up" hay for a farm down the road for a buck or two an hour + lunch.

First "real" job was pumping gas at a Sunoco station for $1.25/hr in 1971.

Other jobs:

disc jockey - $1.65/hr - 72, 73
can mfg - $4something/hr - 72, 73
janitor - UPS - $4/hr - 74
pizza cook - $2/hr - 75
auto parts mfg - $4-$6/hr - 76-79

Along with a few other short-term jobs for crappy pay, and some periods unemployment during the rust belt years...

Started at megaconglomocorp in 83 at $8.10/hr. Laid-off in 07 making $31/hr. Title: wafer bitch

Not making that much now...

 

[ejman]

1) First job cook at More Burger in Austin TX - 1968 - $1.15/hr. I proudly deposited my first paycheck in the bank and it bounced!. My coworkers laughed at me - you did what with your check? Hell you just put it in the till and take your money out you dummy! Classy outfit that More Burger.

2) Right after MBA - Business manager for Large Engineering Construction firm $1250/mo 1976

 

[DallasGuy]

My first real job was as a lifeguard at the town swimming pool. I think it paid about $1.25 per hour back in 1971.

My first real grown up job was in 1980 as a computer programmer making $13,500 per year.

 

[freebird5825]

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

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

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

1) Babysitter for neighbors across the street on weekdays/weekends, followed by a newspaper advertised "Mother's Helper" for 2 married professionals getting their Masters' degrees in the evenings after w*rk. He was a Chemist, she was an RN in the psychiatric field.
I would go over on weekdays after school and every Saturday for several hours. On weekdays I did laundry, put the pre-made casserole in the oven for their late coming-home dinner, watered plants, fed the cats, and did some light dusting. On Saturday, I helped Mr. & Mrs. clean the entire house and/or do yard stuff. After HS, this evolved into house-sitting solo for them every summer while they disappeared for 3 weeks vacation to NC plus cleaning the entire house solo. It was a great job! I can't remember how much they paid me, but I felt rich!

2) 1980 - Small engine mechanic immediately after college graduation. Recession was roaring and it was all I could get. I had already done this type w*rk during summers in college, so it was a no brainer to hire me.
I can't recall the pay rate.

3) Lowest? Hmmmmm...1979...I ran out of money until the next semester when financial aid checks arrived, so I w*rked 5 weeks on the semester break in a dingy dark book warehouse for minimum wage (?). It was a awful j*b and an awful place. New paperback book edges are like razors. Ouch!
I also handsewed a wooly liner inside some guy's motorcycle jacket. I advertised "custom sewing" on a campus bulletin board. He wanted to take me out for dinner besides paying my fee, but I passed.

 

[oldtrig]

Worked at a Ford dealership in 1965. I was working as a mechanic and I was only 17. I think my I made about $75 a week which was a lot for me at that time. I left that job after 9 months and give college a try. Stayed one year and then got drafted. How lucky young people are today not being forced into the military. I think maybe they should bring back the draft.
oldtrig

 

[Westernskies]

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

...and the rest you just wasted.

 

[Goonie]

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

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

1) My 1st 'real' job was in 1973 when I was 16 working demolition at a defunct brick factory, along with 3 other guys. We tore the place down 'brick by brick' and had to clean all the old mortar off each brick. I made $2.10/hour, and they took back 10¢/hour to pay for work boots and safety gear. Plus we got 1 can of ice cold soda pop once per shift....Whoopee!!! We processed about 1 1/2 tons of fire bricks an hour....and the owner sold them for 50¢ each....the cheap b*st*rd!!!

(Prior to, and during that time, I worked for my Grandad in his welding shop and concrete business beginning at age 12, and continuing in one degree or another until he retired when I was about 22. The work was hard, the pay was lousy, the included lunches were great, and the boss was awesome!!!)

2) I went from "part-time" to "full-time" for the municipality in 1976, at $5.36/hour.....and ER'd from there 31 years later....at a much higher hourly wage!!!

 

[Urchina]

1. My first real job was as a lifeguard. I was 15. I cannot remember what they paid me -- $4.50/hour or something like that, whatever minimum wage in Oregon in the 1980s was.

2. First "supporting myself job" was as a research project coordinator at a major medical university. It paid the unreal sum of $27,000/year, triple what I'd ever made in a year before. I blew it all on a chic little apartment in a trendy district, plenty of clubbing, and books, books, books. For 18 months. Then the job began major suckage, and I ditched the apartment, clubbing and books, moved in with college friends, and saved $10K in 6 months so I could quit and go back to grad school.

