What was your first job as a teenager or young adult? Do those memories make you cringe, chuckle or laugh out loud? Perhaps you learned a valuable life lesson, discovered a career path or even met your future spouse? We asked people what they remember most about their first jobs. The answers we got ranged from thoughtful to nostalgic and even hilarious.
Read what they have to say and share your own story in the comments.
The Fire Alarm That Wasn’t
My first job out of high school was as a data clerk for an insurance company in Des Moines in 1960. The buzzer used by the agents to contact the dictaphone operator was a LOUD horn-type buzz. It was exactly the same sound as the fire alarm at my high school.
The first time it went off, I got up from my desk and walked out of the building. ALONE. A bit later I went back in to ask the others why they stayed and learned my error. — JudyAnn L.
Dropping the Drinks
At my first job waiting tables, I learned how kind and understanding people can be after getting a tray full of drinks dropped on them.
And to never let anyone take something off of your tray! — Karen C.
Punching Time, Processing Punch Cards
My first job was right after high school graduation. I needed to get a security clearance. I worked in the computer operations center at White Sands Missile Range, processing punch cards. Remember them?
At the time, the minimum wage was $2.54/hour. Thankfully, I still lived at home! I wasn’t an accurate typist by any means. I needed to retype so many of those punch cards—and the ones I liked the least were the payment processing cards for the soldiers. I had to enter a lot of data per soldier, so those took the longest.
After a while, I moved to processing computer tapes (confidential) for a vital operation at WSMR. — Bobbie A.
Lessons in Horse Poop
My first real job was mucking stalls at a horse barn.
I learned quickly that I didn’t know nearly as much as I thought about horses. — Michelle C.
The Job That Led to Adulthood
I did not get my first “real” job until I was 17 years old, and it was what I like to call my gateway to adulthood. It led to my first car, paid for my secondary education and it was where I met my husband of 31 years.
There were about 15 of us that worked at that hardware store and we were all very close. We worked together and hung out together as if we were a large family. Just the other day, I saw an old friend from that job. We haven’t seen each other for over 20 years and he instantly recognized me. We sat and talked about our lives, our families and the good old days.
That job is still a fond memory I cherish even today. — TracyLynn S.
What an Arm!
I delivered newspapers from 12 to 15 years of age. I excelled at folding and wrapping rubber bands around each.
I was also an expert at throwing the newspaper…on the customer’s roof. — Rick M.
The Crawl-Through Drive-Thru
My first job was babysitting, but my first real job was at Burger Chef, a fast-food job. This company was great to work for—still haven’t found a burger or fried apple pie as good as theirs. Times were different then.
Our drive-thru window didn’t lock well, so, if I was the first person there in the mornings, I just had to pop it with my hand by the lock and slide it open, crawl through the window and get to work. If you were the last to leave, you locked all of the doors from the inside and climbed out of the drive-thru window, sliding it closed with a “slam.”
Managers had keys, but, at 16, I was “‘the manager” a lot of times. I got raises about every three months and made $1.00 more than minimum wage. That was in 1978. Kroger was my job at 17, and I had a 401(k), insurance and retirement. I stayed for 24 years. — Amanda C.
Free Food Perks
I was 14 and washed dishes. I worked my way up to the head cook by 15. We had these amazing big sandwiches: roast beef, turkey clubs and others. We got a free meal every eight-hour shift, but I would save my meal to bring home for my Dad. — Bob M.
Love in the Stacks
My first job was as a shelver at my local library. I was in high school and it paid well. As a neat freak, I enjoyed making sure all the books were in perfect alphabetical or Dewey Decimal [System] order. The other fun part was that the children’s librarian used to have me come in and help with story-time programs, passing out the craft materials, etc.
I didn’t know it at the time, but that job would shape the rest of my life. When I was in college, I transferred to another branch, where I ended up meeting my husband, who was another shelver. We’ve been married 24 years.
I had such a good experience working in the library, that I began working full time and eventually got my master’s degree and became a children’s librarian myself. I have been in the library field for 32 years now, but for the past five years I only work part-time and work as a professional organizer on the side. That way I get to organize things OTHER than books, which has been a great transition. — Pam H.
Fighting Fast Food Temptations
My first job was at Dairy Queen at age 15.
Funniest memory? One of the girls I worked with and I made gorgeous loaded sundaes…and then threw them in the trash without eating them to prove we had the willpower to stay on our diets!
That was long before I knew about food costs! — Kathy A.
Washing Dishes, Making Friends
My first job was washing dishes at a restaurant. I was 15 years old and had just returned from vacation when I learned my good friends had landed a job at Sixpence [a local restaurant]. I wanted to work too, and, of course, they put in a good word for me.
We had a great time, met many new friends and I ended up bussing tables my sophomore year. Looking back, I guess those were some of the best work experiences of my teenage years. — John P.
You Say You Want a Raise?
I worked at a convenience store. I started there when I was 12 years old.
I worked my butt off for $1.25 an hour.
After two years of devoted service to all customers, I asked for a raise. The owner told me to go stand on a chair. — Tony C.
Everyone Has Their Own First-Job Story
What do you remember about your first job? How did it change you? What did you learn? Let’s take a stroll down memory lane—share your story in the comments below!
My first job when I was 16 was at a resturant as a car hop, the guy gave me a $10.00 bill for a $4,35 meal when I went back to give him his change forgot which car it was and gave the change to the wrong person, the rest of the night I was sent to the kitchen to wash dishes. Taught me a lesson,
Age 13, Carhop at Dog & Suds, 65cents an hour.
My first job as a teenager was being a stock boy, janitor and sales clerk at a small Department store in Beech Grove, In. I enjoyed greeting people and helping them with their purchases. The department store carried a complete line of merchandise and I always said I sold everything from bras to boot
socks. A great Jewish family owned the store and my first reprimand was for using too much string on the package. The second thing was “Don’t tell the customer what we don’t have, show them what we do have. Lots of these lessons I’ve carried thru my 90 year life.
I was a math major in college, but by my Junior year I knew that I did not want to be a teacher – or an accountant – the two most available math related jobs for a woman. In my Senior year I took an Intro to Computers course – and I knew that was what I wanted to do – btw this was 1969 – the early days of the computer industry. I had no idea where I would work but since I had a wedding to plan (I got married 4 days after graduating college) I didn’t worry about it. Fortunately for me, one of my bridesmaids had an uncle who worked for Western Electric – part of the Bell System back in the day. So she got me an interview. I was very optimistic – but still totally surprised when after interviewing with several departments, the HR guy asked me where I wanted to work?
Turns out my friend’s uncle was a Vice President of the company! lol. I picked a great department and had a great time working in a primarily male industry.
My funniest story was when I sent out a software change to our regional office in Denver – they called me in the middle of the night with a problem. My code had caused a loop and wouldn’t stop printing – they said they only had 1 box of paper left so “could I please fix the problem!!!”
My proudest accomplishment was working as a Consultant to American Express and helping to design the software for the first Amex ATM machines.
Life is good – I can still handle IT – but Real Estate is my career now – and being Grandma – the best job ever!
I had my first paying job when I was about 7 or 8. I grew up on a farm, before modern technology did everything. (We still had milk cans at the time). Mustard was an obnoxious, invasive weed in the grain fields. My grandfather paid my sister and me a penny a piece for each weed plant we pulled. Our feet fit between the rows of grain without smashing them. I loved it! I was able to be out in the fresh air, not stuck in the house. My grandfather showed my sister and me that we were valuable to the family farm even though we were small. It was a wonderful feeling to see the smile on his face as we worked beside him and my daddy in the fields. He always said well done when he paid us. That money went into a savings account and was a significant amount at the end of the summer. The love of the outdoors and growing things is still with me and I passed it on to my children and grandchildren. One son works with horses with his wife. One son has 2 acres, a huge vegetable garden and an incredible rose garden. My grandchildren earn money doing yardwork and have houseplants in their rooms. Family and working together is important to all of us. I ended my working career with what I called the best job next to being a Grandma. I was the tour guide/narrator on a scenic railroad. Can’t beat getting paid to ride the train!
My first job was working at a gas station in a busy part of Orange Co. Calif. I had to keep the facility clean, When customers pulled in I had to check thier oil, wash thier windshield and run the pumps. The gas back then was about 30 cents per gal. A very busy job, being the only worker there.
My first job right after graduating from high school in 1947:
Running a spooling machine in a woolen factory. We had fans but no AC in those days. It required standing all day behind this big machine and tie ends of yarn from small spools to a large spool, which then was transferred to weaving and eventually became bolts of woolen cloth. I made close friends among my fellow workers and very much enjoyed having a pay check at the end of each week.
However, I did not follow up in this line of work. By the time I was late 20’s I had studied for the aerospace industry and that was my line of work until I retired in 1985.
My first job was with the civic reading club of Connecticut out of Hartford selling magazines over the phone. What all of us at four tables would do is take a page from the telephone book in those days and just start at the top and go down one name at a time and crossed them out as you did this so the next shift knew where to start. My shift was from 5 to 9 pm. We got leads for the salesmen to close. I got pretty good in those days realizing that men in those days made the decisions so I talked to the men who gave their wives magazines. I did pretty well getting commissions after the salesmen closed the deal.. Got to talk to a lot of interesting men and women. Left there to go to a waitressing job and again met people from all walks of live. Probably waitressing was the best experience at a young age — started out at 1.25 and hour and I did this every weekend I was in college and worked full time during the one month I had off as I did 4 years of college in 3 years by going to school during the summer. Kept me busy and out of any trouble.
My first job was a painter homes apartments etc. later in life I owned a painting company with 18 employees 5 trucks life was great!
