What was your first paid job?

[creekland]

Heard this question asked of some famous musicians yesterday and their answers were quite "normal" (and interesting).

 

Then, of course, I got curious about the Hive...

 

What was your very first paid job (or did you even have one)?

 

Mine was working for my dad helping him tend bees.  I started when I was 8 and he paid me what I think was minimum wage at the time (or close to it - $2/hour).  I loved getting paid.  I didn't like the work all that much.

 

If inside the family doesn't count, my first outside job was when I was a senior in high school. I worked in our public library doing anything from shelving books to watching the kid's section.  That was $3.15/hour.  I generally liked the job.

[mom2scouts]

My first paid job was working in the fields at a local farm. We were paid in cash, but well below minimum wage.  It was hard, hot work.  Not long after that, I worked in a downtown discount store.  I was in the dark, non-air-conditioned upper floors washing display boards in 100 degree heat.  My hands would bleed at the end of the day. Sometimes I got to go downstairs and clean or set up displays.  Now I realize that the working conditions probably broke all kinds of child labor laws, but at the time I was just happy to work and earn some money.

[kewb]

Babysitting. If we are talking on the books jobs, my first job was a recreation aide at a county park. It was the best job ever. My responsibilities:

Drove the paddle boat around the man made lake. It had two speeds: slow and slower.

Signed out tennis courts.

Scanned the playground in the morning for debris, broken glass, etc.

Made leisure passes for residents. So much fun to use the laminator.

Fielding phone calls about picnic permits and ball fields.

Entrance duty where you had to check leisure passes.

Riding around the park in a golf cart and aiding park guests and enforcing park rules.

Good times.

[unsinkable]

Paper route and babysitting.

 

Then Burger King, and then a gas station.

[Catherine]

If you don't count babysitting, then I worked for my dad the summer I was 13.  He is a carpenter, so my jobs were things like fetching and carrying tools and materials like shingles, running up and down the ladder, sweeping up.  

 

My first paid job was the summer after that, when I was 14.  I worked in a county jobs program and was an assistant to the school custodian for the summer, doing jobs like stripping and relaxing the gym floor, stripping and waxing the terrazzo hall floors, scraping things off the bottom of desks and chairs.  Ew.  I made a good friend that summer that I am still in touch with, and learned a whole lot about cleaning and maintaining.  I also stopped being afraid of the grizzled janitors. They were good people after all.  

[Melissa B]

I had a weekly newpaper route at age 10 and moved up to a daily route at age 12. I think I made around $100 a month on the daily route. There was also corn detasseling for a few weeks every summer from age 13 or 14 through high school - that paid very well and was sort of fun. At 15 I started working at a business in town for minimum wage.

 

Before that I worked for my parents ironing shirts for .10 each, shining shoes for .50 a pair and stuffing envelopes for my father's business at .01 each.

 

None of my children have ever held a job. It sometimes concerns me, though they do have volunteer work.

ETA - Well, my eldest does do a little bit of babysitting from time to time.

[Jane in NC]

Babysitting.  I was the only teenaged girl in an area where there were several families with small kids so I had loads of babysitting gigs.

 

From there I went to retail. 

[Lady Florida.]

I'm not counting babysitting and going straight for the one that gave me a real live paycheck.

 

My first job was at 16, working at the concession stand of our local movie theater. That's when I learned that leftover popcorn is saved. First, you'd try not to make too much towards the end of the night. Second, if there was only a small amount left, or if it was pretty old, we'd throw it away. However, if there was a lot and it wasn't made long before closing time, we'd put it in a big plastic bag similar to a garbage bag. The next day we'd put it in the machine, make a fresh batch, and mix up the old and the new. I don't know if theaters still do this. This was back in the seventies.

 

My very very first job for which I was paid came when I was 10. I was paid to walk a younger boy to school. He lived along the route my younger brother and I walked, so I'd stop by his house on the way to pick him up and drop him off. He walked with me/us to and from school and his parents paid me $2 a week for it. 

 

[Crimson Wife]

Babysitting and then when I was 12.5 I had a totally illegal harvest job at a local apple orchard. Pretty much everyone in my hometown did that in jr. high. As an adult, I'm rather appalled at the fact that everyone thought it was okay for the orchards to hire a bunch of 'tweens and young teens at well below minimum wage and have them work a potentially dangerous job (we were on ladders) with minimal supervision. Our parents liked it because it got us out of their hair for a few weeks and I don't think anyone really thought about the risks. Fortunately nobody suffered anything more serious than a sunburn but if somebody had fallen off one of the ladders it could've meant paralysis or death.

[medawyn]

Babysitting, a few months shy of my 12th birthday. I was hs at the time, so it was a regular gig three afternoons a week from 1:00-3:30. I sat for that family until I left for college.

