What Was Your First Job?

#1
MAD

MAD

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#1
What was your first job?

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Some question ideas below
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How old were you?
How did you get it?
How much did you make?
Was it a good or bad experience?
What life lessons did you get out of it?
Any funny stories?
 
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#2
#2
My first job was selling cokes at Neyland in 1979 when I was 15. My buddy from West High had done it the year before and told me about it.
I guess my first job where I got a paycheck was Burger Chef in Columbus Ohio, in 1980. Hourly wage was $2.85 which they called sub-minimum if you were under 18. Minimum wage back then was $3.35.
 
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#4
#4
Minimum wage in 1977 was $2.30 but I was able to negotiate that up to $2.35 as the cleaning engineer at an RV sales and service center. The tools of my trade were about 500’ of water hose, 1/2 of a 55 gallon drum with a handle and 2 wheels for portability, and an 8’ broom handle with a scrub brush on the end. Start at one end of the lot and work your way through the inventory. Wherever you stopped one day is where you started the next and since the lot was gravel the first RV was dirty again by the time you finished the last one so you never worked yourself out of a job! Coworkers never bothered you as you had none. After 3 months the owner took notice of my unwavering work ethic and promoted me to hitch installation engineer and turned me loose putting cars and trucks up on a rack, drilling frames and bolting on UHaul hitches (can you imagine allowing a 16 year old to do that today?). At the start of school I had to take a leave of absence until the next summer where I returned to the service center to continue my apprenticeship of RV service and repair - good times!
 
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#5
#5
In the summer when I was 15 i started working for my dad doing home repairs and remodeling and painting and stuff like that. Probably made like $7 an hour or so, kept doing it every summer and then in my senior i had co-op where i got out at 10 every day and went to work for him too. Been doing it ever since i graduated.

I delivered pizza for Hungry Howie's for a couple of weeks as a night job until somebody ran a red light and t-boned me and I didn't have a car for a while so I had to quit.
 
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#7
#7
Grew up on a dairy farm so don't know if you could call that a job since my pay was "getting to eat and sleep indoors" as my dad said. First off the farm job was local glass shop replacing broken windshields for $3.35 hr.
 
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#8
#8
PEPPERJAX said:
Started mowing lawns for $ when I was 14. Straight cash homie! Most lawns were about 25 bucks a cut. Life lesson/funny story? Don't mow over a yellow jacket nest.
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Yikes 🐝
 
#11
#11
walkenvol said:
Minimum wage in 1977 was $2.30 but I was able to negotiate that up to $2.35 as the cleaning engineer at an RV sales and service center. The tools of my trade were about 500’ of water hose, 1/2 of a 55 gallon drum with a handle and 2 wheels for portability, and an 8’ broom handle with a scrub brush on the end. Start at one end of the lot and work your way through the inventory. Wherever you stopped one day is where you started the next and since the lot was gravel the first RV was dirty again by the time you finished the last one so you never worked yourself out of a job! Coworkers never bothered you as you had none. After 3 months the owner took notice of my unwavering work ethic and promoted me to hitch installation engineer and turned me loose putting cars and trucks up on a rack, drilling frames and bolting on UHaul hitches (can you imagine allowing a 16 year old to do that today?). At the start of school I had to take a leave of absence until the next summer where I returned to the service center to continue my apprenticeship of RV service and repair - good times!
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Lol, you negotiated up to $2.35.
And no way any 16 year old would be doing that today.
Cool story
 
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#12
#12
In the summer when I was 14, I took a job making concrete planters/pots (like one might find in cemeteries) for a local flower shop. My folks knew the owners of the shop, and they offered me a choice to be paid hourly (minimum wage), or a couple of bucks cash per unit. My first question to them was how many of the forms they had, because that would impact which pay arrangement I'd pick. I went for the commission per unit so I could knock out the work and get on to doing other things. I'd show up the next day, remove the forms, and start the process all over again. It amounted to a couple of days' worth of work every week or two, so I had some good money coming in for minimal time once I got my system down. They had something like 15 or 20 molds so I ended up making pretty good money for a morning's worth of work, and I'd ride my bike back home. Slinging bags of concrete and mixing them in a wheelbarrow was a good workout in the summer heat of south Georgia. I learned that I didn't want to do that for a living, and the experience also reinforced the fact that proper hydration is essential.