My first job right out of high school was an assistant bookkeeper for many small businesses in our city.
I’d taken secretarial courses in high school and had aced them all. But that wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life. So I walked miles to the nearest hospital and they were starting a Nurse’s Aide class. I signed up. Then told my boss at bookkeepers shop, I’d be quitting. She felt bad because I’d proven good at bookkeeping and tax configuration.
I’d worked my way up medical ladder from Aide, Surgery technician, Registered Nurse to Physician’s Assistant.
My actual first job was as a strawberry and pole bean picker in Willamette Valley Oregon. Our school sessions were timed to end so the local farmers could take advantage of willing student labor. We learned work ethic, earned a paycheck, and as a result, in our family, opened our own bank account where our parents instructed us to save 10%. As we grew older, and became better pickers, the money earned went toward purchasing school clothing of our choice. Some pickers earned enough to pay college tuition fees
It’s a bit unfortunate that youngsters under 16 can no longer work in the fields. I was 7 when I got my social security card! I’m now 79 and the work ethic I learned carried me the rest of my life. I later became a bank teller, then (following additional education) a college administrator, a city council member and retired as a County Commissioner.
I agree with you totally! Everyone should experience at least a little time with their hands in the soil in some way. Young people need to learn a good work ethic early. At the end of a good day’s work is a good night’s rest
I was 15 when I got my first job working in a restaurant/icecream parlor/truck stop. I was still in school so I only worked Saturdays. The pay was $1.00 an hour plus tips. My job was to make the burger patties, take the order, cook and serve the food and cash customers out. Plus, wait on customers at the the icecream counters and little kids buying penney candy. One day someone called in a carryout order for about 20 burgers with everything on them. I was frantic but when the customer came in, I had his order wrapped, bagged, and ready to ring it up. About 10 minutes after the customer left someone looked over my shoulder and said “Hey why are all those burgers on the grill over there?” About that that time the phone rang and customer called back yelling and screaming “Where’s the meat?”
Ha!!! What an unforgettable story. Thanks for sharing, Mae!
My first job, like for many people, was at McDonald’s. Unlike most others who may have or do work at a fast-food chains, I was a Host! I was 16 and McDonald’s had just opened one of its first “townhouses” in Fairfield, CT (1967). Up to that time, all McDonald’s were actual true drive-ins with no inside area to sit and eat. The “townhouse” provided that new feature- indoor dining!
Dressed in black slacks, white shirt, black tie and a red blazer with the McDonald’s logo on the pocket, I greeted customers as they came into the “townhouse.” I was a Honor student in high school and my hiring manager thought I was the perfect person to assume this “test position” of “Host.”
My script was short and to the point…”Welcome to McDonald’s! Please step to this line to place your order” as I directed the customer to the shortest line.
After a month of this routine, the “test” was concluded and it was determined that McDonald’s really didn’t need a Host. I was then reassigned to waiting on customers at the counter. I do think I was the only person to ever hold the position of “McDonald’s Host!”
I did learn the saying “If you have time to lean, you have time to clean!” at that job and I remember it even now- obviously! And I think of it whenever I visit a McDonald’s.
My first job was scale operator at a quarry. I weighed the trucks on the way in and again on the way out. The net difference was the weight of the load. Since the weight equals dollars to the company, it was vital that I was accurate and thorough.
As the drivers pulled onto my scale, I would quiz them about their load.
We had several grades of product so it was important to identify the outbound product. Well before computers, I drew up a table to record the times, weights, truck number, …. There was quarter inch minus, fine mix, road grade, and a few I do not recall.
I would table all this data and present it to my boss at the end of the day. I had been there about 2 weeks before my boss told me that: 1/4″ minus, fine mix, etc were all the same product. Whenever I would ask a driver about his load, each would use a different term.
I am sure they were not purposely picking on this poor high school kid working on his first real life assignment.
When I was in high school I had several very brief work stints: babysitting (which I wasn’t very good at or enjoyed), umpiring a few kids’ softball games, and one brief stint as a summer camp counselor for somewhat spoiled kids that were quite challenging. But the first regular, longer-lasting job was working at a coat factory during the summer, where a relative was a manager. Like another person who commented she worked at a glove factory, I was a “turner,” a person who used a long, somewhat pointy wooden stick to poke out the corners of pieces like collars, cuffs, and cloth belts that are stitched inside out. The other women at my table, who mostly just spoke Spanish, which I had studied in school but hadn’t really used outside of class, were skeptical of this college-bound kid. Was I up to the job? I was very slow at first, but eventually won their approval, and friendship, when I produced as much good work as they did. It was a hot, noisy working environment, with dozens of stitching machines whirring in different tones and speeds, in a giant open factory space. Worst day there: when I was reassigned to run a huge, noisy, scary machine that stapled small cardboard coded tags to keep the cut coat pieces properly matched. Working alone in a small hot room, I had to be sure I didn’t get my fingers under the stapler as it slammed down! Best day: when I was reassigned to brush the fake fur parts of finished coats before they were bagged for shipping. Fun and easy. Overall, it was a good experience, and I went back again for a second summer to help earn some more college tuition. My “turner” friends welcomed me back.
My first job was a telephone operator in New York city. Remember when you could dial O and get help for free? I stayed with the Bell system for 32 years and had a great career.
My first job was a summer job as a telephone switchboard operator at a Holiday Inn. I sat at a switchboard just like Lily Tomlin. I had to wake people up in the morning and connect them to incoming calls. Fortunately there were relatively few calls coming in at one time or I would have been totally overwhelmed. The hotel manager always wanted to know when a celebrity was coming in so he could welcome them. One summer Maria von Trapp, the real Maria from the Sound of Music was coming in, and we informed the boss and told him the story. By this time she was in her 80s and he greeted her with “…and how are the children?”
I was 17 and soon to graduate from high school. I worked across the street from the school at a well known supermarket where many of us young girls got part time jobs. My first week was a lesson on how to be more attentive to money. I gave a lady too much change as a check out girl when we used those old big horrible key pressing cash registers. My wonderful boss docked my very first paycheck $10. In those days we made next to nothing. I thought “oh wow this is awful. Is this what I have to look forward to for the next 40 years? “ I resigned to get another job but wrote “HI” in a cool whip before departing. Let the boss figure that one out.
In 1961, I was nineteen and
working as a Nursing Assistant for Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.
I earned $24.95 “a week” and from that, they deducted uniform costs which made it even less when I needed a new uniform. The pay was unacceptable, but I loved taking care of patients and dreamed of one day becoming an RN.
The personnel director, gave out checks. (My base pay was $30.00 weekly for a 6 day work week). One day he sent for me to come to his office. I went. And his question was, “why don’t you smile when you get your check?” Well, without elaborating, In a few days, I resigned-smiling- and pursued a 38 year career in Accounting for the Government.
My first job was assisting my uncle Meme Castro in wiring a house for outlets and lights. He taught me so much it helped me 15 years later to get hired by a communications company. It turned out to be my future retirement nest,
My first job was at age 16 in flower/carnation greenhouses. I was a very shy, quiet teenager and I loved the peacefulness inside the greenhouses and the fresh smell of all the flowers. I loved going to work somewhere so beautiful, and I got paid to do it!
A year later I earned enough money to go to college by having a weekend flower stand along the road in a wealthy area full of tourists in La Costa, CA. Every Fri morning at 6 am I would go into the gladiola fields nearby and pick the beautiful stalks. It was cheaper to pick them yourself than buy them in bundles. I met a lot of wonderful people and overcame my shyness little by little. After college I taught high school and moved on to own 2 restaurants of my own. Both of these careers required working with a lot of different personalities and good “customer service” skills, which I had acquired by selling flowers. My best day at the flower stand was when a young man had me make up a very special bouquet. He paid for them and turned around and gave them to me saying “special flowers are for special people”!
My first job was shinning shoes on street corners and bars in San Francisco. I made my shoe box. A friend gave some used Shineola shoe polish, a brush, and a an old nylon stocking. I charged 15 cents for the shine. This was in 1943 and i was 8 years old.
I shined shoes after school and Saturdays. Averaged $3.00.
My first job was at our local Carvel. Three or 4 high school girls were hired each year to replace the graduating seniors. It was considered an honor to be picked as 30 or so girls applied! We were given $10 per year to buy uniforms…white polyester nurse- looking dresses. It was difficult to find cute ones… so we compensated by hemming them too short and wearing them too tight. My first day on the job, my boss noticed my cursive handwriting and named me the “new official cake decorator”. Wow!! But little did I know that this would result in me working harder for the same money… (which was 60 cents an hour). But I loved that little job! The 60’s really were the good old days.
One of my first jobs in high school was working at a plastics factory where they made plastic bottles for various companies. On the second day on the job they assigned me to grind unfinished plastic bottles by putting them in a large grinding machine. I did this for 10 minutes and then told them this didn’t seem so healthy as I didn’t have any safety goggles or masks. They weren’t too pleased but did move me to another department. The lesson learned was to speak up on the job and that there was more to life than grinding up plastic bottles. MarioR
It’s amazing to read all the above! I thot the world was against me when I first worked at the New Stanle Hotel in Kenya as a very young mother in actualyb21 years old at that time. I dint even read the Company rules or there were none so I worked till I typed all Guest folios in front office and made sure I missed nothing just incase! Salary? Pls. Dont veven go there.But I managed to put food on the table and a roof! It was kind of interesting though.
My first job began when I was 16 years old in 1954. I was a freshman in high school and went with a friend to her interview for a job. They hired me instead, as she was not yet 16. Three days a week I went after school to work as a ‘soda jerk’ in our local restaurant/soda fountain/bakery. I made sodas, phosphates, banana splits, sundaes, root beer, sandwiches, chili, hamburgers, fries, etc. All served at the counter and booths. All to the tunes of music from the juke box.
