Originally Posted By goodgirl Topic: Memories Question: Describe your first paying job. How old were you?
Originally Posted By threeundertwo Sheesh! What took you so long to post this morning! ;-) Around the house I would pull weeds and iron for extra cash when I was pretty young. I started babysitting (and raking it in, I might add) at age 10. My first job with a company was as a file clerk in an office when I was 15.
Originally Posted By jasmine7 My first job was as a busgirl at the restaurant my mom worked at, but since I was only like 12 or 13 & underage, I only worked about two or three days before they let me go.
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy Shoney's---host and cashier, fresh outta high school. "Smoking or non"? "Hi, how was everything?" I even remember the "Shoney's nod" from training. Thankfully I never had to do it since I was a server, but the visual from the training video is burned into my mind.
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 I did the "books" for my dad's store. Actually, once a week I did postings of the receipts for monthly billing. This was in the days before computers and calculators. Hand written, little slips of carbon paper and I used an adding machine with a crank handle I started at about age 16 and stopped when I was about 23.
Originally Posted By u k fan Other than the usual paper rounds and stuff my first job was at 16 and I worked as a Junior in the Cashiers Office at the big General Foods factory we have here in town. I earned 52.50GBP per week. It was actually a lot of fun, but I wasn't there long. But that's another story!!!
Originally Posted By officerminnie At age 10 I started baysitting quite a bit, but my first "real" job was when I was 17, working at a day care center. I was in heaven, surrounded by 2 year olds! I got paid minimum wage, $1.35 per hour.
Originally Posted By Schmitty Good Vibes My sister and I were "hired" by my dad's company to stuff product samples into some sort of presentation folder. I think I was in fourth grade. The job paid nicely for the work, I think I got $5.00 for the day, which was a lot more than my meager and often ignored allowance. What I remember most about it is that we were given an area with some tables and chairs in the attic of a warehouse with almost no ventilation, and it got incredibly hot up there. So much so that my sister and I declined to return despite the 'good money'. My first W-2 employment was right out of high school. I was an accomplished draftsman (awards, newspaper articles, etc.) and friends of friends hired me to work at a small private school as a teacher's aid and to run a drafting program for the high school age kids. That class went very well, so they gave me some other classes to teach. I quickly found out that I couldn't teach many things very well at all and that abstract thoughts about mathematics that I always accepted were very hard to explain to first graders. "Why does 2 + 2 ALWAYS = 4??" "It just does, so shut-up, Brian!!!" Now that I know a few things about quantum mechanics I could have told him that maybe it doesn't.
Originally Posted By SuzieQ I taught sailing in Newport Beach. Aw, to have the Gidget life again, lol! It was the summer I turned 15, and boy did I have it good! I taught at the Sea Base on Pacific Coast Highway. It's owned by the Scouts. I taught Sailing in 8 ft. Sabots, 14 ft Lido's and on Hobie 16 Catamarans. I also taught rowing and canoeing classes that earned kids their merit badges. I remember minimum wage at the time was $3.65, and I earned $6/hour. What a shock to the system when we moved away from the beach the next summer and the only jobs available were McDonalds at minimum wage!
Originally Posted By SuzieQ "Why does 2 + 2 ALWAYS = 4??" "It just does, so shut-up, Brian!!!" LOL! And then there's the auditor's joke: "What is 2+2?" "What would you like it to be?"
Originally Posted By TiggerPooh1973 I started babysitting probably around 11 or 12. First real job was when I was 16 I worked at a bakery/ice cream shop serving and cashiering. I got whatever was minimum wage back then.
Originally Posted By Ursula I have no idea what my first job was. Seriously. I feel like I've been working forever it just mumbles all together. Babysitting was first. Maybe Disneyland was my first proper paycheck job? OR it was the knock-off Porche parts place, no idea.
Originally Posted By friendofdd Tried babysitting once and decided it wasn't for me. I worked as an office clerk, at age 13, in an uncle's insurance/real estate office. Minimum wage was $0.75, but he paid me $0.50.
Originally Posted By Ursula I do remember that I made $4.20/ hour at the answering service. Yes, I was a cord-board operator! I worked really hard, adored the manager who treated all of her ladies like family, and eventually, I earned a five-cent raise. I was happy, because I knew they were barely making a profit, but I was young and stupid and I joked about my pennies raise at my boss' house. She kindly sat me down with a calculator, and showed me that with the hours I put in, that raise was equal to my phone bill.
Originally Posted By Sara Tonin I started babysitting at about 12 or 13. My first REAL job was at 17 when I worked at JCPenny as Christmas help one season...as I recall I made .90 an hour.
Originally Posted By melekalikimaka Babysitting/chores/helping my mom make crafts to sell at craft shows. Sometimes we helped clean my step-dad's bar (when it was closed). LOL
Originally Posted By LacyBelle I also did babysitting at 11 or 12. My first part-time job was working at Round Table Pizza. My parents didn't want me to work (wanted me to concentrate on my studies without that distraction), but I wanted the experience -- besides friends were working there. (Should have listened to the folks.) My first full-time job was as secretary/receptionist/bookkeeper for an Enrolled Agent (think CPA, but with a concentration in incomes taxes). I got the job through a referral from my high school Accounting teacher. It was a great experience.
Originally Posted By DlandJB I was 12. I put a sign up in a Navy retirement home near my house that I could come and do errands and light housekeeping. I was hired by a woman named Mrs. Brown. I would come over once a week and do her laundry and her dishes (she ate a lot of Stouffer's Welsh Rarebit, I remember that). I worked for her for a couple of years and then she passed away. I liked her very much. The first job for a business was as a bus girl for Hot Shoppes Cafeteria in Tyson's Corner, Virgina -- I hated this job. It was dirty, thankless and hard, heavy work. The uniforms were serious double knit polyester and you could never, never get the cafeteria smell out of them. My next job was at a 5 theater "multiplex" (they didn't call them that in 1977. And I worked concession because you had to be over 18 to work in the box office. I did like this job because during break you could go into the theaters and watch the movies. I saw Annie Hall and the Goodbye Girl about a million times that summer - but rarely in sequence!
Originally Posted By sherrytodd McDonalds at $3.65/hr (Minimum Wage)when I turned 16. It was the only way I was allowed to have a car.
