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Post by Lexica on Apr 14, 2024 18:03:13 GMT
breetheflea’s post about her DD’s first job made me think of my first job and made me wonder, what was your first job and how old were you? Mine was working for a Mexican restaurant in my city. I was 16 years old and so excited to be able to work. The restaurant had an order and pickup window so all employees stayed behind the counter except for the busboys who handled the trays of dirty dishes and wiped down tables. The dishwashing area was in the room next to the food prep room so I only dealt with the stacks of clean dishes they would regularly roll in on a cart. It was the most popular Mexican restaurant in my area, very authentic food, and I learned to make so many delicious dishes. And we had a ton of regulars that would come in on the same day of the week and order the same dishes each time. It was a relatively big seating area so we were able to keep serving nonstop from when the doors opened to just about closing time. I had just gotten my driver’s license so that I could get myself to and from a job on my own. My parents bought a used car for my older sister and I to share so we had to coordinate our first jobs around who would have the car. At least until she was able to buy her own car, which she did relatively quickly because she had a year’s head start at her job and because she didn’t like sharing with me. The car was to be shared with our younger sister too, but she was 3 years behind me so I got exclusive use for a while. By the time my youngest sister was able to drive, I was in collage and working part time. My parents made a deal with me that if I kept my grades up, getting nothing below a “B” in any class, they would pay half of my car payment. My first car was a used Volkswagen Bug and I think my payment was about $35 a month on it. So how about you? First job, your age, and how did you get to/from work??
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Post by Linda on Apr 14, 2024 18:09:48 GMT
very first job was a paper route - first I delivered just the afternoon paper after school and then I also took on a morning route (different paper) before school. I was 12 and I did it for probably 3 years total.
First job with an actual pay packet? Woolworths - I was hired just before I turned 16 and had to wait to start until my birthday. I worked in the housewares department - stocking, ordering, etc..We were paid in cash but in pay envelopes where the flap had the withholding etc...written in. I made $3.35/hr and walked to and from my job about 1.5 miles each way.
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iluvpink
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,278 
Location: Michigan
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Post by iluvpink on Apr 14, 2024 18:11:17 GMT
Mine was at Dairy Queen. It served burgers and stuff in addition to ice cream. It was just opening so myself and a bunch of my classmates applied. It was the first fast food in our small town so it was an exciting thing lol. Unfortunately working there wasn't that great as the owner's son was the manager and super creepy and feely with us girls. And they over hired and didn't give anyone many hours. I think was there maybe two months before I found a job at a small local pizza restaurant.
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Post by littlemama on Apr 14, 2024 18:12:14 GMT
Other than babysitting, it was working at K-Mart in women's clothing. I was almost 18 and drove myself. At that time, they paid employees in cash, hoping employees would spend it on the way out of the store.
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Post by padresfan619 on Apr 14, 2024 18:15:46 GMT
Besides babysitting, dog sitting, dog walking, and watering people’s gardens I got my first w-2 job at a grocery store as a courtesy clerk bagging groceries and pushing carts.
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Post by chaosisapony on Apr 14, 2024 18:17:13 GMT
Cashier at a drug store.
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kate
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,512
Location: The city that doesn't sleep
Site Supporter
Jun 26, 2014 3:30:05 GMT
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Post by kate on Apr 14, 2024 18:22:53 GMT
Babysitting
Mucking stalls at a stable
I think my first normal-ish job was as a temp during the summers. My typing stunk, so my jobs were receptionist, file clerk, and "light industrial" positions.
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Post by hop2 on Apr 14, 2024 18:26:07 GMT
First official job with tax etc or first labor I was paid for?
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Post by librarylady on Apr 14, 2024 18:35:12 GMT
If we count any job for which I received money---it was steering/driving the tractor for our neighbor
while he and my siblings picked the corn and tossed it into the wagon that the tractor was pulling. I didn't really drive (IMO) because all I did was steer it down the rows. We were paid ?? and had lunch for our work. Later, they paid me to sit with the elderly grandmother while the wife ran a few errands. They would give me $2.50 and my mother said we should not be paid for sitting in the house watching TV with the grandmother. They insisted, so I left the money on the car seat when I got out of the car. Wife found it, backed up and insisted I had to take the money. I did a little babysitting while in HS.
My first job for which I received hourly wage was waitress at the lunch counter in a drug store. I got .68/hour. That was the summer after my freshman year in college. When I went back to college, I had a job in the chemistry office for .50/hour.
