What was your first job?

mrblanche

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Someone asked about our first car. So, how did you learn your work ethic?

My first job was working for a beekeeper in Colorado. It was a 7-mile ride on my bicycle to his place. I was 14 years old at the time. And yes, I got stung plenty of times.

My second job was working on a cattle ranch, doing any sort of odd job.

My third job was cutting, baling, and hauling hay.

And my fourth job, but my first real-live-file-taxes job was working in the paint shop of a cabinet factory.
 

sk_pacer

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My first job was your third, and I was a whole 11 years old. Got passed around from uncle to uncle to help. By the time I was 13, could keep up with any of them. Payment from one uncle, starting when i was 11 - driving lessons, was driving by 12.

First 'real' job was in a high fashion salon, a place that followed in the footsteps of Vifal Sassoon, was awful

Then went to work for the government and found a time filler working for a local horse trainer (harness racing) and I was hooked.
 

wellingtoncats

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My first job was in 2005 (15) I was a checkout operator at our local supermarket. I left in April 2008 (18) and have since had two jobs.

I learnt about cash handling, customer service and time management.
 

carolina

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My first job was a sales person at a store like The GAP - same kind of deal, but in Brasil. I think I was 20...
 

natalie_ca

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I've been working since I was 11 years old. My first jobs were babysitting and selling clothing that my Mom used to make.

My first real job was an inventory clerk with Western Inventory. We did inventory at various stores and companies around Manitoba and Ontario.
 

kara_leigh

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My first job was at Wendy's, a fast food restaurant. I was the peon, and never got above that before I quit b/c the manager wanted me to work until 2am almost every night on school nights and I couldn't do it anymore.
 

mbjerkness

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I first job was at my father's grocery store. I was 15, He expected me to work harder than anyone else. I worked 32 hours a week at the store, went to school full time. I was also a volunteer at the hospital 4 hours a week and babysat in my spare time. My Dad's theory was keep me busy, so I would have no time for boys
 

goonie

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mine was as a waitress in a village inn pizza parlor in Globe, Arizona. it 's a mining town of about 4000, or was in 1978. the population was miners and bikers.
 

Willowy

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I started babysitting when I was 12. Freelance and I had a steady gig at the aerobics class. When I was 15 my brother and I split a paper route, and I still babysat sometimes. We had a daily morning route, and a weekly advertiser route. I stayed with the paper routes even after getting the other jobs....I don't think we gave them up entirely until I was 23 or so.

I didn't get a "real" job until I was 19, and that was at a Gateway computers call center. Just as an "emissary", which meant we just were a real voice to answer the phones and tranfer people to the proper department, because Ted Waitt thought that was nicer than getting an automated "press one for x" voice.

Of course very few companies can afford such luxuries for long, and Gateway eventually closed the call center. Another company bought it and kept most of the employees, so I continued with the call center. Except now we were doing actual work, cleaning up after the WorldCom mess. That was horrible.

While I was still working there, I got a part-time job with the census, going around to all the people who hadn't sent in their questionnaires. Now, let me tell you, if someone doesn't fill out their census form, there's usually a reason, usually a sort of creepy reason, like they're separatists or Neo-Nazis or at least extremely suspicious sorts. I met some VERY interesting people doing that job.

And I got a job with the Postal Service around the same time as the census gig. I was very part time for a while (12 hours every 2 weeks---2 hours each morning every other week) so I stayed with the call center, too. Then I transferred to an office with more clerk hours, so I (thankfully) quit the call center. And I've been with the USPS ever since, though I have transferred to yet another office.
 

krazycatlover

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Besides babysitting or picking cherries once or twice I worked at Big boy as a Bus girl when I was 14.
 

sammyp

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My first job was working in the high-school library after I'd left the school to study via correspondence. I was still going through my "teeny goth phase" so I was referred to as "Librarian's Evil Assistant"
 

clixpix

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I've held down a lot of jobs...many of them simultaneously

  • Babysitting
  • Picked apples
  • Served drinks at a bowling alley (I was waaay underage)
  • worked in a canning factory (worst job I've ever had)
Then later, while I was in college...
  • In the summers I worked at amusement parks (Six Flags Great America in Illinois, and Cedar Point in Ohio)...I can now pull taffy, make cotton candy, funnel cakes and rosettes like nobody's business!
  • I worked in an office
  • Cafeteria work...I had a couple of jobs, serving and food prep
  • I worked in a day care center
  • I worked at the campus theater...tickets, concessions, and projectionist, but not all at the same time
Even now I can't seem to do just one job.
  • I'm a labor & delivery nurse
  • I sometimes do outside agency nursing
  • I'm also a photographer
Just wait until I finish my web design classes...who knows what else I can get into!
 

jcat

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I got my first regular job at 14, as a short-order cook at a local swim club's snack bar. I'd done babysitting and pet sitting before that, and my mom's boss used to pay me to come in for an afternoon or two a month and straighten out the filing system.

During high school I worked as a cashier at a drive-through dairy store and at a convenience store. One summer I did surveys for a pharmaceutical company, talking to physicians and farmers all over the U.S.. Once I hit 18, I worked as a short-order cook and waitress at a bar (the drinking age was lower then).

I've been a teacher since graduating, and do some translating on the side.
 

white cat lover

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My first job was working for dad - construction stuff. My first "real" job, though - was working as a bank teller when I was 16.
 

emrldsky

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My first official job was at Popeye's Chicken.
I was 15. It wasn't until I was 17 that I got my second job as a server for a wedding reception hall. I worked long hours (longer than I was supposed to) but I made $8/hour in 1999-2000. Pretty good gig for a high schooler.

In college I worked as a help desk person for the network connections in the residence halls. Then I also worked as a TA for a C programming course. I eventually got an internship to be a technical writer for a summer and they kept me after that.

It was from that internship that I meandered my way into my current job.
 

Ms. Freya

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Other than babysitting, I was a Library page at 12. After that I was a waitress/cashier at various bakeries and sandwich shops, and eventually decorated cakes at a those bakeries and an ice cream store.
 

ldg

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My first paying job I got at 6, weeding and mowing the neighbor's lawn. That expanded to several in the neighborhood. I graduated to doing their laundry and ironing shirts.

I was babysitting by 11.

My first legal job I got the minute I turned 14. It was only a 7 mile bike ride. It was after school, working at a bakery.

Once you finished your first year of high school, you could elect to squish all your classes together, take no free periods or lunch, so I did that, and I got a part-time job as a receptionist for the movie rental section of Encyclopedia Britannica.

At the same time, I got a second job, working at The White Hen evenings, mornings and week-ends (like a 7-11). I look back and think how odd - a 15-year old was opening and closing the store.... (by myself!) I also wonder how I managed it, because that store was right next to a commuter train station, and it was really busy in the mornings! I was responsible for making all the coffee and stuff. So strange.
 
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