I learned so much from that job and interaction with the customers, I met a lot of boys flirting with me. My dad would pick me up at closing time and take me home safely. He was uneasy about me being out at 10pm. He gradually met a new boyfriend of mine and after an ‘interview’ with him , he was allowed to drive me home. There we found Daddy waiting on the porch for my arrival.
Some of my classmates worked there too and we discussed asking for a raise in pay, but we were having so much fun, we decided to not bother. That 37 cents an hour paid for much of my school wardrobe and movies and other adventures. I learned more about the wider world when I discovered the boss’ wife was an English war-bride just after WW2. Our conversations were so enthralling that it led to my deep and abiding interest in the war’s history. That inspired me to focus on the home front during that world upheaval both in the USA and Britain.
And it all came about because I was willing to help a friend. And we are still friends 69 years later.
What a beautiful story, Louise. Thanks for sharing!
I first cut grass and babysat. 1rst civilian employment was Manufacturing, of Course the jobs went to Mexico. Only six months sewing after training to sew Production I was the first to be “laid off”. Then I worked at two different restaurants, daily. I love to see sewing on fabrics to this day.
1st job at age 12, sold the Grit newspaper. Walked around our small town of 4000, going house to house trying to convince people to buy the weekly newspaper. I sold them for 15 cents each, and I got to keep 5 cents each, and send the profit back to the company. Met a lot of interesting people going door to door. Usually made about 1–2 dollars per week after knocking on about 50–70 doors. What I did learn was I did not want to be a salesman of any type. Helped me to know what I wanted and did not want in my future careers.
My first job was working in a snowball shop during summer vacation, I was 15 yrs.old. It was a fun job but I only earned $7/per week…lol. I did meet a lot of people & made a few new friends; one in particular was the guy who escorted me to my Jr. Prom. We have remained friends 60 years later.
First job Printing service C0mpany, Dayton Ohio, 1947 or 1948 when I was 16 or 17 yars old.
My first paying job was picking strawberries right along side migrant farm workers. We rode our bicycles to the fields and earned $1.50/flat. It was humbling to see the workers be so efficient as they could pick 8 flats before I could pick 2.
Maybe not my first job , but with many lessons learned. At a grocery, with filling station, 50cents an hour on week days and 60 cents an hour on weekends. We cleaned shelves, stocked products, checked out groceries, pumped gasoline, washed the car windows and checked the oil and aired the tires. You were always doing something.
The lesson I have passed on which I remember as if it was yesterday. Those days when you checked customers out with their groceries , they ran tab which you entered in a book. One evening, a gentleman from one of the ranches said he would pay his bill. When I was finished checking him out he paid with a 100 dollar bill. At 16 I had never seen one of those and as soon as he left I went running to the store owner. He was in the back on a ladder painting with a bare light bulb beside him and you have to picture this. I handed him this bill and he held it to the light, folded it and put it in his pocket and said,” Betty, what do you know about counterfeit money?” I am sure I looked blank and he proceeded to explain everything about paper money, where the paper came from and the Irish threads of red and blue and many other details and then said, “Betty who is up front?” I said “nobody”. He said, “don’t you think you need to get up there?” I took off and then wondered how I would make up the difference when I checked out. We had to make up any shortage over 1 dollar. Not an easy thing to do at 50 cents an hour. Closing time came and I checked out and of course I was 100 dollars short and he said that. I said “it’s in your pocket.” He said” you will pay attention to the bills from now on won’t you?” They check bills with a pen now but I have handled lots of money in my 95 years and this is one memory that does not fade. He was a good boss and you learned to work and do a good job at whatever you were doing.
Betty Shipley
My first job was helping a elderly woman .With shopping an house work .
My first real job when I started paying into Social Security was when I was 14 years old.
I worked during the summer with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR). I worked on a crew with a couple other guys and we went around to state campgrounds and did cleanup work. We also Cut trails through state forests for hiking and cross country skiing.
I made $1.75 an hour at that job (minimum wage then).
My first job occured at the age of 7 years. My father worked for a prominent family of a renowned politician. They asked my father if he would bring me to their house to serve at a party. I went, learned many etiquette setups, and met many popular and wealthy people who became my teachers, encouraged me and became my friends. That opportunity of service lead to a Saturday job, where I earned $3.50, the exact amount of the tips I received that Saturday evening. Wonderful experience.
My first job was mowing lawns and pulling weeds at the age of 12. It was hard work for little pay but I stayed there for 5 years.
I worked for the Grain Growers when I was in Junior High School. When farmers brought wheat to the grain elevators a sample would be taken and sent to the office. I would take the sample, fill out a form in duplicate, and then split the sample into two cans. One can stayed at the office, the other was sent to a company that assessed what percentage of rye or other foreign substances were in the sample so they would know how much dockage to apply when the wheat was sold. Grain dust would get all over me, couldn’t wait to get home and shower.
First job was at age 12, hawking copies of the Philadelphia Daily News on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, NJ. The fun part was the actual yelling out (and this gets almost completely lost in the translation to the written word), “Hey, getcha Phil – ad – adel-fya – Daily News!!!” This was repeated ad nauseum. I think I made a penny for each paper I sold. There was no 401k.
A friend wanted me to accompany her to apply as telephone operator for Pac Bell. I got the job but she was too short. Worked 2 years on plug board. Ran away to NYC and only job I was qualified for was receptionist at small publishing company who had an antique plug board. Worked my way up to secretary to owner/pres. After 14 years moved back to CA where my husband and I bought a small motel, handling all jobs for 38 years. Knew how to answer the phone; have not made my bed since.
My 1st job was in the concession stand at the public pool, during summer. It was awesome!!! It was a great way to see friends and acquaintances 🙂 it was great!!
My 1st job was in the concession stand at the public pool, during summer. It was awesome!!! It was a great way to see friends and acquaintances 🙂 it was great!!
A small heating-A/C and sheet metal company called my high school, metal shop teacher and ask if he would recommend a student to go to work for them. He drove by our house every day on the way home, saw me outside and gave me the recommendation. I was 15 and I worked full time in the summer and part time during school. I realized after a couple of years, that it was not what I wanted to do, long term.
My first job after high school graduation was at a transportation company. I worked in the IBM key punch department. After five years I left for a job with the government at White Sands Missile Range doing the exact same thing as Bobbie A. above. I worked there for 29 years in different positions related to computers. I retired from WSMR as a computer specialist. I worked with a Bobbie M. Don’t know if this is the same person.
My first job was a work study gig during my senior year in high school,I worked in a shop repairing small electric appliances like had tools,coffee makers,toasters,and mixers,this was before people just threw stuff out.I stayed another 1 -1/2 years after I graduated.
When I was 14 and graduated from grammar school, I really wanted to go to Holy Family Academy with all my classmates. However, my mother was in the midst of a cancer battle and we had no money for that to happen. Unbeknownst to me, my mother went to the school, explained the situation and I was given an afterschool job at the school to pay for my tuition. And it couldn’t have been worse. Bathroom duty in a school with 600+ girls.
When my homeroom advisor and art teacher, Sister Jolanta, discovered this, she told Mother Evariste, the principal, that she was in desperate need of someone to tidy the art room. In her compassion to get me out of bathroom duty, I came to be in charge of the art room, arranging supplies, ordering them when needed and making sure the room was cleaned. And I made a lifelong friend in Sister Jolanta. We had an all-school reunion every 5 years and I would try to attend because I knew Sister Jolanta waited for me at the door to find out how I was doing. She told me that, after she retired, she went back to school to take courses in Art as Therapy and helped the other retired nuns enjoy life. She actually encouraged me to go back to school and I got my MA in Ministry and was able to help at my home parish. Sister died a few years ago, at age 95. I do miss the lady who helped get me a great first job.
My first job was working in a hardware store. I was a teenager and I worked with my best friend who was a year older than myself. It was in the first of the year just after the Xmas season that we started our jobs we had to inventory all the items in the store
The job required that we count all the nails that were in about 5 large steel bins.
This is where our education kicked in. We weighed out 10 pounds of nails, counted how many there were then priced the amount. After that we weighed all the rest of the nails, divided by ten and multiplied the number by the amount described for 10 pounds. The owner was so amazed tha he gave us a nice bonus on our paychecks.
My first job was working for a famous bank on Wall Street. I hated it, but I met the most amazing man there who became my very first boyfriend. After 4 years with him , i moved to long island ny, where I got my other job at and then to Florida, I never saw Joe Hall ever again, HE was a great kisser and lover.
First job 17 summer of 1968 ice cream scooper for Baskin-Robbin’s. We were able to eat ice cream when no customers in the store. I got my share of peppermint fudge ribbon and mint chocolate chip hot fudge sundaes. After 2 months moved on to my forever job 49 years with Safeway, even doubled my salary starting at 2.50. Happy Days
At the age of eleven years old, my first job was raising 500 turkeys for a farm owner my father was working for.
I learned that turkeys are really dumb. I think that prepared me for all the dumb things that would occur in my life.
Now at eighty-two years old, dumb things are still occurring but I am ready for them thanks to the turkeys.
Ha! “Thanks to the turkeys” is a great motto. Thanks for sharing, Frank!
Typist in typing pool on the 19 Floor of the Hartford Insurance group in 1970. Then internal audit on c/o (13th).best job ever for a 17 year old.
My first job was as a foot & body checker at public swimming pools in Cleveland, Ohio. I loved swimming and being close to water of any sort. Helping people learn about good health habits was quite sensible I thought. I was 14 years old and today, 7 decades later, I still swim daily and practice good health habits.
