What was your First Job?

[Commander Cody]

11 years old – Paper Boy
13 years old – Lawn mower/bicycle shop
17 years old - USMC

[cbunt1]

First "real" job with a paycheck?

Part time Ambulance attendant. I filled in with a small "transport-only" company in Stephenville between classes at Tarleton. Made just enough to have "Dodge House Dollars" for any of you that remember Stephenville in the early '90's!

First "Regular" job?

New Car Salesman. Sold 7 new cars in my first two weeks. Delivered ONE. Shortly thereafter learned that anyone can sell a new car...it's getting people financed that's the challenge. Well, that, and how the "let me talk to my manager" thing REALLY works. Hint: It's no more productive for the salesman than the customer.

First long-term job?

Bus driver at D/FW Airport. I drove the bus that ran from the terminals to the "big-4" car rental counters back when there was one at each end of the airport. Met a lot of interesting people. Moved lots of luggage! Learned who would tip and who wouldn't. Learned to parallel park a 40' city bus in one trip through reverse.

I've done quite a few off-the-wall things since then. I've owned/operated a convenience store, driven trucks cross-country, hauled explosives.

I'm currently an I.T. Project Manger. Don't ask how I got into that field...I'm not sure either!

[The Annoyed Man]

My first real job was right out of high school. I worked in the main warehouse for World Vision International at their headquarters in Monrovia, California. The warehouse was used for storing/shipping/receiving international relief supplies. I was a strong back, and pretty much what I did was load and unload trucks, drive a forklift, etc., etc. My immediate supervisor was a guy named Gordon. Gordon's father was the famous evangelist Dr. Ted Engstrom who was at the time also the executive vice president of World Vision. Gordon was an interesting guy because before coming to work at World Vision, he had made an attempt at becoming a heavyweight boxer. I once saw him punch a hole into a 1/2" sheet of plywood. Gordon had the distinction of very briefly serving as a sparring partner for Mohammed Ali. He told me that Ali once hit him on the top of his head so hard that he couldn't bear to comb his hair for a week. Gordon was kind of a rough character, and he didn't fit into the World Vision template any more than I did, so we got along pretty well because we had some things in common. Things like partying and absence of faith.

I was not a Christian at the time. I got the job as a referral from a family friend who was a believer and who had connections at World Vision. It was kind of weird being a non-believer and yet fully immersed in a faith culture I did not understand or share faith with. I was 18 at the time. 24 years later, I experienced my own coming to Christ, and I became a member of Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena. As it turned out, Ted Engstrom was one of the elder saints in the church at LAC, and I was able to get to know him a little bit, and was glad to learn that Gordon was still alive and kicking. In retrospect, my World Vision co-workers were very gracious with me. I think they assumed that I was a believer when I got hired. At the time, their employment application required the applicant to sign a statement that they had accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. I lied about that to get the job. Later, when it became apparent to some there that I wasn't a believer, a number of young (single) girls of my approximate age who worked there - quite attractive ones at that - got real busy sharing the gospel with me.... a LOT. I eventually quit the job because I didn't want to take the risk that they might be right, and that I might have to surrender the life track I was on. At least, that is how I remember it. The year was 1970/71.

Anyway, that was my first regular paycheck. I made minimum wage, which was $1.65/hour at the time.

[jimlongley]

Not counting lawn mowing, snow shoveling, paper delivery, and field hand on my buddy's grandfather's farm, my first "scheduled" hourly rate job was at the filling station/restaurant/general store in our little hamlet. I arrived about 5am on Saturday and Sunday and got the griddle heating, the coffee on, the lights on, unlocked the pumps, and folded the Saturday and Sunday papers. Official opening time was 6am but the locals would start coming by to get gas/coffee/paper just about as soon as I opened the door. I wasn't supposed to cook or do much else, but in a little place like that you just did it out of neighborlyness. I didn't have a key to the cash register, so I soon learned to carry enough change with me to take care of all but the worst cases. Most people who came by early had the right change anyway.

My best customer was a professional wrestler who went by "Yukon Eric" who only had one ear, the other having been torn off when a fight got too real. He suffered from headaches and ringing and insomnia, probably as a result of his head injuries, and he would often be waiting outside the door for me to open, so I soon learned not to get there too much after 5am. He would often carry papers and other stuff in for me while I lit the grill and started the coffee, and then he would sit at the counter while I did my other stuff and flick water out of his glass at the grill until it sizzled just right, and then he would call me to cook his eggs and english and draw the first cup of coffee.

The first time he ordered breakfast I told him that I wasn't supposed to do that, but he got real gruff and told me he didn't care, everyone else did it, so I could too. He liked his eggs over but runny and that was tough for a 15 year old to learn to do, but I eventually did it to his satisfaction.