No real funny stories from the experience; it was a good-paying job for my age at the time, with the added perk of being close to the university campus (and next to a screenprinting shop), so some cute college sorority gals would be within view of my 'innocent' but interested 14-year-old eyes quite often.
 
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#13
#13
Notorious B.E.N said:
In the summer when I was 15 i started working for my dad doing home repairs and remodeling and painting and stuff like that. Probably made like $7 an hour or so, kept doing it every summer and then in my senior i had co-op where i got out at 10 every day and went to work for him too. Been doing it ever since i graduated.

I delivered pizza for Hungry Howie's for a couple of weeks as a night job until somebody ran a red light and t-boned me and I didn't have a car for a while so I had to quit.
Click to expand...
That sucks about the wreck, did your car get totaled? Were you injured?
 
#14
#14
hog88 said:
Grew up on a dairy farm so don't know if you could call that a job since my pay was "getting to eat and sleep indoors" as my dad said. First off the farm job was local glass shop replacing broken windshields for $3.35 hr.
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I grew up on a farm as well. Not a dairy farm though. I don’t want to see another chicken coop ever again!
 
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#15
#15
hog88 said:
Grew up on a dairy farm so don't know if you could call that a job since my pay was "getting to eat and sleep indoors" as my dad said. First off the farm job was local glass shop replacing broken windshields for $3.35 hr.
Click to expand...
I volunteered overseas and worked on a farm. Wasn’t easy. Must have been cool growing up on one.
 
#16
#16
tbh said:
In the summer when I was 14, I took a job making concrete planters/pots (like one might find in cemeteries) for a local flower shop. My folks knew the owners of the shop, and they offered me a choice to be paid hourly (minimum wage), or a couple of bucks cash per unit. My first question to them was how many of the forms they had, because that would impact which pay arrangement I'd pick. I went for the commission per unit so I could knock out the work and get on to doing other things. I'd show up the next day, remove the forms, and start the process all over again. It amounted to a couple of days' worth of work every week or two, so I had some good money coming in for minimal time once I got my system down. They had something like 15 or 20 molds so I ended up making pretty good money for a morning's worth of work, and I'd ride my bike back home. Slinging bags of concrete and mixing them in a wheelbarrow was a good workout in the summer heat of south Georgia. I learned that I didn't want to do that for a living, and the experience also reinforced the fact that proper hydration is essential.

No real funny stories from the experience; it was a good-paying job for my age at the time, with the added perk of being close to the university campus (and next to a screenprinting shop), so some cute college sorority gals would be within view of my 'innocent' but interested 14-year-old eyes quite often.
Click to expand...
That was very clever. A lot smarter than most 14 year olds.
 
#17
#17
mad4vols said:
I volunteered overseas and worked on a farm. Wasn’t easy. Must have been cool growing up on one.
Click to expand...

I was blessed. Me and my dad didn't see eye to eye on much and didn't work well together, if we did I would have stayed.
 
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#19
#19
When I was 15 I got a job at an Air Force golf course where they technically couldn’t employ me, so in exchange for working there they gave me unlimited range balls. I got pretty good at golf.
 
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#23
#23
My first real job (not a paper route) was cleaning up the Lifter's Club in Oak Ridge, TN. I was 10 years old. The owner took a shine to me and paid me $20 for 5 hrs/week. Between that and my paper route, I was bringing in about $140/month, which was a fortune to me. The owner was cool as hell. He taught me how to box. He let me pal around with him and his friends. It was an awesome job.

As a child of the 80s, I was already into muscles but this probably solidified it and I've remained dedicated to the craft well into adulthood. I was such a skinny kid and it still surprises me when somebody describes me as "big".
 
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#25
#25
n_huffhines said:
My first real job (not a paper route) was cleaning up the Lifter's Club in Oak Ridge, TN. I was 10 years old. The owner took a shine to me and paid me $20 for 5 hrs/week. Between that and my paper route, I was bringing in about $140/month, which was a fortune to me. The owner was cool as hell. He taught me how to box. He let me pal around with him and his friends. It was an awesome job.

As a child of the 80s, I was already into muscles but this probably solidified it and I've remained dedicated to the craft well into adulthood. I was such a skinny kid and it still surprises me when somebody describes me as "big".
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I don’t know any 10 year olds that had a job. That was a ton of money for a kid.
 
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