My first job was in Buenos Aires, where I was born and brought up. I attended a British bilingual school, Northlands, where I received my Cambridge School Certificate.
At 17, I taught Fifth grade English, most subjects except Art, Music, Math and Gym. My classes were in the afternoon, which I loved. I graded in the students’ notebooks every night—they had a green and a blue one.
My first job was my senior year, I worked for a elderly neighbor. I was to cook her meals (which was rice for all meals) and she didn’t have indoor plumbing, so I would have to empty the slop jar. worked 1 week and got paid 50 cents for the week. Needless to say, I never went back and to this day I still have the 50 cent piece. and I am 67 years old..
I remembered my first Job was at Jerry subs but I was fired from there and went to work at another one that the owner owned. But I left that one bc one of the workers was bullying me and so I left and found another job that I was happy with but don’t remember which one it was bc I had alot of Jobs after that one all in all I’ve worked more then 30 jobs in my lifetime…but the happiness one I can look back on was working for a wholesale flower shop called Exotic flowers which was a blast I learned there how to read a map which came in handy bc that is how I found my long lost uncle….
I was 17 and a new highschool graduate. I was hired as a long distance operator at Southern Bell Tel & Tel Co., working 3-11 shift in Jacksonville, FL. I enjoyed my year there, then transferred to the Benefits office as a steno-clerk. From there I transferred to the Public Relations Office. Loved working there. After a few years decided to utilize the company training program to be a Drafting Clerk. I truly found this to be my favorite forever job! I eventually transferred to Austin, TX to be closer to family. I have nothing but praise for the Bell System who always was considerate of their employees and assisted them in training and advancement.
My first job was setting bowling pins before automatic pin setters for 7cents a line. It was so tiring and it was a frustrating job but I needed the money for my 36 ford convertible monthly payment
My first job was working for a lichenologist at Michigan State University. He had collected specimens of lichen from all over, and my job was to help mount and number specimens to be catalogued. I was a high school student and loved the job! I worked alone at my own speed and Dr W. let me listen to the radio while I worked. He also paid me more than my older sister made at her job!!!
i started my first job at Burger Chief fast food change starting wage was 2.70 per hour, stayed about 5 years..
My first job was with The Hartford Insurance Company for 23 years.
My first job when I was 11 years old was babysitting. And I babysat for a lot of kids .and everyone of them to this day calls me aunt di lol.
I was 15, started working at a catholic college for women. I started working in the kitchen washing dishes and possum pans. I saved my money and six months later bought my first car the day before I turned 16.. My starting pay was $.60 an hour and I worked after school from 430 to 7 o’clock, paid to $.75 an hour after about three months. I worked there till I graduate from high school.
My First job was at brake rebuilders we rebuilt brake pads and shoes
First job was delivering the Sunday newspaper when I was a young kid. It was early in the morning and my Father drove me around. Very nice and it taught me discipline and responsibility. Had to do the collections and turn into the newspaper. Good to spend time with my Father.
Funny how some say they got their first jobs at 17 or after graduation. I wish, I got my first Job at 13 like one of the other posts, it was mucking stalls. In return the lady gave me horse riding lessons. I learned a lot about horses that year. My first paying job was at a small Italian restaurant owned by friends of my parents. I was 15 and they worked me to death for $1,75 per hour. I hated that job only stayed there a month then I got another job at a chicken restaurant only working on the weekends. I stayed until I graduated high school. It paid for my clothes and gas making $3.25 an hour.
I worked at a large tin can company, making beer cans for the largest brewery in the US. This was before science learned how to weld aluminum. I worked behind a block long, 400 degree oven that put shellac on 36” x 24” tin sheets of beer cans before they were ink printed on the outside and cut and formed. I stacked 250 sheets, lowered a skid, placed a new skid and had 7 empty wickets to complete that. Then band the completed stack and rotate. I made $5.25/hr. On July 4th, I had to work an entire 2nd shift (time and a half) and 4 hours of the 3rd shift (4x ‘ s). More money than I could imagine in 1961! What I learned: STAY IN SCHOOL!
Self employed all my life
First job was at Isalys. If you are from the northeast you know it was home to the skyscraper ice cream cone. When my friends came in they got a big big skyscraper!!
Bought a hat with my first pay check. Still laugh at that!!
That was 61 years ago!!
My first job was with the New York Port Authority as a secretary, right out of high school in the 1960’s. I was in a secretarial pool of 50 high school grads like me, and though I liked my job and the excitement of working in Manhattan, my family unexpectedly moved to Florida, and being barely 18 I moved with them. Though it was many years to 9-11, I think it entirely possible I could have been working in the Port Authority floors of the World Trade Center, which was being built when I moved. Maybe I would have retired in N.Y. by 2001, but I believe it was Divine Intervention not just for my parents, but for me also. Soon after my move I got a job in Miami with the Federal Government where I eventually ended up working for the Federal Aviation Administration for 35years; the best job ever! I believe God worked that all out for my good!
My first legit job—other than babysitting as a teen—was as a college DJ at the University of Florida, Spring semester 1976. I had declared radio as my major, auditioned, and won a not-so-coveted spot: Friday night 10 pm until Saturday morning 2 am. Seniors had first dibs at the schedule. As a freshman, I got the slot nobody wanted. But I was thrilled!
I delivered local news and weather reports at the top of the hour, tearing off news clips that had come in via Telex. Learned how to work the board (easier than I had suspected) and also patched in to a national radio service for national and global news. I played public service announcements pre-recorded on 8-track.
All went well until one evening when I took a deep breath and instructed the tri-county area not to worry about the weather because “the overlight no will be 70 degrees.”
Later, I could hear my roomie howling with laughter as I trudged back to the dorm.
PS: I ended up switching majors. And roomies. And colleges.
1942 delivering the Rodgers Park News two times a week for 2 cents a copy
1944 as a Soda Jerk for 0.15 an hour
My first job right out of HS was working in the parts department of a Buick Agency. One day a man asks for a part which I find for him and I ask if it’s cash or charge. The man replied Charge it to the 96 precinct and the man was in conversation with my boss. I couldn’t find an account for the 96 precinct so I approached the man and told him so. My boss took the receipt from me and apologized to the man. Later I learned he was the captain of the precinct. My boss then me gave me another job, he wanted to show me how things worked on Friday afternoon my assignment was to give every uniformed cop 10 gallons of gas the agency broke lots of laws I guess.
My first job was helping my dad on a 10 cow dairy farm. We milked by hand. Shoveled manure, helped in haying season, picked raspberries and wild strawberries so mom could make jam for to feed a family of 10 children Helped bring in the winter wood. Baby sit I started steering the tractor at age 6
My next job at 15 was to clean a neighbor s big old farmhouse every Saturday for $1. Yes you read right. That’s when the kitchen floor was scrubbed and waxed on your hands and knees then buff , and polished with a floor polisher. Worked from 8 – 3
The next job was at a Medical clinic when I was 17 two weeks before graduation. At 19 I was assistant manager
I was 12 and was hired as a ‘waitress & short order cook’ for $1.00/hr in a luncheonette on the boardwalk of Asbury Park, NJ. 1963. I was so proud that they let me flip hamburgers on the griddle! One day a gentlemen sat down on a stool at the counter and asked for a hamburger with no salt. He took a few bites after I cooked and served it to him before collapsing on the counter in front of me. All I could think of then was if I had put salt on the burger or not and, if I did, I just killed him! I can still clearly see it all happening! I went on to become an RN, working Emergency Department and pre-hospital, including being a CPR and ACLS Instructor, among many other roles.
My fist job was at Burger King by the house, my friend got a job I was almost 14yrs.old so I put my age up & told my friend to tell her Mgr. That I was 14yrs. Too, because I wanted to work…It was the Most hilarious situation I ever encountered, The Assistant mgr. stayed in my ear & over my shoulder felt like every time I was at work she, the Assistant manager, said in my ear you are about to lose your job because you don’t know the registrar, everyday she continued fussing that He is about to give your job to someone else because you don’t know this registrar & in those days they had those Big boxed registrar’s with all of the keys you could think of like (No Lettuce, 🥬 X-tra pickles, no Mayo, X-tra mustard) …etc & to find each one on the Big Box was insane, & plus she stayed in all of the young teens ears ranting & threatening us as we were taking orders from customers..However I did great & learned the box & all the keys, but I certainly Never forgot the Ridiculousness of it all we still laugh today..
I was 11 years old when my family moved from the farm to a medium size city in the summer of 1957. Walking home from school took me past a row of small businesses. One was a small distribution center for the old Houston Press, often referred to as the “Scandal Sheet.” The manager saw me curiously looking in the open door one day. He said, “Hey kid! If you want a job, go get your bicycle.” I ran the rest of the way home, told Mom I had a job, got my bike, and returned to what would be my first job. At the end of each month, I was given a bill for the papers delivered. After collecting and paying the bill, I cleared about $25. The first thing I did was treat myself to a marshmallow chocolate sundae at the local soda fountain. It cost 25 cents.
Looking back, the most important lessons I learned from four years of delivering newspapers was a good work ethic and responsibility. It was my job to pick up my papers everyday and deliver them to my customers in whatever manner they would be satisfied. It did not matter how much it rained, how strong the wind was, how hot or cold it was, my papers were always delivered to my customers.
