What was your first job?

[hatredisnotavalue]

My 18 yo daughter just got her first job. She is a camp counselor for the town's rec program. She and three peers oversee 25 K-4 kids from 8 AM till noon at the town's playground. They play with the kids, do crafts and organize games. My daughter comes home at noon and sleeps for the next three hours. The job started Monday.
Day 1: Little boy locked the port-o-potty door from the outside and maintenance had to be called to unlock it. He did it on purpose and my daughter called him on it and he lied that he had done it. That was at 8:15 that morning.
Day 2: Little ones sound out the graffiti carved on the park benches. F...U....k....and proceeded to let everyone know that they can read.
Day 3: Bathroom break called, little guy wants a piggy-back ride. Daughter's co-worker gives him a ride to the bathroom where he announces while he is on her back that he has peed his pants.

I'm just lovin' these stories as at 18 I was working double shifts at a waitress job, (7-noon and 5-10 PM) where one of the side duties was cleaning the men's room. One day while cleaning, I found a piece of ham in the urinal. Sorry no sympathy here on my part for my daughter's plight. Evil laughter......

What was your first job?

[bigwillq]

1. At a pet store

cleaning cages, helping people pick out fish and other small animals out for purchase, ringing up items on the cash register.

It was ok. It lasted six months and then it got in the way of my school work so I quit. I was 16.

[LeftyMom]

2. I worked in a little consumer electronics shop

I went from temp and part time to full time and management in a bit over a year. I am a good worker, after all.

Then I looked around one day and realized there really wasn't anything I was selling anybody needed. It was hard to put much effort in after that and I quit a few months later.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Working in the dish room in my college dorm dining hall for $1.10/hr.

[LSK]

4. electrician helper

Summer job during high school, basically go get him parts and carry stuff for him and pull wires. Usually boring as hell and in hot places.

[skygazer]

5. Depends on how you look at it

I started working at a riding stable when I was 13 in exchange for riding lessons. Me and a bunch of other girls my age. We turned horses out, helped feed, cleaned stalls, caught horses and groomed them for lessons, walked them out afterward, fixed fence, built jumps, brought in hay - anything you can think of that would be done at a place like that. Some people don't consider that a "real" job, though, since it wasn't for money and since I didn't have any set schedule - whenever I was there, I got a free lesson. But I was there practically every day in the summer (for three years) and I worked HARD. Still ride there, too, when I'm in Vermont.

But my first job for wages was at a local restaurant when I was 15. I ran the salad bar and it sucked! I'd end every night smelling like every gooey relish and condiment on that damn thing and it never seemed to wash all the way off. That first job is a harsh introduction to the reality of the working world, that's for sure!

[JVS]

6. I worked at a camp serving food and cleaning bathrooms

Let's see, there were 24 cabins (50% m/f split)
There were two cabins of crew (us) kind of set off from the campers cabins, but conveniently close to the bathrooms, spartan but well constructed and modern/sanitary affairs which had 8 toilets, 2 trough urinals, and 16 shower heads to serve 144 people. Each cabin had 2 coucilors and 10 campers. Cabin 1's campers were about 8yrs old and cabin 12's campers were about 18. Our main job was to help the cook feed the campers, and on the side we cleaned the bathrooms. Each person on crew took care of delivering food to 2 tables. I delivered to cabin 1 of the boys and cabin one of the girls. I was happy not to have a pack of voracious 14 year olds to feed. In the morning we would wake up at the same time as the campers but instead of going to the morning exercises (which I now believe to have been a cheap excuse to keep the kids doing something while we and the cook prepped the dining hall) we went to work: getting the food placed and sneaking in a breakfast for ourselves. During the meal we would stand by the kitchen and watch our tables to see if they needed refills on anything. This was fun as it gave us a chance to stand around joking and having a good time.

We felt friendly towards our tables (people on the crew had almost always been campers at previous times, so we were in a familiar environment with people we knew) and pride was taken in being able to get one's table that extra dish late in the meal if it was wanted. Food was always to be had in large quantities, but certain items (pancakes, garlic bread, etc.) often went quickly and would be replaced by inferior items (waffles, white bread, etc.). A good server was well appreciated.