 

The only jobs I've had are babysitting/nanny-ing and teaching/tutoring.

[Carrie12345]

Off the books, babysitting.

On the books, I believe it was in the Pizza Hut kitchen when I was 15ish.  I smelled like grease for a long time!
 

[Rosie_0801]

I was a professional toilet cleaner at aged 8. As I got older, I had to vacuum and mop too, helping Dad clean a child care centre after work. He paid me a quarter of the wages for doing half the job. I thought this was unfair, but he said I could work for that or for nothing. The downside of working for your father.  :glare:

 

When I was older I worked for a while cleaning a different child care centre, then moved to retail.

[unsinkable]

Off the books, babysitting.

On the books, I believe it was in the Pizza Hut kitchen when I was 15ish. I smelled like grease for a long time!

 

I worked as a waitress at Pizza Hut but I helped in the kitchen a lot!

 

When we'd make our own pizzas to take home, we'd lift the dough out of the pan, wipe most of the oil out and then proceed.

 

There was a special Pizza Hut greasy smell that was unique to PH.

[RebeccaS]

Off the books: I picked strawberries for .25 a quart. I was 12ish. I liked making money but hated the job.

First real job was a grill cook for a local family restaurant. I was really good at it and eventually took over ordering all the supplies in addition to working 60+ hours a week. I was more or less a manager but without the paycheck of a manager.. ;) I started at 18.

[Crimson Wife]

Off the books: I picked strawberries for .25 a quart. I was 12ish. I liked making money but hated the job.

 

Strawberry-picking I would have a lot less of an issue with as a harvesting job for a 12 y.o. than the apple-picking I did. No ladders!

 

[Arcadia]

Cashier at a supermarket after high school exams while waiting for college to start. $3.25/hr in 1991.

 

Then $7/hr in 1991 working at the college's computer lab when I matriculated.

[happypamama]

Baby-sitting my younger siblings, then branching out to sit for other families. As a teen, I also tutored kids, and one adult, in math.

 

My first real paid job, as in actual pay stubs, was working in our school district's office as a summer aide, answering phones, making copies, pulling job applications, etc.

[J-rap]

I guess babysitting...  but my first "real" job -- where I actually had to fill out a W2 form! -- was at Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream.  LOVED that job!  For every 4 hours worked, we could make ourselves a free ice cream sundae.  :)  (Their hot fudge is still better than any I've had.  Sadly, we only have one BR left in our entire state.)

 

 

[lailasmum]

Between 14 & 18 I worked in a greengrocers. Then after that a bakery and then I was a waitress/kitchen assistant. Made me realise I don't like food environments as work places though I did work in food places a few more times as there was limited choice. 

[Momling]

Aside from babysitting, my first job was in the drive through at Wendy's. I was 16 and earned $3.80/hr. When minimum wage rose to 4.25, I was so excited about my "raise".

[snickerplum]

Again, if babysitting doesn't count...

I worked in the children's department at a department store. The purpose was to earn money for plane tickets to go see my boyfriend (now husband) during his college vacation times (I was still in high school). I figured if my parents didn't have to pay for it they wouldn't tell me no. :-)

[Cottonwood]

I guess technically it was this occasional babysitting job I had that laid me almost nothing...at 12. Then at 15 a family friend hired me to work in his dinky jewelry shop for commission except I never sold anything during my shift. So a more correct answer would be at 16 I went to work as a cashier at a grocery store (started at 4.25 an hr!?) ....worked there 5 yrs. It is still my fondest memory of jobs. So fun and very little responsibility. I went on to a full career with school board for 10 yrs and always pined away for my little cashiers job! My manager just ran into my dad back in that town and asked where I was if I needed a job. He's on to other things and is hiring. I was like....what??? That was 20 yrs ago that i worked for him! How cool..we all liked each other and had fun at work. Never did I experience that again. Lol

[The Girls' Mom]

Wal-mart.  That lasted all of three weeks though, because I got married and moved away.  My next job was a file clerk in the loan department of a credit union.

[whitestavern]

I began working at 14 in a nursing home because that was one of the few jobs I could legally do at that age. I wanted a horse and had to earn boarding fees. I was basically a janitor--mopped floors, cleaned bathrooms and common rooms.

[mommaduck]

Shoveling snow.

[Pippen]

I started babysitting when the going rate was 50 to 75 cents per hour. 

 

My first "real" job was working for Swiss Colony, a cheese and sausage shop. It's all mail order/online sales now but they used to have shops in malls. We had to wear little red dresses and aprons--can't find a picture online or I'd show you. Other than the dress, I really liked that job.

