What was your first job?

[Rosie]

Since its a not so nice day here in NYC, I'm blabbing on the phone, checking the Lounge and cleaning my house. I just came across my first resume in one of my old portfolios, awwww, it was so cute and only comprised of one page.

It made me think of when I got my first "real" job and earning my first paycheck.

My first job was as a prop master's and set dresser's assistant on a low budget film. It was lots of fun but paid hardly anything. So, what was your first job?

 

[Pilgrim]

My first one - in high school - was a stock room boy at the local JC Penney's. Second one was in a nearby service station that did the washing and clean-up for the local Ford dealer's cars.

If you mean a job post-college that was supposed to make me self-supporting, it would be radio salesman at KLAD radio in Klamath Falls, OR.

 

[scotrace]

My first job as a teen was for a boarding kennel. Armed with a squirt bottle of antiseptic and a spray hose, I cleaned out the dog poo.

The dobermans were fine. The little yappy poodles shredded my legs.


I think I got $2.65 an hour. lol

Moving up to dishwasher at Ponderosa was a MAJOR uptick.

 

[BellyTank]

Apprenticed Signwriter(Signpainter), in Auckland, New Zealand.

B
T

 

[LizzieMaine]

My first job, other than neighborhood babysitting, was as a bookkeeper/office help at my grandfather's gas station/heating oil business. I started there the summer I turned 14 -- the minimum legal working age here -- at $1.99 an hour.

I worked my way thru high school in that job -- the business closed on my 18th birthday. After that I sorted empty deposit bottles in a grocery store for a while, worked one day (!) behind the counter in a lunchroom down by the docks, and painted signs and window cards. Then I took a bus to California and got a job in a Czechoslovakian deli making sausage -- while working on the side writing for a fortune cookie company. I went broke, got sick of living on rejected sausages, and came back to Maine --- where I got my first "real grown up job" doing just about everything one could do at a little 250 watt radio station -- which led to nearly fifteen years in radio before I finally wised up....

 

[Wild Root]

Real Job? I don't know if I've had any fake jobs but, the first time I was employed and got a paycheck I was working with my friend's family's business. We had two to three office buildings that we had to clean... it was really kind of cool... we'd go in and change the waste basket liners and vacuum and clean the washrooms. It was pretty kick back! Only worked three days out of the week... and it was at night! Started work around 9:30pm or 10:00pm we'd get finished around 3:00am or 4:00am.

I remember my favorite building to clean was one near my house... it was built in the late 1940's... it was kind of a two story joint. The main floor was large and had a few small offices around the main room where it was a maze of cubicals.. there was a stairway that went up to some more offices up there... they were the old wood and glass styled offices just like in the old movies... only thing different was the wood was painted.

The best thing was my friend got in his mind to have a TP roll fight! I went to take the trash out to the dumpster and then I came in to lock up... I hear my friend laugh (Tee he he) and a roll of TP few in my direction! I said: Oh, so you want to play! All the lights were off... I ran to the supply closet and stocked up on TP rolls. I then hunted around and tried to peg my friend (Oh another friend was with us at the time) I got sight of one of them... chucked one roll... BINGO! Then, I ran and hid... I then snuck to the top of the stairs... I had a birds eye view of the joint! I saw my friend Chris chase my friend Chad around and then they came by the foot of the stairs... I let one go and nailed my buddy Chad in the head! HAHAHAHA! Grand shot! He was impressed to say the least! lol *sigh* those were the good old days!

We did goof off some times but, we mostly just cleaned the place... after we cleaned, we'd go down the street and get some Tommy's Burgers and go back to the office building and sit in the impressive conference room and watch Conan O'Brian on their big screen TV!

=WR=

 

[pablocham]

I worked landscaping in Phoenix in the summers during high school. After highschool I dodged bullets behind the counter of a Seven Eleven. I don't consider either of those to have been "real jobs."

 

[Wild Root]

I worked landscaping in Phoenix in the summers during high school.

I'd call that a job... I'd call it a slave job! Landscaping in Phoenix in the summer? Man, that's tough!!!

And you worked at a 7-11? Well, at least you had A/C there!lol

Those are real jobs, just not real good jobs! We all have to start somewhere!

=WR=

 

[PADDY]

Patrolling the streets and lanes of Northern Ireland

While I was in my late teens, during the holidays/vacations I worked as an infantry soldier specialising in CRW (Counter Revolutionary Warfare..or counter terrorism!). I'd always been army barmy and I was like a pig in mud doing this kind of work (and being paid for it into the bargain! great for a poor 18-year-old student). So, while others were going to bed, I was driving the 40 miles to my barracks to start a night's work doing my 'bush' impressions, static surveillance, street patrols, VCPs, house searches or whatever!! I never told anyone at college what I did during my breaks (they probably wouldn't have believed it anyway! but for security reasons, I was advised just to play my cards close to my chest on who I told what to. These were days when you had to always check under your car before driving it).

 

[Nathan Flowers]

.

My first job was doing seasonal yardwork for lots of folks when I was about 14. At 16, I started a paper route (~370 papers to deliver daily), and did that till I was 18, when I took a job unloading boxes from trucks at FedEx.

 

[Mr Nick]

Farm hand and bag boy

Being raised in central Ohio, work on neighboring farms was my first money job. The first real paycheck was working as a grocery bagger in Zanesville at Big Bear. I remember having to wear a tie. I also remember trying to mop up a spilled gallon of oil in one of the aisles. The other thing about that job was it was during the winter '78 & the big snow. I had a '68 VW bug with a non-existent heater. It's a wonder I didn't freeze to death!lol

 

[Marc Chevalier]

When I was 16, I wrote response letters to constituents who'd sent letters to my state's senator, Pete Wilson. The cool thing was that my responses were signed "Pete Wilson", thanks to a huge "signature machine" with a mechanical arm wielding a felt-tip pen.


.

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

Delivery boy.

 

[Lincsong]

At 16 I was a courtesy clerk at Ole's Home Center. Made $3.85 an hour and thought that was good because it was .50 above the minimum wage and we got paid time and half on Sundays. But, they exploited my young mind by making me work off the clock 15-20 minutes. It wasn't until I had quit that I found out watch a bunch of pirates they were, :rage: and how gullible I was.

 

[SGB]

Worked my way through college doing construction, sheetrock apprentice and painter's apprentice, hard work good pay. Then first job in my field was Designer/Advertising head at a local newspaper.

SGB

 

[Wild Root]

At 16 I was a courtesy clerk at Ole's Home Center.

Oh man, we had an Ole's here in Monrovia when I was a kid! They didn't last long... probably because they were pirates as you said!

=WR=

 

[Lincsong]

Oh man, we had an Ole's here in Monrovia when I was a kid! They didn't last long... probably because they were pirates as you said!

=WR=

Orchard Supply Hardware gobbled them up. Then Sears ate Orchard Supply. But, kept the name.

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Here's how old I am. My first job was pumping gas. I actually checked people's oil and tire pressures. Yep, kids, they used to do that. lol

I never got a snazzy uniform, though. I ain't that old! lol

 

[Lincsong]

Here's how old I am. My first job was pumping gas. I actually checked people's oil and tire pressures. Yep, kids, they used to do that. lol

I never got a snazzy uniform, though. I ain't that old! lol

So that wasn't you on the Texaco Star Theater with Uncle Miltie?

 

[Wild Root]

Well, some might think this is off topic but, I have dreamed that my first job would have been a soda Jerk or, a service station attendant in a swell uniform with cap and bowtie! That would have been sooo cool!

=WR=