What was your first real job?

[earllogjam]

Excluding cutting neighbors lawns and paper routes, what was you first job? How did you get it? How old were you?


I sold lawn mowers at Sears at 16 after school and on weekends. It was either lawn mowers or the shoe department. I chose the garden shop because I didn't have to get dressed up in a tie to work there. I believe the interview consisted of an aptitude test (simple math mostly) and a brief talk with the HR lady. I guess you can't be picky when you pay minimum wage so I was hired. After 2 years of that I knew what I didn't want to do after high school even with the 10% employee discount on clothes.

 

[Perriwinkle52]

Good story - what a blessed chest too!

'P'

 

[B_Italian1]

Bagging groceries in a supermarket for $2 something an hour.(I think $2.45) I was only 15, but I bumped up my birthdate on the job application by 4 months to make me sweet 16. A few weeks later I confessed to the manager and he told me it was okay. I just wasn't allowed to work until the store closed until I turned 16, so that was cool. I saved up and bought my first car before I even had my license.

 

[Northland]

My first job with taxes and the such being removed from the gross pay; was, working in a church office as an assistant to the minister and his secretary. Dreadfully boring job as there were long hours with nothing to do. It was a summertime job obtained through some summer youth work program (low income was the big requirement) and I was 15 at the time. They asked me back the following summer under the same circumstances, I refused and instead took a job at a coffee shop as a stock/cleaner/delivery boy which I held on to part time through my last year of high school.

 

[jorpollew]

I got my first job when I was 16 as an usher at a movie theater.** At that time my parents were going through a divorce, and my mom could not afford to pay my high school tuition. I loved my high school so much that I was determined not to transfer. So, every week I gave 2/3rds of my paycheck to the school business office. It gave me some responsibility, and I've paid for every penny of my education since then, including college and grad school.

**I saw the movie "Network" over 300x (1976, w/ Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch & Bill Holden).

 

[Principessa]

I got my first job at 16. I worked in food service at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ. Minimum wage was $3.35 an hour. :smile:

 

[B_Monster]

Laying brick for my best friends dad and yes i said brick :biggrin1: it was a very hard, hot job in that awfull Texas heat/humidity

 

[findfirefox]

Customer Service Rep, I was the youngest the company ever hired (16).

Switched to a few companies in that job range, was an EMT for a while now im a Customer Service Tech again. :-/

 

[hypoc8]

Worked at the local grocery store. They only paid minimum wage whatever that was at the time back in '78, I was 14. I bugged the crap out of them, went every week to see if they needed any help, finally on a Saturday morning they called and told me to be there in an hour.

 

[No_Strings]

I've never had a real job. Though it's largely due to illness and a little to do with opportunity, I'm still ashamed and embarassed by that fact. :redface:

 

[2322]

You should be ashamed and embarrassed if you didn't want to. As that's not the situation, you've got nothing to be ashamed of. I'm sure nobody would trade a job for true illness.

I've never had a real job. Though it's largely due to illness and a little to do with opportunity, I'm still ashamed and embarassed by that fact. :redface:

 

[2322]

My first job was as a market research interviewer; one of those annoying people in the mall who try to get you to do surveys. I walked-in, asked for a job, they gave me one. Got to know everyone so well and they liked me so much that any time I was home from school on vacation I had a job waiting for me. Could take as much time off as I wanted.

It didn't pay a lot but I worked with nice people and actually enjoyed coming in to work. I too saved enough for my first new car, a blue 1984 Honda Civic Wagon with RT-AWD. Outstanding car that went anywhere and got great mileage. Only option was air conditioning and floor mats. It didn't even come with a stereo. I had to wait for Christmas to get that.

 

[Pecker]

My first job was during the summer after I turned 16. For $1 per hour I worked in a department store chain's main office extending invoices, microfilming bills and handling the mail for all 28 stores.

 

[goodwood]

My first real job was in 1997 as a marketing communications person for an international furniture maker. I was 26 years old.

 

[Love-it]

I worked on the bottling lines in a winery for $1.85 an hour, which was 20 cents above minimum wage.

 

[MidwestGal]

detasseling corn at 11 years old. If that isn't good enough. My senior year of HS I worked at an apple orchard in the fall then I worked as a Dishwasher, Waitress, and Cook at a resturant before getting a Phlebotomy job after I graduated.

 

[B_New End]

telemarketing for crime-stoppers.. ti was horrible cold callign from slips cut out fo the phone book.. I could only take 3 months. $5 an hour... 75 cents above min wage at the time.

 

[vince]

My first job was working at my dad's boatshop the summer I was 14. I was the clean-up boy and everybody's slave. I worked there nearly every summer until I graduated from university.
During my junior year in high school I worked at McDonald's for two months until I got fired. The manager said it was my long hair and bad attitude. But I always figured it was because I wouldn't go to the parties he held at his house for the boys. He was gay and a real creep and I wanted nothing to do him. My old man just laughed. I still hate McD's food to this day.

 

[Not_Punny]

My first "job" was selling cartoons I had drawn. I was 9 years old. Kept myself in Coke and candy for the summer.

Many years later, uh, oh.... same job.....!!!!

 

[Drifterwood]

Does Sperm Donor count?

First real job, after working through college etc, was with an international bank. :redface: The shame.