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Post by Blind Squirrel on Apr 14, 2024 18:41:19 GMT
I was a library page. It was a "government" job, so I earned leave and everything!
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Post by Lexica on Apr 14, 2024 18:41:47 GMT
First official job with tax etc or first labor I was paid for? Either or both! |
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Post by Lexica on Apr 14, 2024 18:45:51 GMT
Interesting that a couple of you were paid in cash and by companies, Woolworths and K-Mart, not individuals. That just seems unusual to me. Although many of us were not making huge salaries each week so maybe we were paid out of petty cash?
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peabay
Prolific Pea
Posts: 9,596
Jun 25, 2014 19:50:41 GMT
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Post by peabay on Apr 14, 2024 19:02:48 GMT
I grew up in a gated beach community (which sounds WAY fancier than it was - it was not at all upscale) and I worked at the booth as a 13 year old (see? Not fancy - they entrusted young teenagers with telling people "sorry, it's a private beach.")
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Post by Linda on Apr 14, 2024 19:10:59 GMT
Interesting that a couple of you were paid in cash and by companies, Woolworths and K-Mart, not individuals. That just seems unusual to me. Although many of us were not making huge salaries each week so maybe we were paid out of petty cash? this is a canadian version from the 70s and I was in the States in the 80s but this is very similar to what we got -it wasn't an under the table thing. www.ebay.com/itm/255380076550 |
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Post by gorgeouskid on Apr 14, 2024 19:23:59 GMT
I stuffed advertising inserts into newspapers every Wednesday after school (my grandparents owned the newspaper). I was about 8 or 9 when I started and made $3.10/hour. I'd get a check for maybe $8 and head over to the corner grocery store and cash the check and buy candy and salami.
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milocat
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,421
Location: 55 degrees north in Alberta, Canada
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Post by milocat on Apr 14, 2024 19:32:47 GMT
I was in grade 12, my mom's friend had a restaurant and I had a spare in the afternoon so I would work there from 12pm - 2pm to help with their lunch rush. I'd walk there and then back to catch my last class and then the bus home at the end of the day. I worked a very very few shifts beyond that, and I'd have to stay at my grandma's house in town overnight. I made $5/hour.
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Post by cadoodlebug on Apr 14, 2024 19:36:59 GMT
Babysitting when I was a tween, young teen. My first real, out of college job, was in the trust department of a bank. Worked there for 15 years until I met DH on a business trip to SF.
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Post by pjaye on Apr 14, 2024 19:50:59 GMT
I was 14 and a good swimmer...I went to my local swimming pool and asked for a job and became a life guard. It was close enough to walk.
Did that every summer until I finished high school.
I loved it, and it taught me the value of hard work - walking around 3 swimming pools, one Olympic sized & 2 smaller kiddie pools, often for 8-12hrs a day (it closed at 9pm) in the Australian sun is hard going. I was always sunburnt as these were the days of "Reef Oil" SPF 0! We also did all the first aid, if someone got injured.
After the pool closed for the day then we had to pick up garbage, empty the bins, clean the toilet blocks etc. On days when it wasn't hot and not many people were in...then we mowed the lawns, weeded, and scrubbed the accumulated body fat off the edges of the pools (the delightful task known as "the scum gutters" - that we all tried to avoid)
The smell of chlorine still brings back a flood of memories - I did a lot of growing up there.
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Post by piebaker on Apr 14, 2024 19:53:08 GMT
Working for a store that sold patterns, fabric, and notions. We took turns making blouses, skirts, or dresses to display in the shop's window.