Prior to this I cobbled together a living as an RA, a part-time research assistant at a university, and a columnist, page editor, copy editor and night editor for a daily newspaper. I made less than $8,000 a year but it paid the bills and let me get through my undergraduate degree. I was technically supporting myself (including scholarships) but in such a scrappy way that I think of the research project coordinator position as my first "real" job, though honestly I'd been working constantly since I was 15.

 

[Midpack]

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." - aristotle

Excellent quote, astonishing how many people can't grasp this.

 

[BunsGettingFirm]

My first job was in 1984 mowing lawns in my townhouse development. The townhouses had small 20'x20' backyards that were too large for the owners to mow by hand but too small for each owner to own a lawn mower. The pay was great for a teenager, something like $20/hour. We'd start out in the morning and be at home by dusk with $300+ in our pockets every weekend. The worst part was managing my "employee" who also happened to be my sister who considered the job beneath her because she was turning into a teenage beauty queen. Well, I guess standing at the counter at a 7-Eleven is so much more high class.

I also did some garbage collecting for the townhouse association. The owners in that neighborhood didn't believe in real garbage bags, so on windy days after the garbage collection, there would be quite a mess of loose garbage being blown around the neighborhood. Let's just say that I got to know what my neighbors did in their underpants and what happened to their left over dinners.

 

[SciFiFan53]

1) First job was balinghay for neighbor farmers at $1/hour in the late 60's. My Dad said I was lucky- in his day, they maybe got lunch and $1/day if anything. Taught me I did not want to be a manual laborer for the rest of my life.

2) Got married before the last year of undergrad, and supported us through grad school on a TA -does that count? First "real" career job was in 1980 for $26K/year. That seemed like a lot, particularly since we had been saving some even on a TA stipend. That first year in an apartment, we saved every other paycheck.

 

[Goonie]

1) First job was balinghay for neighbor farmers at $1/hour in the late 60's. My Dad said I was lucky- in his day, they maybe got lunch and $1/day if anything.....

Although I didn't do it as "job", I used to help out some friends on their family farm by putting up hay. No money involved....only all of the ice cold well water you could drink, and an EXCELLENT feast that evening for everyone!!!

It was hard, hot, and dirty work from early morning 'til dark, and every muscle in your body was achy and sore for a couple of days after....but oooooh, the food!!!! Plus, the folks we did it for, REALLY appreciated our efforts and made certain that we knew it....and that's worth more than money can buy!

 

[davemartin88]

1. Dairy Queen, $1.25 per hour, 1970
2. General Motors Assembly line- pay was great, job sucked, luckily, I was laid off in 1975 and I joined the Air Force

 

[Khan]

Although I didn't do it as "job", I used to help out some friends on their family farm by putting up hay. No money involved....only all of the ice cold well water you could drink, and an EXCELLENT feast that evening for everyone!!!

It was hard, hot, and dirty work from early morning 'til dark, and every muscle in your body was achy and sore for a couple of days after....but oooooh, the food!!!! Plus, the folks we did it for, REALLY appreciated our efforts and made certain that we knew it....and that's worth more than money can buy!

Put up hay for my grandparents.

I recall feeling so successful when I could throw a bale into the truck; then Grandfather showed up with two bales in each hand.

 

[gindie]

1) and 3) - Arby's for 3 years ('76-'79). Started at $1.95/hr, but they got in trouble with the labor folks and had to raise it to a whopping $2.20! (By the way, back then Roast Beef's were $0.94 and a 20-ounce Coke was the biggest we sold!)

2) After graduating with a Masters in Computer Science, worked for a defense contractor in Dayton, OH. Started at $27K in 1984.

 

[Rambler]

1) Paper route at age 10-11. 25 cents per subscriber per month plus tips. I started with just over 50 and ended when we moved a year and a half later with about 100. I was netting $50-60 a month including tips at the end.

2-a) supported myself thru college, working 25 hrs a week at the college cafeteria, $4.25 per hr in 1982-85. Married just before final year. DW found a job which helped a lot that year.

2-b) first job out of college paid $13,500 at the exchange rate prevailing when I got the job. The exchange rate swung the other direction a few months later and I was at around $20k. This was in 1985.

R

 

[CuppaJoe]

Raking leaves for grandma had all the elements of a real j*b: good pay; perqs--she fed us; plenty of stuff to grumble about like the scratchy sweaters from the '20s she put us in; I think they were made of the same wool as the old-time swimming suits she kept on hand for those who forgot to bring their own once; we goofed off on company time by jumping into the piles of leaves; and we couldn't wait to retire.