After meals we split up into dish crew and bathroom crew. I always tried to do the bathroom because the concrete bathrooms with floor drains were a snap to clean. All you had to do was make sure no toilets were clogged, toss bleach around and hose the place down. Then you could take a nap while the dishwashing crew was still working.

[dysfunctional press]

7. i changed my birth certificate when i was 14 to work at mcdonald's

when i was 16 i started working at santa's village wearing a beaver costume in the summer, and driving the zamboni in the winter.

if i had waited until i was 18 to get a job, i would have spent high school with no car and no spending money.

[livetohike]

8. First job (besides baby-sitting) was working as a short order

cook in a bar. My Dad moonlighted there as a bartender. I had to "hide" in the kitchen because I was underage and wasn't supposed to be working there.

[Broken_Hero]

9. first

job, where I paid taxes, was a bakery assistant, i was 16yrs old...

[leeroysphitz]

10. My first job was...

programming binary load lifters...

[blue neen]

11. I picked blueberries at a local farm.

We got paid by the pound.

[Tikki]

20. Picking Bing cherries...

...in Badger Canyon WA...prob paid by the box.

Poor Mr. Tikki (then boyfriend Mr. Tikki) had to top off all the trees I picked because I was too afraid to climb up high on the ladder.

Tikki

[NewJeffCT]

12. A bit different - I worked in a jewelry store doing engraving

when I was in high school, believe it or not. Not complex engraving... but, the backs of watches, plates for trophies, etc. Also did light cleaning in the store, and some other jobs a 16-17 year old works in a small retail store (changing light bulbs, taking out the trash, running to the printers, etc)

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

13. Ice Cream place in the mall food court

It sucked. Not only was it super hot and sticky, but we'd pass off generic ice cream as premium brands and overcharge for it, so we constantly had customers complaining.

I didn't eat any ice cream for the time I worked there. I have since recovered and love ice cream again.

[kiraboo]

14. Receptionist/assistant at my father's medical office.

I got to do everything from making appointments to receiving payments, to helping the ladies into their gowns, to sterilizing the speculums & monitoring urine for protein/sugar.

OTOH, my daughter is just fifteen and has a job at a small bookstore down the street.

[jmowreader]

15. Target loader at a gun club

This was a place where you shot trap. Trap is a clay-pigeon sport--these little clay discs fly out of a steel box right in front of you, and you shoot them with a shotgun while they're in the air. (Skeet uses two houses at the sides of the range--a high house and a low house--and the birds can come from either one. These guys were too cheap to build a skeet range.) You can shoot trap singles or doubles. In singles you get one bird per pull. In doubles you get two. You get to shoot 25 times per round and there are five shooters per round.

My job was to sit in the box and put clay pigeons on the throwing machine. (They were also too cheap to buy the kind of machine with a bird magazine, so you had to hold the birds in a certain way when you loaded them so the machine didn't rip your fingers off if the shooter called 'pull' while your hands were on the birds.) You also had to carry the boxes of birds to your trap house at the beginning of the day, turn in the ones you didn't use at the end, and pick up the expended shells off the ground after each round because the gun club made quite a bit of its money by reloading shotgun shells and selling them to the members for use at the range. You got 50 cents for each round of singles (125 birds, or a full box if all the birds are good) and one dollar for each round of doubles (two boxes), plus they fed you lunch.

[Redstone]

16. Working in a cardboard-box factory. I was 13. Lied about my age.

These years later, I wonder why I did that. Should've mowed lawns instead.

Wait, I did that too.

Redstone

[Nicole]

17. Receptionist in Hair Salon n/t

[WindRavenX]

18. BurgerKing

And on the last day, the new hired guy-- 50 years old-- starting to sexually harass me x( x( x(
I was 16.

[Deja Q]

19. Burger King. 2.5 years...

Emotional roller coaster. The stress alone should render the pay twice what I got.

They shortchanged me $0.15/hr for 90 hours and never got it back.

Couldn't even stay home despite having the cold. Do customers really want their fat-laden grease covered with flu germs? Fair enough.