[Mommy22alyns]

Probably babysitting and/or raking yards.  Way back then, a band of kids actually roamed the neighborhood and knocked on strangers' doors to earn money by raking their yards!  My first "official" job was at Subway.

[unsinkable]

Shoveling snow.

Duh! How could I forget this one?

 

I would pick up shoveling jobs on my paper route, too!

[swellmomma]

Babysitting. For $2/hr back when I was 9.

BUt real job...after school care.  Which I still do to this day.  When I was 11 I started out volunteering in an after school care, I did so everyday after work.  WHen I was 15 they hired me as paid staff.  I have done other jobs and even complete career changes, but I always come back to child care.  So here I am 27 years later, assistant director of an after school care and working in the college daycare as well. When I started in daycare it paid $5/hour, these days I make far more than that.  Who'd have thunk all those years ago that my volunteer work would turn into a career that I love and that pays enough to support my family. 

[Rachel]

Off the books: I picked strawberries for .25 a quart. I was 12ish. I liked making money but hated the job.

First real job was a grill cook for a local family restaurant. I was really good at it and eventually took over ordering all the supplies in addition to working 60+ hours a week. I was more or less a manager but without the paycheck of a manager.. ;) I started at 18.

I had a similar strawberry picking job for the same pay. I didn't mind the job, but it was a 5 mile bike ride there and the first day my sister and I made the mistake of eating as many berries as we picked. We were miserable the next day.

 

I babysat, mowed lawns, and strawberry picked before getting an official job. At 13 I was finally old enough to detassle corn and the summer I was 14 I pollinated corn. I assume it was some sort of research project for the seed company. It involved putting a paper bag over the top of the corn before it tassled and then later transfering the bag to the emerging corn. That job paid $1.50 more per hour than detassling and was long hours, often 10 hour days. I made pretty decent money that summer and liked that job way more than detassling.

[Word Nerd]

Babysitting. One neighbor I babysat for raised exotic fish and sold them to pet stores, and he hired me to be a fish sitter several times (there were at least 30 tanks) when they were on vacation.

[Loowit]

Babysitting.  I babysat at church during services and also had a summer job babysitting for a family that paid me $1 an hour which at the time was not much at all, but I felt sorry for them because they didn't have much money.  I found out later that the dad was asking me to stay late so he could meet up with his girlfriend, I thought he was working overtime.  I felt very badly for his wife.

 

My first "real" job only lasted a couple of days at Target.  They told me that they could work around my college schedule but then wouldn't, so I quit.  Then I got a job at a daycare center working in the toddler rooms.  I think that was my favorite job.

[umsami]

Babysitting...starting when I was 11.  Did it through high school.

 

Non-babysitting, my first job was working at an ice cream shop called Swensen's when I was 14.

[Matryoshka]

My first paid job (if you don't count some babysitting) was picking up apple drops in an orchard that were then made into cider.  I got 25 cents a bushel.  I thought it was lovely - I rode out on a trailer behind a tractor, and spent all day in the orchard looking through the grass for dropped apples.  At the end of the day they'd come pick me and my bushels up, and give me a cup of cider and a cider doughnut.

 

I don't think those kinds of jobs exist anymore.  Now the cider can't be made on site; it has to be sent somewhere to be pasteurized. Now one seems to hire 13 or 14 yos for some excuse or another.  And now I'd be terrified of the ticks.  Back then there was no Lyme disease, and I can't remember getting a single tick doing that.

[Jenny in Florida]

When I was growing up, my mother did a lot of arts and crafts shows. My first "job" was selling plants from a little table in her booths. I would collect interesting dishes and small containers by shopping thrift stores and similar places, then plant them with succulents. They sold surprisingly well. I did that for a couple of years beginning when I was about nine or 10.

 

I never babysat. 

 

My first official, "on the books" job was working the counter at a Mexican restaurant. I made minimum wage, $3.35/hour. It wasn't awful. I didn't especially enjoy cleaning out the salad bar, which was one of my tasks, but I did appreciate being able to take home as many fresh-made tortilla chips as I could carry.

[Wheres Toto]

Paper route and babysitting.  Then a week at Burger King followed by years (off and on around school) with Kmart.

[Tap]

Babysitting when I was in 8th/9th grade

 

Cash under the table--summer job.....Answered phones for a parent's friend's real estate office when they were out of the office showing a house. 15yo 

 

Seasonal for a couple of months at Christmas......Music Land (music tape/cd store)  I was 17yo I think.

 

1st more permanent job....A group home for adult men who were released from the mental hospital for 3 years 18-21yo.

 

[Junie]

Kentucky Fried Chicken when I was 15 because best.coleslaw.ever.  :)

[SKL]

Depends what you mean by "paid job."

