What Was Your First Job?

#77
#77
I also grew up on a farm, learned to milk cows at 6 years old. My family also owned a country store, so I was a store keeper when not farming.
First paying job was with a building products company in Nashville in 1970 at minimum wage of $1.65/hr.

Second summer job was sewer line construction at a whopping $2/hr. One day we tied into a live sewer, I spent the day in a manhole scooping out poop. Then and there I made up my mind to get back to UT and hit the books or do something like this the rest of my life. Job was great motivation.
 
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#78
#78
Lampvol74 said:
I also grew up on a farm, learned to milk cows at 6 years old. My family also owned a country store, so I was a store keeper when not farming.
First paying job was with a building products company in Nashville in 1970 at minimum wage of $1.65/hr.

Second summer job was sewer line construction at a whopping $2/hr. One day we tied into a live sewer, I spent the day in a manhole scooping out poop. Then and there I made up my mind to get back to UT and hit the books or do something like this the rest of my life. Job was great motivation.
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I can’t think of a worse nightmare of a job.
 
#79
#79
Hoosier_Vol said:
Bagging groceries at local small town IGA when I was 15....Outside of that worked on family farm along with other local farms from about age 9
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Man, you started working at a young age.
 
#80
#80
As a lad, I was an entrepreneur, doing yard work for $. My first paycheck job was doing year end inventory at a Massey Ferguson parts warehouse (edit: I was 14). Later, I found work at plant nurseries, with a tract builder, and a landscaper. At UT, I got part time work in the University system until the Copper Cellar hired me. After graduation, the real employment adventure began.
 
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#82
#82
First paying job was cutting grass. I had enough costumers where my parents had to work into my schedule to cut our grass. Nothing learned there but hard, and good, work gets noticed.

Photographer for a bit. Stopped after a mom hired me "stalk" her daughter that was my age. I thought daughter knew about me, she didnt. Things were awkward AF.

Purged some old files at a lawyers office while rehabbing my knee and couldnt move around too much. Learned I dont handle dust well.

Hotel breakfast in the morning, lawncare in the afternoons taught me I dont like working 72 hours a week. Even if the pay is good. No point earning if you cant spend.
 
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#83
#83
Material Handler for at a boat seat factory

16
My sweet Aunt was the department manager in shipping and got me in the door..

$5.65 an hour. It was good enough to make beer money through high school

Life lessons.....never call a Mexican a Puerto Rican.

Overall good experience.

The best stories were the fistfights that I got to see firsthand. About 4 all together. Tug a war on a sheet of ice with two sit down tow motors was fun
 
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#84
#84
Lampvol74 said:
I also grew up on a farm, learned to milk cows at 6 years old. My family also owned a country store, so I was a store keeper when not farming.
First paying job was with a building products company in Nashville in 1970 at minimum wage of $1.65/hr.

Second summer job was sewer line construction at a whopping $2/hr. One day we tied into a live sewer, I spent the day in a manhole scooping out poop. Then and there I made up my mind to get back to UT and hit the books or do something like this the rest of my life. Job was great motivation.
Click to expand...
Reminds me of an article I read several years back about the job requirements of a sewage worker in India….they weren’t just shoveling it but we’re swimming and diving in it, arg!
 
#86
#86
some called a job, many called it a privilege. Carrier for the Knoxville News Sentinel beginning at age 12.
 
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#87
#87
Tin Man said:
As a lad, I was an entrepreneur, doing yard work for $. My first paycheck job was doing year end inventory at a Massey Ferguson parts warehouse (edit: I was 14). Later, I found work at plant nurseries, with a tract builder, and a landscaper. At UT, I got part time work in the University system until the Copper Cellar hired me. After graduation, the real employment adventure began.
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You and many others here were little entrepreneurs. I’m impressed.
 