Even insulted a 35 year old who was down on his luck. (I was 18)

I always biked. 5 miles one way. Can't bike anymore.

Didn't learn the value of a dollar. Just the value in eating rotten junk food for free. :spray:

[RoyGBiv]

21. Hauling Hay ...

It's one of those jobs Americans won't do, doncha know.

[Deja Q]

27. This is the 2nd opportunity for a very crude joke I'm not going to bestow.

:)

'tis a funny ol' world...

[ikojo]

22. My first job was a newspaper route at 13

I did that for a few years until I got a job at Wendy's which lasted all of three days.

My first office job was working for the census in 1980..right up my ally because I am curious shall we say.

[SeattleGirl]

23. Table Busser

I actually liked that job a lot.

[hfojvt]

24. cleaning the basement

which we did every Saturday. No pay for this job, of course. I think I was shovelling snow before I got my paper route just before my 13th birthday. I remember one old woman who wanted me to shovel snow on my birthday and I refused to do it, so I am thinking that was before I had the paper route. But it may have been later and I had two jobs. I am sure I shovelled snow and cut grass at home as well as taking my turn loading the dishwasher and setting the table well before the paper route too.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

25. Newspaper delivery kid

I met some interesting people...and some scary ones too.

[Mutley]

26. First job besides babysitting

I was a lifeguard at a campground pool.

[seemunkee]

28. Lawn mowing at 13, Pizza spinning at 15

I have 7 lawns to mow in the neighborhood. Me and another kid were in competition to get the better paying customers.
At 15 I got my first real job spinning pizzas. Best thing about that one was that I met my future wife there.

[WeRQ4U]

29. I was a Taco delivery boy.

I worked the late, late shift at a drive through / delivery taco joint. Tips were shitty.

[Pushed To The Left]

30. FEDCO

I worked in the pharmacy!

[Iniquitous Bunny]

31. Weekend hostess at a Big Boy's restaurant.

[u4ic]

32. Real part time job?

Harvey's, a fast food restaurant, at 16.

Prior to that, I had done babysitting jobs and mucking out (horse)stalls, but they were on an as needed basis, not consistent.

[deadparrot]

33. Wendy's. nt

[NMMNG]

34. I worked in the advertisement distribution center of a news publisher

Those store ad circulars that show up on the weekends--I worked with them. However where I lived they didn't come sandwiched in the Sunday paper, they were grouped, folded and bagged in a plastic bag for separate delivery. I and about two dozen other minimum wage grunts would collate 6-8 of them in a specific order (the stores that had theirs closer to the outside of the individual stack paid more), fold them over and stuff them in the bag. There would ultimately be 40 bags per bundle which we'd then take to the supervisor to have strapped. We had a quota of 8 bundles per hour to meet, and if we weren't working up to quota the supervisor would ride our butts like a mad dog.

I was 14 and did that full-time my entire summer vacation. The only consolation is a close friend of mine suffered along with me at the same job.

[Major Hogwash]

35. Paperboy. Got up at 4-5 AM every day of the week for 3 years.

It started a lifelong habit of getting up early.

This city is so cool at 4:30 in the morning, especially at this time of year.
There are no jets revving up on the runway or landing or taking off.
There are no trains blowing their whistle while going through town.
Even the freeway is not very busy and it is relatively quiet.

You can hear dogs bark from 2 to 3 miles away, if any are barking, at all.

I used to really love the country - the wide open farmland - because of the vast quiet.
But, if you look for it, there is quiet in the city at certain times of the day and night.

I used to deliver half of my paper route by 4:45 and then I would take a 5 minute break just to look at the mountains and the clouds in the sky and thank gawd for this beautiful land.
It was the only time of day that I felt really close to gawd.

Later on, as I got older and took different jobs, I missed my time with gawd and wound up going for walks or a morning jog just as an excuse to get out at that time of morning.
Even when I was first married, I would set the alarm for 5 AM to get up and say hello to the world and then go to work.

[texanwitch]

36. When I turned 14 I worked at a mom and pop hamburger place,

that was a great job for a kid.

We made great hamburgers, a combo basket was like $3.50.

Saturdays were so busy because we were located by a baseball field and city park.