 

[samclem]

1) Paper route at age 10-11. 25 cents per subscriber per month plus tips. I started with just over 50 and ended when we moved a year and a half later with about 100. I was netting $50-60 a month including tips at the end.

1) I had a few paper routes between ages 11-15.

Paperboy from 1972 to 1975.

I started as a paperboy in grade school

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

Newspaper boy. Followed shortly by drug store clerk.

First job was probably as a paperboy in Dayton, Ohio in the late 1960's.

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.

I started (in a small 7,000 pop town) with a 60 customer route and built it up to 120 customers.

Paperboy for 9 years.

Paper boy. I basically worked for tips, which in 1983 (?) amounted to roughly $1 per customer. I might have made $40 per month.

It's too bad paper routes, as we knew them, are history. The daily afternoon papers are almost all gone now, and every route is done from a car these days. Anyway, I don't think they'd find kids willing to do the work for the same rate, even inflation adjusted--better opportunities are out there, and money from other sources is too readily available.

The experience probably formed a lot of my attitudes about work, money, and saving. And you guys that built up your routes--congrats! I didn't like that part of the job very much.

 

[WB52]

My first job that was not paid for by a family member was working for a Hardware store in Gainesville, Florida. I worked 20 hours a week for extra money while I went to college (U of F). My wife and I lived in married student housing. She also started working at the hardware store, until I graduated and we moved on to graduate school in another state.
My first job that supported me/us was in 1985. I had just finished school and began work as an Assistanf Product Manager for $38.5k/year. It sounded like lots of dough. But the job was in NYC where the cost of living is high; so we did not live much better than we did as school kids (at least for a while). As time went by, we saved little by little.
I've been blessed by a great wife and family. Kinda nice to stop for a moment and reflect .

 

[Orchidflower]

Well, I worked alot throughout my childhood laying concrete and tile, cutting and edging a lawn when nobody edged their lawn, painting the entire house by myself at 15, etc. etc. Parents were big on me working...don't ask (Depression era people).
Anyway, my first "real" paying job was working at a grocery store as a checker. Did that thru high school and first 2 years of college. Since it was a Union job in Illinois, I was making really good money for a kid after 5 years. It was about the best job a girl could get then.
I remember I loved working for money so much--I mean, people really paid me to work unlike the parents (what a novel idea)--that I used to beg them for more than 25 hours, which was the max allowed for part-time by the State. Sometimes I could pull off 30 hours, but they had to take the extra 5 hours and put it on another paycheck to hide it from the auditors. And I've never stopped loving working for money. Must have been all the hard work the folks made me do for zip.
(Sorry, I can't remember the pay amount, tho.)

 

[jdmorton]

1) First job was working at a city municipal golf course, starting at the age of 16. Started out making $1.65/hr - 5 years later made $2.35/hr. Worked after school in the Spring and Fall, and then at least 44 hours/week in the Summer. This was before all of the "child" labor and OSHA laws - or, maybe the city just ignored them all. Sometimes I worked 50 hours a week, with no overtime rate - just the normal hourly rate. Did not wear any sort of safety equipment, even though I operated all sorts of very loud (and dangerous) power equipment and spread all sorts of pesticides and herbicides - some which were banned a few years later. Best job I ever had - even though I am pretty sure it gave me tinnitus (ringing in the ears).

2) Right after college graduation, got married, and then started my engineering career with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for the princely sum of $12,500/year.

 

[ItDontMeanAThing]

1. Paperboy was first job but it took so little time that I don't consider it as such. First real job was installing hardware on the decks of fiberglass boats in a factory. It was 1975, the year between dropping out of college and returning to it. Costa Mesa, CA, no idea what I was paid.

2. After grad school first job was doing consumer research in 1980, also in Costa Mesa. I think salary was 25k a year.

 

[RockyMtn]

1. Making plaster statues at $3/hr in 1974. Getting in touch with my "artistic" side I guess.

2. Selling cable tv door to door in 1981 was first real job. Made about $24k the first year and thought I was rich! Moved to management a year later and took a pay cut to about $20k but it beat the hell out of knocking on doors!

 

[Finance Dave]

1) I guess I don't count the paperboy job...I consider mine a dishwasher at age 15 (1977). I made about $2.10/hr and I remember getting really excited when I asked for a 10 cent raise and my boss gave it to me. LOL

2) Auto mechanic at age ~23 (1984) making about $15k/year. The most fun job I've ever had, but also the least respect I've ever received as an employee.

 

[kumquat]

The most fun job I've ever had, but also the least respect I've ever received as an employee.

Interesting. If you do what I think you do, I'd guess that the least respect you'd ever got would be posting here.