My first job was at 9 years old at Manzanar Concentration Camp during WW2. I was the oldest of 5 kids and they had taken my father to another prison and mother with a few months old youngest sister and other kids, I was elected to work at the camp mess hall. I worked doing KP work before the mess hall opened for the breakfast crowd and before school. I peeled potatoes and after, poured coffee and wiped the long tables. It taught me to work hard all my life til 76 and always had a job every summer vacation from school after released from Manzanar after the war
Making popcorn in 1961 at a discount store that was like a modern day Walmart
My first job was with King Kullen in Baldwin Long Island NY after school in 1959. I was this skinny little teenager 15, and the manager made me‘carriage manager’. I hated it. On a Thursday night at 9:00pm I gathered up about 20 carts and pushed them up the ramp going pretty fast. At the last moment the wagons took a drastic turn to the left and bam! I put them through the plate glass window. That was the end of my job.
Wow!! What a story! Thanks for sharing, Allan!
my first job was working at the bakery at Hornes..they would hire 17 year olds. store was in Monroeville across from the Holiday House (a nightclub). Different entertainers came there for their pastry goodies…was there for 3 months and worked for $1.60 an hour, part time. Made $20 a week!!
Raises When I Felt Like It
I was 15 when I started working in a warehouse office. It was called Tri-State Insulation and conveniently owned by my dad. After school I would hop on a bus to travel to my secretarial job. Later I would ride home with my dad when he was done for the day. He sold insulation and cooper wire to motor repair shops in 3 states. When he was in town, he would insist on practicing taking orders over the phone and also showing me how to fill orders. I learned excellent phone skills and paying attention to details when filling orders. The fun part is I wrote my own paychecks and gave myself a raise every couple months. Did my dad notice? Absolutely and was okay with it. Actually, it always made him and I chuckle when he’d say “I see you got another raise”. Working for my dad was the best!
My very first job was at the Plainville Bowling Alley – sweeping the lanes, putting shoes away, delivering food picking up after the bowlers – did that for over a year and I watched the first 2 Superbowl’s there…….then I had a couple of other jobs before I did a tour in the USMC 70-76 then landed a job at The Hartford in 1981 after college that lasted for almost 40years.
My mother, Maderia passed away two years ago but I remember her telling me about her first job in a department store. Mom and her good friend Elmarie worked there together since their highschool years and stayed good pals for life
My first job was at 15 was working for Del Monte in the spinach fields. Pulling male spinach plants out of the female rows.
It was 1964 and my brother drowned in a local stock pond. At the time we lived on a farm. My dad was a sharecropper and a carpenter. The farm was sold and we had to move into a small 2 bedroom house. There were 7 children and my parents. Times were hard and at age 12 I started my first job. I got up at 5am and got on the back of a truck and headed to the soybean or cotton field to de-weed the fields of johnson grass and cuckleberries at $3.00 a day during the summer and yes it was an 8 hour day.
At 16 (in 1958) I got my working papers and started working on a farm picking beans for 35 cents an hour. After one day two things happened: I was promoted to work in the sales stand at 50 cents and my back was never to be the same. In the stand I chucked so much corn for customers that I did not eat a single corn (my favorite food) the entire summer!
I worked at Howard Johnson’s as bus boy. Busing tables.
My first job was washing and waxing floors at an apartment complex @ 13. I was taught many secrets of the trade. Then 12 years later after I got out of the Marine Corps, all I could get for a job was, you guessed it, washing and waxing floors and others custodial duties, on a Navy base. My supervisor treated like with little respect. As time went on, I proved that I could do the job…all of them, way better than him. He even went behind me with a “white glove” for inspection. I got the last laugh. I left for a better job, but had a chat with the owner. I said what he did to me, but his job details should not be hanging around the NCO Club (bar for servicemen) during his working hours. He was canned.
I was fortunate to grow up on a family farm, the fourth generation there. At 14, I got my first off-farm Summer job as apprentice mechanic & welder for a repair shop about 9 miles away. Drove Dad’s pickup to & from work (on country roads.)
Everyone knew everyone in this rural community, so I learned to be on good behavior, work hard, take pride in my work. Farm folks were very supportive & encouraging.
Summer income & 4-H livestock paid for college, (supplemented by Dad; no loans.)
My love of machines led to career as Power Engineer.
Want to learn to enjoy work & find fulfillment in it? Spend time with family farmers!
First job was at 10 delivering papers. Grew the route and hired my younger brother to deliver part of them for a discount. My first employee 🙂 Turned me into an entrepreneur including co-founding and being CEO of several tech companies in Silicon Valley.
My first real job after being a paper boy In grammar school, when I was 16, was a dishwasher and busboy at a restaurant. My fondest memories were, after washing dishes for a week, I reached into a large container with 30 glasses to start washing them and pushed the container causing all the glasses to fall and break. What a great start.
On Friday nights we had a dinner special, all the fried fish, french fries and coleslaw you could eat for $1. Very popular, but I couldn’t get past the first five tables with my cart because they wanted more and more. That was really hard to swallow.
Worked @ and w as a car hop @.75 cents an hour I dumped a root beer float in a customers lap
While I babysat starting at age 12, ($0.50/hr), and worked at Tastee Freeze for one weekend, and Taco Bell off and on, all before I graduated from high school, I consider my first job to be packaging jumping beans in Alamogordo, NM, a seasonal job, (Still in high school). A big room full of probably 30 teens (all females, as I recall,) sitting at long tables, some with cigarettes hanging out if their mouths, with a Colonel Sanders bucket full of jumping beans (the company obtained them in cans if three million, if I remember correctly. I could be wrong. Might have been three cans of one million each. Other workers who were hired earlier in the season put together the boxes into the cards that sit on the business counters when they’re sold. I think there were 24 boxes to a card, 12 on each side. Four beans to a box. After a card was full, you loosely closed the boxes (very quickly), and started stacking them up on the floor. When you had a tall pile of them, maybe 30? Maybe more?, you stood up and closed all the boxes tightly by leaning onto the top boxes on the left and right, then to the inner boxes. They would click shut all the way down. You had to fill and close 45 cards per hour to keep your job and you got minimum wage, $0.75/ hr or something like that. But you got $0,05 more for each of the cards you filled over 45. We got pretty good at it. It was like a game, a challenge. Hurry, hurry, hurry! We worked like from 8;00 AM to 3:00 PM, with a break, went home and returned at maybe 5:00 PM and worked til 7:30 PM. That’s just what I remember. May be off, of course. But you only got to work for about six weeks and then it was over until next year, if you were lucky enough to get re-hired. Fun! When I’d see those cards of boxes on store counters, all over the country, I’d say “I packaged those!” If you took any home, you’d end up putting them in the garage because they were so loud. We were told the heat made them jump. If they turned off the lights in the factory, you could hear it get much quieter, immediately. Now, these poor things! They are actual worms. The eggs get laid in flowers they were tricked into landing on. Then the flower would close around them and the worms would develop but it was a hard shell that the worm could not get out of, try as they might, hence the jumping. Any heat made them jump more.Yes, I see now how cruel that is. That is just what I remember being told as to how they developed.
I went on to become a secretary, a stenographer, a firefighter, (first professional female firefighter in NM), an RN, and now an artist. It’s been a fun and interesting life.
Wow! What a fun and interesting life, indeed. Thank you for sharing, Sabra! 🙂
My first job was at Sonic Drive In as a “carhop”— the person who took the food out to the car and collected payment. I was 16 years old when I started and worked there for 3 years.
Looking back, I’m not sure how I had the courage to do that specific job because I was a very shy and quiet person. Needless to say, it brought me out of my shyness I grew to love the job and the many friends I made while working there, many of whom I have kept in contact with.
The next job that was formative in my life was becoming a mother. I loved helping my kids with their homework and loved volunteering at the school. My own children’s education peaked my interest in teaching, but I didn’t think I was smart enough to be a teacher, so I tested my knowledge and patience by becoming a substitute teacher.
That truly was the best way for me to get into teaching!! Not only did I gain the confidence to go to college to earn my degrees, I was able to learn so much about the profession that college cannot prepare for— I chose a content area (reading) that I love and the level I wanted to “make a difference” in (middle school).
Including my time as a substitute teacher as I put myself through college, I’ve been in education for 25 years now. It took 10 years to finish school because I went part time in order to balance school, work and being a mom. I graduated and got hired before I even finished my student teaching assignment, and have been teaching since then.
I cannot see myself in any other profession, and only ever want to be in the classroom teaching children! And I strongly believe that I could not have become a teacher if I was still that shy, introverted person who naively got a summer job at Sonic because I loved their cherry-lime slushes!
My first “job” was cleaning, straightening, and re-stocking shelves at a neighborhood grocery store in exchange for a “re-designed” winter coat. I was 11 yrs old, and Annie, one of the owners, noticed my arms were sticking way out of my old coat. She took my coat, took some measurements, and gave me an old sweater to wear home. She said, “come back on Saturday and help me here in the store, and I’ll fix your coat like new!” I worked all day Saturday, cleaning, pricing, and restocking all 5 aisles. Her husband Mac, the butcher, made us all sandwiches for lunch. At closing time, Annie presented me with my totally redesigned, fashionable “new” coat, that I wore in style, for 2 more years! From Annie and Mac, I learned about kindness, integrity, values, the art of bartering, the importance of keeping promises, and the idea of “paying it forward.” These lessons have served me well these past 65 years, and my life has been so much “richer” for it.