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Post by Lexica on Apr 14, 2024 20:07:35 GMT
I was 14 and a good swimmer...I went to my local swimming pool and asked for a job and became a life guard. It was close enough to walk. Did that every summer until I finished high school. I loved it, and it taught me the value of hard work - walking around 3 swimming pools, one Olympic sized & 2 smaller kiddie pools, often for 8-12hrs a day (it closed at 9pm) in the Australian sun is hard going. I was always sunburnt as these were the days of "Reef Oil" SPF 0! We also did all the first aid, if someone got injured. After the pool closed for the day then we had to pick up garbage, empty the bins, clean the toilet blocks etc. On days when it wasn't hot and not many people were in...then we mowed the lawns, weeded, and scrubbed the accumulated body fat off the edges of the pools (the delightful task known as "the scum gutters" - that we all tried to avoid) The smell of chlorine still brings back a flood of memories - I did a lot of growing up there. That is a lot of responsibility for a 14-year-old kid. What was the most serious accident or injury you had to deal with? |
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anniebeth24
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,544
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Post by anniebeth24 on Apr 14, 2024 20:11:17 GMT
I stuffed advertising inserts into newspapers every Wednesday after school (my grandparents owned the newspaper). I was about 8 or 9 when I started and made $3.10/hour. I'd get a check for maybe $8 and head over to the corner grocery store and cash the check and buy candy and salami. Made me smile reading that salami was a treat you'd spend your hard earned money to buy. |
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Post by disneypal on Apr 14, 2024 20:30:14 GMT
Cashier at K-Mart
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Post by peano on Apr 14, 2024 20:36:59 GMT
My first job I was self-employed. We lived in a burgeoning subdivision and houses were going up everywhere. My best friend and I used to go to the construction sites, gather up the bottles and cans and take them to the market out on the highway and cashed them in. We were saving up for a pony.  My first official job was working at a kiosk in the mall called Shell and Stones, which was a build your own jewelry shop. I was 16. This was the era of the puka shell necklace so we were very popular. It was a fun and high visibility job. The most memorable day of the job was that a couple of Mormon missionaries came by and were talking to me. It must have been the first time I was aware of Mormons. I told my dad, and he was like if they come back--"ask them their stance on Black people in the Church." This was back when he was WAY more liberal. |
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Post by Darcy Collins on Apr 14, 2024 20:37:16 GMT
First pay was babysitting - which I detested! I got a job at a video store which I could walk to when I was around 14 - paid in cash.
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Post by ~summer~ on Apr 14, 2024 20:41:02 GMT
I was also 16 and got a job working at a law firm in SF.
I’d take BART in after school - I think I got paid $6/hour.
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Post by needmysanity on Apr 14, 2024 20:43:51 GMT
My first "job" was ironing shirts for our neighbor. I got 25 cents a shirt (I think I was 10 or 12)
My second "job" was teaching swim lessons with my mom in our backyard pool. I got like $20 a week.
My first REAL job was working at Hardees. I got the job a few weeks before my 16th birthday and worked there for 3 years.
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Post by ntsf on Apr 14, 2024 20:47:56 GMT
other than babysitting.. at 50 cents an hour.. got $1 for watching 6 kids one time..
I started at 15 to work as a ski instructor for my dad. got $15 an hour in 1971. taught two classes on a sat. some on sundays. my dad had a co-op ski school and so that was good money. 10 yrs later, when I worked for the ski area as an instructor.. and certified.. I didn't get that much. you had to be ready to go at 7 am on a saturday. dad drove up every sat, sometimes for the weekend, sometimes for the day. then at 17 I got a christmas job at hickory farms. and at 18, I worked most summers as a camp counselor, tour guide, trail crew chief and other outdoor jobs.
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Post by gar on Apr 14, 2024 20:53:01 GMT
My first job was a Saturday job when I was 16 working in an amazing jeans boutique. Rammed floor to ceiling with jeans of every brand. One girl I worked with who’d been there for years could look at someone as they walked in the shop and know exactly which brand of jeans and which size would fit them perfectly and she was right 99% of the time.
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Post by monklady123 on Apr 14, 2024 21:08:06 GMT
Babysitting until I went to college. I had one family who hired me for the entire summer between junior and senior year of high school. I hated that because all day was a long time to spend with kids, and I had no transportation to take them anywhere. The summer after I graduated I just did random babysitting. I had a lot of families so I did a lot of sitting.
I suppose my first real job, i.e., one where I had to pay taxes, was working for the food service at college. I also got a work-study job at the library. Did those two for all four years of college. In the summers I worked at the University of Pittsburgh in their Temporary Employment Pool, which was basically temporary work all over the university filling in for people who were on vacation or on leave, or for special projects in a department. That was a lot of fun because I enjoyed going all over the place. I learned a lot about different management styles.
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dawnnikol
Prolific Pea
'A life without books is a life not lived.' Jay Kristoff
Posts: 7,864
Sept 21, 2015 18:39:25 GMT
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Post by dawnnikol on Apr 14, 2024 21:12:04 GMT
Babysitting, but it wasn't steady. My first steady job was when I was 14 at a video store. My parents drove me. When the college kids came back for the summer, I was booted out to the owner's Dad's office as a secretary. Then I went back to the video store when the college kids went back to school.
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