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#88
#88
Lampvol74 said:
While I was in the manhole, someone dumped some mac and cheese, it mixed with the poop. I couldn't eat mac and cheese for 2 years, all I could think when I was it was sewer macaroni.
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Just hearing that story has turned me off of Mac and cheese.
 
#89
#89
Reffing Parks & Rec soccer
14 years old (1994)
7 bucks a game - 4 bucks every Saturday morning.

A year later, I started a mobile DJ company charging $75 an hour. That was the best! I even DJed a high school prom as an 8th grader.
 
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#90
#90
LouderVol said:
First paying job was cutting grass. I had enough costumers where my parents had to work into my schedule to cut our grass. Nothing learned there but hard, and good, work gets noticed.

Photographer for a bit. Stopped after a mom hired me "stalk" her daughter that was my age. I thought daughter knew about me, she didnt. Things were awkward AF.

Purged some old files at a lawyers office while rehabbing my knee and couldnt move around too much. Learned I dont handle dust well.

Hotel breakfast in the morning, lawncare in the afternoons taught me I dont like working 72 hours a week. Even if the pay is good. No point earning if you cant spend.
Click to expand...
That photographer job sounded very interesting.
 
#91
#91
PowerT83 said:
Material Handler for at a boat seat factory

16
My sweet Aunt was the department manager in shipping and got me in the door..

$5.65 an hour. It was good enough to make beer money through high school

Life lessons.....never call a Mexican a Puerto Rican.

Overall good experience.

The best stories were the fistfights that I got to see firsthand. About 4 all together. Tug a war on a sheet of ice with two sit down tow motors was fun
Click to expand...
What were all the fights about?
When I was a DJ at a casino, I learned that the Mexicans and the Puerto Ricans did not like the same music at all.
 
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#92
#92
Panthro said:
Reffing Parks & Rec soccer
14 years old (1994)
7 bucks a game - 4 bucks every Saturday morning.

A year later, I started a mobile DJ company charging $75 an hour. That was the best! I even DJed a high school prom as an 8th grader.
Click to expand...
Both of those jobs sound super cool.
 
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#93
#93
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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Loved the old lifters club in Oak Ridge. The first gym that I ever joined.

Shame that Rex went so young. He was a good guy.
 
#96
#96
Putt Putt, 17+
I think I got to $6.75 as a shift manager

Too many funny stories: Golf balls go far off of aluminum bats. Much more fun to play all-terrain (tee off the waterfall, etc). You still can't beat me at Street Fighter. Old hot dog machine water is only rivaled by soured ice cream in the trash on stinkitude. Schmoozing the Farragut birthday party moms can land you a $20 cash tip ...
 
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#97
#97
mad4vols said:
Both of those jobs sound super cool.
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I also ended up getting more traditional jobs, like I worked at a CVS in Maryville through high school and college, but I DJed weddings and parties from ‘95 until about 2017.
 
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#98
#98
kiddiedoc said:
Putt Putt, 17+
I think I got to $6.75 as a shift manager

Too many funny stories: Golf balls go far off of aluminum bats. Much more fun to play all-terrain (tee off the waterfall, etc). You still can't beat me at Street Fighter. Old hot dog machine water is only rivaled by soured ice cream in the trash on stinkitude. Schmoozing the Farragut birthday party moms can land you a $20 cash tip ...
Click to expand...
Lol @ schmoozing the Farragut moms.
 
#100
#100
Started cutting neighbors grass when I was 10. Typically $1 in 1962
3 paper routes. Knox Journal (5:30 a.m. 6 days/week) when I was 10. Knox Sentinel afternoon except Sunday when I was 11. Finally the Oak Ridger (M thru Friday) When I was twelve. That was wonderful.
Worked in a car wash on weekends at 15.
A&P grocery at 16. Jackson Square pharmacy, OR at 16 through high school.
Worked in the campus post office through college except for a summer with the Jolly Green Giant company near Rockford, Illinois right before I graduated in December.
Adult jobs ? Just say I've always gotten bored easily.
 
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