I was ten years old when I had my first babysitting job. The baby was less than a month old and the father was an officer. They religiously went to the officer’s club every Saturday evening. I didn’t babysit for a month or so when the baby had whooping cough. When they called for me to come to my usual Saturday babysitting, they swore to my parents the baby was over it. I was doing my homework downstairs after seeing the baby asleep. Then, the worst happened! The baby whooped and I ran upstairs in a panic. I lifted the baby out of the crib by it’s feet and gently shook it upside down. My mother had told me that she had done that to me when I had the whooping cough. Replaced it in bed and then called the Officer’s club for the parents and told them their baby was dying. Then I called my parents. As can be imagined I caused a lot of panic, but I thought I had the right since they had lied to my parents and me. After three years of sitting for their child, when my parents and I were leaving, they gave me a pair of fancy underwear as a parting gift! I learned their are some people will do and say anything to do what they want to do, even lying to themselves. Also, that people in higher positions can be quite cheap. As an adult I tremble at the thought of a ten year old taking care of a newborn, let alone how, had I missed the railing of the cot,I could have killed the baby.
My first job was picking strawberries during the summer. The berry bus would pick up the neighborhood kids down at the park early in the morning.This was during the 70’s and we were paid 40 cents a carrier which is 1/2 flat. On a good day I made 8 dollars.
Strawberries only lasted so long before we were on to raspberries.
After raspberries came green beans. My brothers and I did this before we were old enough to move up to a fast food job.
We learned responsibility getting up on time, making our lunch, and getting to the berry bus. We learned to manage our money making sure to save while spending some for fun.
We definitely learned how a good work ethic makes you a valuable employee.
My first job in 1962 was as a beach boy giving out keys to lockers and setting up beach umbrellas and chairs at the Main Beach, East Hampton near the eastern tip of Long Island. There were several of us and we each got an hour off each day to go swimming. And since we were buddies with the lifeguards, we got to go swimming with them when the surf was really rough like the day before a hurricane when the red flags were out. Got paid a dollar an hour to spend all day at the beach. Best job I ever had!
First job at 13 years old. Worked at drive in movie. Yeh the ones that are all gone. Upon arriving I was the guy who peeled all the potatoes for French fries. Main job was to go out to all the cars and take orders for anything they wanted from kitchen. This was pretty routine until got to cars parked way in back away from
other cars. Interesting experience for a 13 year old. I will leave it too your imagination (or experience) to figure this one out!!
Ken F
My first “job” was cleaning, straightening, and re-stocking shelves at a neighborhood grocery store in exchange for a “re-designed” winter coat. I was 11 yrs old, and Annie, one of the owners, noticed my arms were sticking way out of my old coat. She took my coat, took some measurements, and gave me an old sweater to wear home. She said, “come back tomorrow (Saturday), and help me here in the store, and I’ll fix your coat like new!” I worked all day Saturday, cleaning, pricing, and restocking all 5 aisles. Her husband Mac, the butcher, made us all sandwiches for lunch. At closing time, Annie presented me with my totally redesigned, fashionable “new” coat, that I wore in style, for 2 more years! From Annie and Mac, I learned about kindness, integrity, values, the art of bartering, the importance of keeping promises, and the idea of “paying it forward.” These lessons have served me well these past 65 years, and my life has been so much “richer” for it.
My first job was as a Stacker in a large, public library and was fascinated with the opportunity to learn how to use a library. First, I had to learn the Dewey Decimal System and after that, I was promoted as an Assistant in the Reference Department where the world of knowledge opened up to me and was at my finger tips. I loved the job and what I learned helped me to navigate the university library where I went to school. I ended up helping classmates to use the library to get information for their term papers, etc. I still have very fond memories of that experience.
Dr. Alfred J.
My first job was cleaning a couple’s house. A husband, wife, two little girls, and a cat. They were very nice people and were very nice to me. I ate lunch with them at their dining room table like I was one of the family. I only worked on Saturdays. The next Saturday I didn’t want to eat. I told her that I wasn’t hungry. She told her Mother-in-law who told my Grandmother who worked for her Mother-in-law. My Grandmother came home and asked me why I wouldn’t eat. I told her that the food was bland. Next Saturday I did eat with them but I told her that I wanted a sandwich. She could make the hell out of a sandwich. The best sandwich that I ever had. I was a Senior in high school 1970-71 in Lafayette, Louisiana.
My first job was at McDonalds. My cousins worked there and I wanted to work there too. One day I got dressed for an interview and went to that McDonalds. I walked in and asked for the store manager which was the owner’s brother. I told him I was there for an interview and he had no idea what I was talking about. I told him someone had called me to come in for an interview at that specific time (which was not true at all). At any rate, he interviewed me and I got the job.
We had a fantastic team to work with. We hung out often and had great times.
I went looking in all the supermarkets in my neighborhood for a cashier’s job when I was 16. At one of them I was told to visit the manager’s booth down an aisle. As I was walking down I saw my now husband of 42 years stocking a shelf (we come from the same neighborhood). I turned around and left thinking I didn’t want to work with any of the guys I knew lol. I subsequently got a job with the A&P and absolutely loved it. Everyone was my age and we had such fun together. It taught me a valuable lesson about dealing with the public as I went on to become a RN until retiring in 2019.
My first job was as a file clerk for Florsheim Shoe Co. I had lied about my age to get the job, and was only there about 6 months. I had a child as a teenager and had to quit when he got sick. The “small world” concept hit me when a few years later, as a State of Illinois employee, the building I worked in was right across the street from the Florsheiim’s that I had worked at.
Pumping gas and washing card at a ESSO station when I was 15.
My first real job was at an amusement park ( it since went out of business and was bull dozed ) I was 15 and was delegated to relieve ( for lunch breaks ) all the other ride operators and worked a 7 day week 10 to 11 hour days ( probable 77 hours for a set pay of $100/week ) – which worked out to about a $1.30 a hours but at 15 year of age this was big bucks – lol – In the evenings when park was closing all the operators would run to the roller coaster and all got the last ride of the day ( coaster closed down last ) also a benefits was able to met a ton of local girls !!!!!!!!
My first job was at a place that has been hit by over a dozen hurricanes over many years; Dauphin Island, near Mobile, AL. I was 16 and had previously been there for beach activities, including “surf fishing” with my Dad. Anyway, Hurricane Camille (1968) devasted the island, flooded 70% and literally tore the place to pieces.
There was a fishing pier that extended into the ocean (about 500 yard) that was blown away, all except the supporting posts. And a Holiday Inn, about 1/4-1/2 mile down the road (that was also knocked over).
I worked on a “construction crew” of me, 5 other teens (friends) and a manager/contractor that was about 55/60. Our job was to rebuild the pier and construct a new boardwalk across the beach that ramped up to the fishing pier (as a part of the post hurricane rebuild).
So first, we went up and down the beach (water had receded) and collected all the boards and lumber that had been a part of the original pier (many we located in the framework left of the old Holiday Inn). Next we were to construct the boardwalk starting by the road, working through the sand to the pier. This consisted of digging trenches, placing runners to nail the wal to and then later as we approached the pier, install additional posts in the sand. These were about telephone pole sized and buried through a process of sand displacement through injecting water and was really cool to learn. The old guy knew what the hell he was doing. Finally the posts were gradually raised to meet the 25′ high pier so the board walk ran straight to the pier. When completed it was really cool. We were the first to “test” it and dove off the tall end, swam in the ocean and now for the rest of the fun…
Several weekends during the construction we stayed over the weekend, swam, fished off the beach, camped out on the beach and had a sweet, crazy teen age summer. During the week, the contractor would pick us up at daylight in his pickup truck the 40 miles or so (in the bed!) to the job site and do the same coming home for dinner).
It was a kids dream; we got a heckuva tan, learned to build things by hand, how to behave as a team and as a worker in a crew and basically had a helluva good time doing it.
Sadly, my family moved north to Chicago and I never got to see the final results at Dauphin Island’s reopening as about 10-12 years later, Hurricane Fredrick came through…and blew it all away again! Yet, what a great experience!
My first job . Age 14 tobacco fields . I had to tie up the plant. With string . After a while your fingers got cut up . It was hot an you was under cheesecloth over your head.
My first job was a teacher aide at a preschool. I love working with children every sense I was 13 years old. I am now a pastor working with today’s youth.
Nice story, most older people you meet, if you talk with them & hear their story’s you’ll be amazed.
My first job was 1972 to 1976 paper boy I was 12 in 72 I had a double route 160 customers daily & 300 plus on Sunday. I started at 4am & had to deliver by 7am weekdays as school started @ 8am . In a family with seven brothers & sisters you had to work to get ahead. I went on to work only one job the rest of my working days 1976 to 2018 for a large corporation as a supervisor.
Paper boy was a great building block for me.
My first job in the labor community was working at a steel mill in Alton, Illinois. It was in July of 1968 about two months before my 18th birthday. During that period the Draft was in full swing. I worked about a month as a laborer. I saw a lot of interesting things. This one never leaves me, in a way it was funny, but it could have ended up in a tragedy. It was in the department that made re-bar. The hot metal was forced through a die, that forms it into a round shaft. Well there is a cutter that cuts it at a certain time frame. Away the cutter malfunctioned and failed to cut the re-bar at the point of required length. It hit the back plate and kept on going. When it did it went up in the air and curled around. It went past one worker and seemed to chase another one before it was cut. It was funny because it seemed like it was chasing to laborer and he was screaming and ducking to keep that red hot metal from touching him. If it had of it would have went through him like a hot knife cuts through butter. It was funny at that time because of the way he was running and screaming. That lets me know that as young people we find dangerous things funny when it could be hazardous to one’s life. Not being 18 years of age yet, I had a lot to learn. I receive a draft notice not long afterwards. I chose to join the Air Force and still ended up being sent to Vietnam.
I was hired as a cash register clerk when I was 16.in a supermarket at 231st Street in the Bronx NY. I worked my way up to night manager, assistant manager, manager, district manager in Manhattan then into the main office. Met my wife as my bookkeeper and we are still married .I retired from that company at 65. Was a great life with great people. Thank you
My first job was working at Children’s Bargain Town later known as Toys R Us. Making 1.75 an hour. I was 15 years old.