 

Sometimes I did very light housework for a patient neighbor for a nickel or a dime.  Does that count?  I was probably 8 or under then.

 

I was maybe 9 or 10 when I was paid 25c to help a neighbor boy who wasn't learning his letters fast enough in KG.

 

I was 10 when I got my first paid babysitting job (not for family).

 

I also used to offer to do odd jobs at small businesses to get snack money.  For example, in one pizza shop they might give me 15c or 25c to fold a bunch of boxes.  Sometimes they even gave me free snacks (presumably stuff they couldn't sell for some reason).

 

At 13 I got my first paper route.  This was probably the first "official" work contract I had.

 

At 16 I worked in my mom's office (for a county appraiser) for 50c per day.  It was unofficial though.

 

At 18 I was a carney (food trailer), $25/day, but it was under the table.

 

At 19 I opened my own used book store (my mom was the official owner).  I got paychecks which I signed and turned over to my mom.  We never really made enough money, but the tax deduction offset the costs.  Also at 19 I had a couple of junk jobs (but official employment) that didn't last long.

 

At 19 or 20 I got my first factory job - with a real paycheck that I actually got to cash.  :P  I did various production jobs (machine operator mainly).  I liked it except for the heat and the smell and itchiness of getting fiberglass all over me.

[unsinkable]

Kentucky Fried Chicken when I was 15 because best.coleslaw.ever. :)

I love their coleslaw, too!

[HeWillSoar]

Babysitting was first, and then I worked at a buffet restaurant as a cashier and refilling the buffet. 

[Jackie]

Babysitting, starting when I was 10

Newspaper delivery, starting when I was 12

[Ottakee]

I did tons of babysitting for $1/hour from the the I was 9 through highschool and some beyond. By 11 I was babysitting 20+ hours a week dirng the school year and 40+ during the summer.

 

For my first real paid job at 16 I was a dietary aide at a nursing home for $3.17/hour. I loved that job as several friends worked there too. I worked my way up so that before I was 18 I was the weekend cook for 126 residents. I worked three through college as well.

[Ellie]

I was a long-distance telephone operator, back in the day when people actually called the operator to make a person-to-person call, or they were calling from a telephone booth and had to pay right there.

[lllll]

..

[kubiac]

My first paid job was filing papers at a Sylvan Learning Center while waiting for my brother to do his work. (He was dyslexic and Sylvan was the first thing my mom tried.)

 

Then hostess at a restaurant.

 

Then I worked at a Kinko's copy shop for a summer.

[creekland]

Aside from babysitting, there are quite a few different jobs we had.  It's been an interesting read - just as it was interesting to hear from the musicians.

 

My guys picked strawberries for a neighboring UPick farm that also sold berries on the side.  I think they still got paid 25 cents per quart even with more current prices.  They quickly figured out it wasn't worth their time.

 

They've worked for hubby (for pay) too helping with engineering surveying, but I don't remember how old they were when they started.

 

Only youngest got an outside the home "real" job before college.  That was at Chick Fil A his senior year.

 

All have worked during their college years (on campus jobs) and since.

[scoutingmom]

Well, other than babysitting....

 

My first job would have been an under-the-table job.  I worked at a Macs making Slushies when I was 11.  This was 'back in the day' when there was only 2 or 3 flavours, and the machine was up near the cash register and controlled by the cashier.  They would 'hire' a 6th grader from the school across the street to come as soon as they could to make the slushies during the after-school rush, and then also on Saturdays.  I think the job went through the summer too.  I was chosen when I was 11 because my sister was one of the main cashiers.  I hated doing it when she was working though because she would make me do things like stock shelves or wash windows during slow periods and no one else did.   I think I got maybe $2 an hour  (min wage would have been about $3.50).  And all the slushies I wanted.... except I hated slushies even before the job.  So they let me have 1 bottle of pop instead.

 

After that - Kentucky Fried Chicken, at one of the busiest ones in our city.   A lot of people couldn't stand eating the chicken after working there.... I got addicted.  

[TeacherZee]

Babysitting and then as a camp councilor at a soccer camp put on by the town. I got it because I played soccer for the club that helped the town put it on and they needed female councilors.

 

My first "real" job was as a summer receptionist at a large manufacturing company in my home town. I got that after having done work experience there. I held that job for three summers. Then my sister got it when I went away to uni :)

[Orthodox6]

Teaching piano while in high school when my own teacher was on vacation to her family farm, and needed someone to take over for some of her students.

 

First "formal" job was the summer after high school.  I worked in the mortgage loan department of an S&L.  With a red ballpoint pen, I circled numbers on reams of computer printout.  That is all that I did.  College entry was a blessed release!