I worked there until noon each day, and then Charlie, the owner, would pay me out of the till, and I would head out for whatever my day held. I did that from shortly after my 15th birthday until I was 6 months past my 18th birthday, even after I had a full time job elsewhere.

[cougartex]

I worked for the school district over the summer when I was sixteen. We would inventory all the new books and send them to the different schools in the district.

[chasfm11]

I had a lot of them.

The first job that brought in money was sacking groceries for tips only on a military base. I was too young to work in most businesses because of insurance problems.

My first paycheck job was working summers at an industrial electroplating plant where I helped to plate baby stroller handles (chrome) and electrical parts (cadmium). I also worked in the maintenance shop.

My first full time job was teaching music. That lasted 4 years until I got laid off two years in a row in budget cuts. Then I looked for a different way to earn a living.

[boomstick]

Age 15 - Putting "I've been to Gilley's!" bumper stickers on the back bumpers of cars and trucks in the Gilley's parking lot. Job only lasted two weeks cuz it seems that married drunk rednecks didn't appreciate free advertisments of where they had been with the girlfriend and I kept getting beat up!

[chasfm11]

First paycheck, U-Haul as soon as I had my drivers license, before that insulating new houses and cutting grass and chopping wood.

Hate to sound like a geezer at 45, after typing this I wonder how many kids today follow in my footsteps.
Jim

I think the answer is "not many" for a couple of reasons.

- you and I worked because other wise we had no money. Many kids today live in affluent homes and are given everything that they want

- teen age jobs were one of the first casualties of economic downturn. The jobs that kids might have had have been filled with people who need to put bread on the table. My kids worked fast food but all of those, all over the country, seem to have gone the same way as the jobs in gas stations. I'll leave it there.

[speedsix]

...hardware store...$1 per hour...$54 per week was all I could squeeze out...but I got to buy at cost+10% so all my guns,shells, knives ate up my check...I was 16...

[karder]

I had quite a few odd jobs in my youth. Earliest had to be shoveling horse stables as a kid. Not bad work. I liked it. My first real job with a higher level of responsibility was working for a septic tank company at about 15. I dug gravel pits and run off pits. I was small enough to squeeze into tight places to make connections so I came in handy. I also pumped a bunch of tanks and worst job of all, cleaned the trucks. One Saturday, when I was 15 and 1/2, the owner of the company got badly over booked and sent me out in the oldest truck to pump a tank by myself. Pumping the tank was no biggie, but driving the truck was scary! His words of wisdom to me were, "don't wreck it and don't get pulled over". The homeowner was a regular customer and when he saw me he goes, "ha, they got you driving the truck now?" He seemed to think it was really funny. Times sure have changed!

[Keith B]

I had quite a few odd jobs in my youth. Earliest had to be shoveling horse stables as a kid. Not bad work. I liked it. My first real job with a higher level of responsibility was working for a septic tank company at about 15. I dug gravel pits and run off pits. I was small enough to squeeze into tight places to make connections so I came in handy. I also pumped a bunch of tanks and worst job of all, cleaned the trucks. One Saturday, when I was 15 and 1/2, the owner of the company got badly over booked and sent me out in the oldest truck to pump a tank by myself. Pumping the tank was no biggie, but driving the truck was scary! His words of wisdom to me were, "don't wreck it and don't get pulled over". The homeowner was a regular customer and when he saw me he goes, "ha, they got you driving the truck now?" He seemed to think it was really funny. Times sure have changed!

Sounds like a really crappy job to me. (Had to say it before someone else did )

[i8godzilla]

I had a real exciting first job. We were living in Albuquerque at the time and one of our neighbors (I cut their grass) had a candy route business. Much like route sales he sold, delivered, and merchandised the product. During the summer, I traveled for three days a week doing the loading, unloading, and shelf stocking, while he worked his sales magic with the business owners. One a rare occasion I got to drive. The route covered small mom and pop stores on the Indian Reservations, from Albuquerque to Window Rock, AZ to Durango, CO. I got to see parts of the country at a young age that some folks will never get to experience.

Boy was I cool. 15 years old and spending two nights a week out of town 'on business'. IIRC he paid me ~$25 a day and all the candy I could eat!

[cowboymd]

Following the local neighborhood career path....at 13 1/2 I started at the Dairy Queen, and then at 15 moved on up to sacking groceries at the Piggly Wiggly. With the yard mowing at $1.50-$3 a piece mixed in the whole time.

[WildBill]

Age 15 - Putting "I've been to Gilley's!" bumper stickers on the back bumpers of cars and trucks in the Gilley's parking lot. Job only lasted two weeks cuz it seems that married drunk rednecks didn't appreciate free advertisments of where they had been with the girlfriend and I kept getting beat up!

I guess that Gilley's didn't offer you health insurance.