My first job was part of a Business Program at high school. I worked for 2.50 per hour in the school cafeteria as a cashier. After graduating high school I babysat for neighbors before going to college.
My father was a building painter and one summer he hired me for seventy five cents an hour. I was 14 so thought, “good money”, I was wrong. He had me painting a very tall Dutch barn and I needed to paint while on scaffold. While on top of this scaffold I suddenly felt movement, and than the thing slowly collapsed to the muddy earth, I was uninjured. I saw my father running toward me and I thought “Gee I’ve never seen my father show emotion”. When he got to the collapsed scaffold he said, Are you alright, I responded, “yes” expecting to see from him something I had never seen before, instead he said, get the scaffold back up were losing daylight
My first job was a receptionist St. Martin’s rectory…Received a $100.00 Christmas bonus…at age 14 I felt like I was rich!!! Best job as a teen!
My first job was at L.S. Ayres in the teen department, all my paycheck went to my lay-a-way. It was a great job and I learned a lot.
My first job was when I had graduated from high school. I worked at The Hartford Claims Office in Evansville,IN.
Loved working there. Transferred to The Hartford in Indianapolis when my husband at that time started medical school.
My first job was as a file clerk at the IRS. In my last semester before graduation my afternoons were free after attending classes during the morning shift. I made $1.25 an hour. We could only be paid for 2 hours a day with a 9 day limit every two weeks. We would be off every other Friday. I was so proud of that great big paycheck.
I filled in for a couple of weeks as a breakfast waitress, for a friend who had a vacation planned. It was in an old coaching inn in Henley-on-Thames. They did bed and breakfasts and dinners and had a couple of pub-type bars. They’d been “acquired” by a company that was closing down the B&B business in favour of high-end dining. As a result, they just didn’t bother about their B&B customers. I once couldn’t find any bacon and cycled home to get some–my mother never forgot that. I was supposed to slice bread for toast, but one customer wanted pre-sliced, wrapped bread (go figure!). In a back kitchen I found about 20 loaves on a table. Every single one was mouldy right through. Another morning, the only butter I could find was in the freezer. Trying to hack it into pats, I gashed my finger. I had to serve breakfast with a bandaged finger, blood seeping through and spotting my apron. I got the biggest tips that day… One thing I learned for certain: I did NOT want to be a waitress.
My first job was as a clerk at our downtown F.W. Woolworth, courtesy of a neighbor. I was barely 16 and was still in high school. I was a senior at an all girl’s high school, had just been appointed editor of our yearbook and the nun in charge was upset when she was told I held a job outside of school. So much so she delegated many of my yearbook duties to another girl! Like I couldn’t complete my in school duties if I held an after school job!
My 1st job was a fountain girl at shwarts on wall st in Manhattan ny. I spilled the soda on a customer he demanded that I be fired immediately after calling me some very lovely names..
I babysat prior to getting my first “real” job. At 17 I began working at the Five & Dime, McCrory’s. I started as a cashier and graduated to the lunch counter on Saturdays after the girl quit. Handled the grill, made sandwiches, made Sundays and egg creams! So much fun!
I was hired as a bus boy and dishwasher at W.T. Grant’s Skillet Restaurant. I was brought mistakes like melting banana splits. I also had cooked chicken necks from the soup stock that came right off the bone. After about a year, I was trained for the soda fountain and the steam table. My first day at the fountain, I forgot to pull ice cream from the chest freezer to start thawing, so my boss helped me dip it, telling the waitresses to keep their pants on because “Jerry made a little mistake and we’re doing the best we can.”
My first job was the summer before my senior year in high school. I worked as a maid at a popular family vacation spot. The obvious is I learned how to clean. But I also learned it’s a hard thankless job and it showed me how people treat their own home. I also learned to appreciate a tip so I also make sure I leave one when I stay in a motel/hotel.
I had trouble finding work as a teen because I looked 12 and didn’t yet have my driver’s license, so I babysat and worked inventory now and then at Long’s drugstore. After I got my license — but still had no car to drive — I rode my bike in a dress to the Long’s plaza. April in Phoenix is pretty hot, so I went into the Mervyn’s department store to cool off and freshen up. While I was there, I put in an application and was hired on the spot. The management there was the best I’ve had in over 40 years. They made sure we had what we needed to do our jobs and backed us up when a customer got nasty, but also gave us leeway to help customers, even if that meant sending them to a competitor who could better meet their needs. Unfortunately, Mervyn’s went out of business during the Great Recession. I always joke that Mr. Mervyn put me through college!
My very First Job, was a baby sitter. My very first job with a paycheck stub, was a Switchboard Operator, with those Long Cords, you push in to answer, it was a Co Ed job in High School, I got paid $1.25 an hour, worked four days /
four hours a day. Walked to work from Cass Tech in Detroit, Got a employee discount. (It Gave me a Lifelong Educational Value, in Being The Smile Behind The Voice). If only I could use it today to help Customer Service in The World. Thanks to all My Supervisors, who treated me as one of thier children.
First “job” was weighing tonnage on trucks on my Dad’s sand company. I was 8 yrs old and my Dad taught me first to estimate by volume(yards) and later on the truck scale by tons. Was a manual truck scale (before digital). I was paid by the ton at the end of the week. Later he taught me estimate yards and tonnage by volume in the sand and stone piles Graduated to billing and eventually was the General Manager of the company
He loved to brag about my “expertise “, as I got older
My first job was at the Rahway, NJ White Castle Hamburgers in 1972. I was fourteen and I earned $2.10 per hour plus meals. That menial job gave me my work ethic, still to this day. My duties were varied. I kept the parking lot and bathrooms clean. Dumping trash. Unloading and stocking supplies. I earned $350 that year. I still love those little hamburgers and cheese danish!!!
My first job was at age 15. I was an Usherette at a theatre, taking folks to their seats using my flashlight. Some nights, especially Friday nights, there would be a line waiting to be seated as seats became available, that went not only outside but around the corner. In those days (1950s) there were always 2 movies, news and cartoons that kept running. So you could come in at any time during the film and leave at any time. So those Friday nights kept me very busy. One night the boss saw me standing watching the movie because there were no seats available, and nothing for me to do. That was my last night as an Usherette. I was a very sad teenager that just wanted to make enough money to buy a Cashmere sweater!!
Of course I babysat, for .50 an hour. After I graduated high school I worked as a maid. It was a golf resort. My fellow workers were Hungarian woman. Did not speak much English. So I was a loner. Worked hard and learned to be efficient and fast. So learned to clean well. Lasted maybe a year. Got a job at Lawsons store next.
At 16 I was working at Alfie’s Fish and Chips. I did everything in the back. Stocked the shelves and the freezer. Cut and prepared the fish and shrimp. Mopped floors and cleaned tables. The owner made sure that all of us were happy and we all become friends. It was a good place for a teenager to start. I worked there for three years until I started my career as an automotive technician. Very fond memories. .
I was 16 when I started my first job. I was a helper in a small nursing home. I washed dishes, helped serve food and helped the nurses. There were two individuals that I still remember them like yesterday. That was about 52 years ago. Those two poor souls suffered from dementia. One of them was a male. He would get so mad when they would try to change his bed linen. I remember him hollering at the nurses telling them he was “going to kick their butts down the river.” Except his lanuage was more colorful than that. The other person was a female. She was blind. She would sit in her chair all day, saying over and over to herself, “we were born in Texas, we raised our corn in Texas, we died in Texas and we went to heaven in Texas.” I believe she was the daughter of a Pastor. At the time, I thought it was really funny. I would be in the background laughing to myself. I had never been around people like that. I was young and stupid. As time went on, I realized it was not a laughing matter. Especially after my own grandmother developed dementia. I learned that it was bad to laugh at these people because they could not help it. We need to have compassion for our fellow man/woman.
My first job was as a “cuffer” in a dry cleaners, at age 14. I worked the rotary machine, cleaning out the lint from cuffs. As a bonus, I got to keep any change that I found. I ended up being one penny richer.
Cutting grass with a walk behind push blade grass cutter; hand edger and a hand sickle. I was eight years old. At 10yrs old I purchased a walk behind power mower NOT A SELFPROPELLED MOWER
My first job was as a “cuffed” in a dry cleaners. I worked the rotary machine to clean out any lint that had accumulated, and my bonus was I got to keep any change that I found. I ended up being one penny richer!
I was a telephone operator working the cord board for Ohio Bell Telephone ☎️ Company
Working as a waitress at king Strang Hotel on Beaver Island Michigan after my sophomore year in high school. Also cleaned rooms washed windows and other duties that made me decide I was going to college because this was not what I wanted to do the rest of my life. Graduated from Eastern Michigan University with BS business educ.
Worked at H.D.Lee sewing factory. Making flaps for pockets on Jean Jackets. Went to School half a day. Went full time when I graduated.
My first “job” was baby bouncing in 1957. I was 4 years old. My younger sister was an attention getting infant crier. The job stared the minute I walked in the door from kindergarten. My mother needed a break from her infant daughter and delegated the job of bouncing the baby on the bed to keep her from crying to me. It wasn’t a fun job. I do not have children due to this very influential “job”. Thank goodness for previews of coming attractions! It was definitely a learning experience. I often wonder if that job is the reason for the severe arthritis I have in both knees.
My first job was picking fresh fruit I was making $1.25 an hr
My first job was sweeping a mile long asphalt driveway to a slaughterhouse. Made $1.00 per hour. Took 10 hours once a week. The gut truck drivers (As they were called.) used to think it funny to drive on the shoulder and kick rocks back up onto the road. Life lesson learned; The reason work is a four letter word, not always easy.
