What was your very first job?

Technically the first money I earned was singing in the church choir from age 9. We got paid 2p per practice or service (4 per week). My very first wage packet was for £1.36. I still have the envelope somewhere. Weddings in the summer earned us a whopping £1 each.
Sunday paper round at age 12, quickly promoted to marking-up the papers for others to deliver.
Babysitting from age 14.
From 16 I was an usherette at the local theatre at evenings and weekend matinées, plus I had a Saturday morning job as a shop assistant.
Full time - age 18 as shop assistant.

I started babysitting when I was 11 until I was 16.

My very first job with a paycheck was the summer I was 16. I went out to Nova Scotia to my hometown to stay with my grandparents and work at their laundry and drycleaning business. I worked in the laundry section where we dried many sheets from hotels on long rolling machines. Then I worked upstairs checking in people's dry cleaning. I did it for 6 weeks and then my grandparent took me on a road trip to Prince Edward Island for a couple of weeks. I loved this because I had my grandparents to myself for a whole summer.

My first non-family job was when I was 18 and worked for my town's hydro company. Me and a few other girls would work after school and in the evening stuffing hydro bills in envelopes which would then be mailed. That summer, they leased a Chevy Chevette for 2 of us to drive around and hand deliver the bills. It was a nice job because we were outside all summer. The only bad part was that I got bitten by a large dog and had to have a tetanus shot. The Post Office sued the Hydro company saying that they were taking away their job and the next year I worked in the billing department entering hydro meter readings. The summer before my last year at university, I could have worked there again but I got a job with IBM because my father worked there and they liked hiring the children of their employees. Those 2 companies, Hydro and IBM paid my whole way through university.

Payroll was processed at the corporate office and I assume the envelopes were put together there as they had the tax statement enclosed. Taxes were paid, they just chose to pay in cash.

I was selling Cheerful Cards door to door at about 7/8. Baby sitting around 12. Cleaning the March Of Dimes office downtown at 14.

Went to work as a cashier at Acme Super Markets at 16.5. Worked at various sites until 21 while taking some college classes.

Hostess/cashier at Shoney's Restaurant at 16 years old.  I soon 'promoted' to waitress.. lol.  Worked there for about five years... up to a management position.. dining room supervisor was my title.  LONG hours but fond memories.  Met my first real boyfriend there.  So lots of fun stuff.  Also heartbreak.. lol.  I realized that if I didn't get out of the restaurant business I would be stuck there for a long time.  Good money but way too many hours and very demanding.  

I made 3.36/hour as a hostess/cashier  and 2.01/hour as a waitress.


Edited to add: I 'worked' a lot before this 'first' real job.  I babysat a TON.  I lived on a cul-de-sac and there were at least six families with kids and I was the only one old enough to babysit. $1.00/hour no matter how many kids.  I probably babysat from 5th grade through 8th grade (when we moved).. almost 4-5 times a week.  In the summer I had a full time day babysitting job.  

After that, we moved and I was a candy striper at the hospital (no money) for a few years.  Then I turned 16 and went to the restaurant.  

Cashier at Hardee's; I was 16.

At 16 I started as a receptionist at my Dr's office after school. During the summer I worked full time and during school from 2-5.

Jennifer

Babysitting starting at age 12.

At 17, I worked for a mom and pop ice cream store. He was the nicest old man. He sold the store to a crany old man, and I quit shortly after.

I got a job at Shepard's Citations. I typed law citation on an electric typewriter that had special fonts to make all the little law symbols used in citations.
After a full page was typed, I would run that sheet through a wax machine that put a thin coat of wax on the back. We would cut the copy out and paste in onto page boards. The page boards were then sent to proof readers. If corrections were needed, we would make the corections, thus the need to be able to peel the first copy off the page board to affix corrected copy. Once proofing approved the pages, they were sent to to typeseting to create printing plates, which would eventually end up being a law book. They did made the books from start to finish. The attorney wrote the copy and I hated that most seemed to like to use a dull #2 pencil and sometimes the copy was difficult to read. Overall, good job.

Microelectronis was booming and we had several large companies build plants here. Those were paying really well with nice health insurance. I got about 75% of my college reinbursed through them. Then Micorelectronics crashed and layoffs galore. Thank goodness I got my degree in accounting, I started working with our 4 service utility company where I retired from 12 years ago at 57.

First job that I paid taxes was at Holiday Inn at 14. I babysat a lot before that.

My first job was in a factory during school vacations, packaging hardware products.  Even though it was more than 50 years ago, I can vividly remembering packing the Bondo-fill - an epoxy filler, and we would be quite high by the end of the day after breathing in all the hardener fumes!  No such thing as safety measures back then.

My first regular, though still part-time, job was selling sheet music in a central city music shop after school on Fridays (the late night shopping day). A lot of fun, mixing with s9me of the muso’s who came into the store.  The excitement when I got a raise - to $1 an hour!!!  OMG, I thought I was rich (again, this is more than 50 years ago).

First full-time job was as a technician in a medical laboratory, microbiology section.  We worked in rotation between the general micro, urinary, and faecal sections; I liked to tell people I was literally a shit-stirrer. 😂

I started working at a local radio station at 15. I answered the phones there in the afternoons for a few hours.
Mostly taking requests for the DJ, writing down people who called in for on-air contests and stuff like that.
This was in 1996, so I was working with a typewriter and a phonesystem that would be considered antiquated today

I had that job all through high school. It was great because I got to meet a lot of local celebrities coming in to be interviewed, I was cool

We should really add how that first job shaped us and plan for “real” life - it’s honestly why I insisted my kids work- despite how unpopular that is now with crazy ec - my jobs were ridiculously unhelpful- unless you needed to know that you cannot do anything with children period and you really aren’t a people person - find a job where skills are more important than personality- that was worth way more than the minimum wage I was earning!

I was 14 when I started tutoring elementary school kids and 16 when I became a teaching assistant for an enrichment earth science class for 4-8th grade kids.

Beside babysitting and working in the fields for family... Sears Credit Central age 17.  Data entry credit card applications, working with sales staff to get larger credit lines approved, filing, etc.   I had actually applied for the sewing department which I really wanted but I scored very high on the math part of the test we were given so was offered this job that paid .10 more than the sewing department.  I think I was making at 2.90 per hour.  My Dad gave me my mom's car after she had passed away so I drove that for years!