First job was delivering milk.After delivery it was washing out bottles.Some did not smell to good after sitting outside for a day or two.
Well, I started picking strawberries for 5 cents a pint, made about 50 cents to $1 a day. Delivered papers with my brother, delivered the Grit for 5 cents each, sold greeting cards and magazine subscriptions – made 5 to 10 dollars. Baby sat for 25 cents an hour. Was a mother’s helper for $3 a week, room and food, at 13. At 15 worked for my relatives for the summer,
they had a grocery store for 15 a week, room and board. My first job out of high school as an office clerk paid $17 a week, paid $2 a week for ride to work.
My first job was at Pascagoula Drug Store. I started when I was 12 and worked approximately 2 yrs. I serviced customers.
I started my first job when I was a Junior in high school..I was a carhop at a local drive-in restaurant and it was happiest job of my life. I started off at 25 cents per hour but back then it was like Happy Days TV show. It was fun and most of the time I had a blast with good, fun and and hardworking people.
My brother was 13 and I was 11 when we started our lawn mowing service with old mowers we repaired. We mowed many yards in our neighborhood, contracted with the county to mow several graveyards, and had paper routes. We sold extra vegetables, not canned, from our family’s garden (for family vacations). The vegetables were sold to regular customers who preordered from the previous year.
Not counting babysitting, I worked in a nursing home helping to get the supper trays ready. My mom worked in the kitchen at this nursing home, I would go in after school, high school that is. The nursing home was on my way home. I would do my home work first and then help my mom set up the trays for supper. I didn’t get paid till a few years later. In the meantime, the owner would give me hand fulls of pennies, jewelry, even a petticoat one time. I was happy. I would put the trays on the dumb waiter, and pull them up to the first and second floors. My mom retired from there and I stayed on and worked with the other woman who took over. After I turned 16 I got a Social Security number and I was able to run the dishwasher as well. I actually got paid then too. It was great working with my mom, we would walk home together. Those were great memories for me.
Besides the usual baby sitting… my first job was an accounts receivable clerk for a tv repair co.
I was 16. One of my duties was to tabulate the answers to the monthly customer service questionnaires. One month the responses were less than favorable. I handed the report in only to be told by my supervisor that the boss refused to sign off on the report as it was, and I was told to “modify” the numbers. I refused and thought, “ that’s it, I’m fired”… well I wasn’t, but was ready to quit. Didn’t have to as our office was shut down by corporate a few weeks later. It taught me a lot about Corporate America and prepared me for more sketchy behavior by upper management later on… don’t even get me started on the shenanigans I suffered through on Wall Street.
My first job was shinning shoes for .25 cents a Pair! 1956 was the year, some people would tip and others didn’t!!
Candystriper( nurses aide) at 17 years old in hospital. Had a person die in my arms as I helped him get out of wheelchair. Boy, was I traumatized. They sent me home that day
I was 15. The boys next door had an uncle that started a donut shop. On summer Saturdays he would come and pick us up in his car. It was also loaded with boxes of donuts. He would drive us to a nearby suburban area and load our arms with the boxes. Us boys would walk door to door, knock and when someone came to the door gave them our spiel, “Ma’am, would you like to buy a dozen Fluffy Fresh Donuts? A dozen is only a dollar. A dollar chocolate frosted donuts are only a $1.10.”
We sold some and I think we received a dime for each box we sold. The best reward is that we got to take home the ones we didn’t. My house always had lots of donuts for Sunday.
I worked on a farm putting up hay bales for 1 $ hour did this for 2 summers learned what hard work is and continued to work hard till I retired
My first job was the summer before my senior year of high school. I spent the summer doing janitorial duties in the school I attended such as scraping off dried chewing gum left underneath student desks, mopping and waxing classroom floors and hallways, cleaning the chalkboards, etc. I had earned enough money that summer to buy nice school clothes for my last year there.
My first job was at Fry`s dept. store. It was a good job until they moved to to an old grocery store that they are purchased to open. They had me clean up the basement which was a dirty smelly mess with an inch of mud on the floor, and an old conveyer. It was one tough job! It took me a few Saturdays to get the place clean. I was so excited to finally begin working up stairs to stock shelves and get the store ready to open. Then he fired me. I was so mad!
My first job was cleaning used refrigerators and freezers that were to be refurbished, as an after school job.
I had a power sprayer and went to town. Usually took about 20 minutes.
No matter how clean I got the appliance I worked on, the owner came after me and did it all over again. I’m kinda’ OCD about clean, so I did a great job!
Why this guy thought he’d have to do it all over again when they were perfectly clean, I have no idea. So after about 2 weeks of this, I quit. The owner paid me off. I thought it was behind me.
When I didn’t show up the next day, the owner was on the phone asking me where I was and when I could be there. I told him that I don’t work there anymore…he thought I was kidding.
My first job was at a local poultry farm, my Jr/Sr year of high school. I worked after school everyday and Saturdays during the school year and all day during vacations and holidays. I learned the meaning of “hard work” shoveling chicken sh*t for $.50/hour. The owner, who I thought of as “ancient” at the time, was much older than my father. When he came to help with the shoveling, his shovel was twice the size of mine and he tossed 3 to 4 times as many shovel loads as we could. We all tried so hard to keep up. Hard work got you a promotion into collecting and sorting eggs ( in addition to shoveling). I got 2 raises in the period that everyone else got one. I left making a proud $.60/hour.
I was an child actor for Keds & 7up!
It was 1963, I was about 12 years old. My two older brothers and I would be sent out to my grandfather’s farm for the summer. We would get up every morning at 5am to milk the cows, work in the fields to remove rocks, bail hay, put hay out for the cattle, do chores throughout the whole day, and again at 5pm, milk the cows again. When we finished for the day, we ate a big meal that my grandmother would fix and would watch a TV show and go to bed by 7:30pm. We were very tired from a day of hard working on the farm. We did this for the whole summer and my grandfather would buy us clothes and school supplies for the upcoming school year. The lesson I learned was that hard work has many rewards in different kinds of way.
My first job was chopping cotton at age of 12 years old, $12.50 a week.
My first job was a cashier while attending high school. The school of life taught me a lot about people’s skills and managing life. How to embrace the indifferences and differences of people. Life lesson – challenging moments-yessss!!! but the lessons learned made me who I am today. Strong, confident and successful in life.
My first job was in 1967, the summer between 9th and 10th grade. I wanted contacts so bad! My glasses were so uncool. My group of best girlfriends and I got a job bussing tables at Rockford College for their summer seminars. We stayed there from 7am till 9pm 5 days a week. In between food services, we could roam all over the campus, swim in the pool, bounce on the trampoline in the gym and use the library. The freedom was amazing to us. I earned minimum wage and every penny was used to purchase my contact lenses just in time for the first day of school. I treated them like gold.
My first job was with the Hartford Insurance Company on Williams Street in lower Manhattan. I worked in the IBM key punch department.
My first real job was with Continental Insurance on Maiden Lane in Manhattan. But my first real job was with Earl Scheib Auto Painting in Paterson NJ. I was 17, below the minimum age for Earl Scheib but my friend’s older brother worked there and got us jobs. The manager was named Jack and he didn’t care who took his minimum wage jobs. Anyway, my friend’s brother stole a tachometer from a customer’s car and my friend and I got fired because it was any easy solution for manager Jack. I worked there for a full week. I heard later that Jack got fired for passing counterfeit $20 bills.
I was 16, got a job at Grand Union, which was a local supermarket. I treated the supermarket as if it was my personal pantry. I helped myself to anything I was in the mood for. Didn’t think much of it or try to hide it. There was plenty of food there. Then the manager saw me take an apricot fruit roll up. He punished me by making clean the employee bathrooms (which made NY subway bathrooms look clean).
When I was done delousing myself, he canned me. My supermarket career lasted four days.
I was also hired by Grand Union. Store at 231st in the Bronx. Retired from them when I turned 65. Great life
The summer of 1969, between my jr. & sr. years of high school, my grandmother got me a job at the glove factory where she worked. My job was to put the gloves, which were inside out, on a machine with 5 thin rods in the shape of a hand, press down on the treadle to put other rods on top and lift up so the gloves were ready to wear. I was not a good glove turner! The woman I worked with had pictures of Richard Chamberlain all over our little corner and talked all day about him. I was so slow that they asked me to find another job. I found one at W. T. Grant Co, department store, where the manager would point out people she thought might be shoplifters and I would follow them around the store to see if they stole items. I only worked there that summer, but whenever I would go in the store after that I would notice an employee following me around. Seems if you knew what to look for the manager figured you’d try to shoplift! She was a quirky woman!
My first real job at a store was when I was 16. I was a clerk/soda jerk at a drug store. The pay was .50 per hour. Two years later I got a .15 raise making it .65 per hour. My very first job was babysitting. This was when I was 9 yrs old. I made .25 an hour and sometimes babysat for as many as 6 children at once. I still earned .25 an hour. I also had a paper route from age 9 to 18. My Mom didn’t have enough money to pay an allowance so we children all worked for our spending money. The first job that I had after high school graduation was for an Insurance company. My take home pay from that company was $99.99 every two weeks. This was double what my Mom earned while rearing us children. I felt rich.
I got my first job at 16 working for One Hour Martinizing Dry Cleaner for 80 cents! The name puzzled me since no order was ready in an hour. I was reliable and considered myself conscientious, so after a year I asked for a raise and my boss asked me if I thought I was worth it. I was crushed and quit!!