First job stories

[Doclector]

So, tomorrow I have my first day on my first paid job. I've done plenty of volunteering stuff, but this one I'm being paid for, so a higher standard is expected.

I'm bricking it. What if I get something wrong? What if all the co-workers hate me? What if, in a freak incident, I make a really crap cup of tea? What if my cups of tea are too good and I end up being forced to make all of them in future? What if an alien comes into the office and asks whether his left his ID there? But he's a shapeshifter, how the fuck are we supposed to know whether an ID is his? What if I have to enter the number between 12 and 14 thus cursing the rest of the day!?

So, in order to distract myself, what were your first days on the job like?

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

My first day of my first job was the closing shift on October 31st, 2005. I was a cashier at a Best Buy.

It was boring as fuck, because who the hell goes out to buy something from Best Buy during Trick-or-Treating hours on Halloween night? Ended up spending most of the shift watching crappy horror movies with the other cashiers.

 

[lechat]

worked at red rooster (chicken take away shop)
i was 11 at the time and clueless so not much was expected of me.
i lived up to expectations.

 

[Zontar]

Worked at a day camp, 8am to 5pm as my first job. Never again I say, half the kids didn't want to be there, half couldn't agree on if they wanted to do whatever we where doing at that particular time (except when we watched a projected movie when it rained or where going to the pool), and there was always that one kid who was a nightmare to deal with. I won't go into much detail, but I will say this: never again.

I've worked at a pharmacy part time and spent a year as a reservist since then, now I'm directing traffic at a sugar shack on weekends. Such is the life of a university student.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

My first job was an internship as a Software Engineer at Amazon. Took about two weeks before I really understood anything that was happening. And even then there was only one point where I was actually trusted with customer-facing work; everything else was internal.

 

[Clowndoe]

My mom was apparently more worried about me failing my job than I was, which makes this story so much more relevant:

When I was 15 or 16 I got a job at shipping & receiving in the same company as my mom (different building though). A few days in when I was taking a breather my boss tells me to pay attention as he makes a phone call. He actually put my mom on speaker and he made up this whole story about how I had a break down and was in the bathroom crying. Lucky she had a sense of humor about it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

My first job was punching tickets at a movie theater. By the end of my first day, my boss - the theater manager - took me to his office in the back and tried to bribe me so I would phone back home different numbers than the ones I had counted.

 

[dave1004]

Hey, Escapist, maybe this is a good time.

I'm a 20-year old shut-in. Well, 19, but I'm turning 20 on April 28th.

I've been given an ultimatum by my parents: I either get a job, here, now, somewhere, or I get out. They're selling my computer tomorrow, and I don't even have a phone. They said I can buy a new one when I get a job and the money.

I suffer from social anxiety, probably due to the fact that I've always lived in small Canadian towns all my life, and never been around people. Hell, I spent four years at a farm without any contact outside of my family and no real internet (Save dial-up.)

I have no idea how to talk to people, I get panic attacks just thinking about it and my entire life revolves around my computer. I can't help but get depressed without something to fill the void in my life.

The main issue is that I'm scared. How do I get a job? How do I work one? My mother says that she can talk to the grocery store owner (This town has around 400 people).

This is all that I can do. I'm shaking, scared, I feel lonely and realizing that I have no choice now. I don't know what to do. I can't talk to people. I get these severe panic attacks, where I lock up, can't breathe and get faint. I've never had a job in my life, I dropped out of school at grade 4 because I suffered from severe Tourette's Syndrome and was bullied tremendously. My mother home-schooled me to graduation.

I guess that I'm crying right now. I haven't cried in a long time.

How can I work a job? How do I do this? Please help me. I'm so scared feeling.

 

[Fox12]

Hey, Escapist, maybe this is a good time.

I'm a 20-year old shut-in. Well, 19, but I'm turning 20 on April 28th.

I've been given an ultimatum by my parents: I either get a job, here, now, somewhere, or I get out. They're selling my computer tomorrow, and I don't even have a phone. They said I can buy a new one when I get a job and the money.

I suffer from social anxiety, probably due to the fact that I've always lived in small Canadian towns all my life, and never been around people. Hell, I spent four years at a farm without any contact outside of my family and no real internet (Save dial-up.)

I have no idea how to talk to people, I get panic attacks just thinking about it and my entire life revolves around my computer. I can't help but get depressed without something to fill the void in my life.

The main issue is that I'm scared. How do I get a job? How do I work one? My mother says that she can talk to the grocery store owner (This town has around 400 people).

This is all that I can do. I'm shaking, scared, I feel lonely and realizing that I have no choice now. I don't know what to do. I can't talk to people. I get these severe panic attacks, where I lock up, can't breathe and get faint. I've never had a job in my life, I dropped out of school at grade 4 because I suffered from severe Tourette's Syndrome and was bullied tremendously. My mother home-schooled me to graduation.

I guess that I'm crying right now. I haven't cried in a long time.

How can I work a job? How do I do this? Please help me. I'm so scared feeling.

My, look at all the anxiety everyone's having : P

Don't worry about it, you're just at a new phase in life, and that can be weird for people. In fact, if you're really a shut in, then this is probably the best thing for you. Working at a grocery store, or in my case a Home Depot, forces you to interact with people, which is good if you apparently have anxiety about social interaction. All you have to do is say hello, and ask if they need help finding anything. I've never had too much trouble dealing with people, but I do find that I'm more outgoing and polite since working retail. I catch myself talking to random people on the street now, because I'm so used to it at the store. First jobs can be stressful at first, but you get the hang of it. Besides, it's a grocery store, you may be surprised to find that their standards aren't too high. In fact, if your nervousness causes you to work harder than everyone else, it may work to your advantage.

 

[dave1004]

Thanks, I'll do my best at that. I can work, but I'm just scared of failure. I cannot stand the thought of not meeting someones' expectations, it scares the hell out of me.

Oh god, I'm a failure at life. It is my first job...Thanks for the tips.

Dammit, my original post sounded so drama-e. Now I'm embarrassed.

 

[VanQ]

My first day at work was at a Coles supermarket. I got slapped on registers, much to my dismay. It was utterly bland and the work was way more physically demanding than I expected (seriously, manning a register for 8 hours is exhausting. Treat your checkout operators with respect.).

On a bright note, I did meet one of the craziest red haired chicks I have ever known. Not only was she gorgeous, but she was absolutely insane. She got into fights, she sprayed me in the eyes with cleaning alcohol once (she didn't mean to hit my face, to be clear) and one time she built a god damn bomb out of stuff in her dad's garage for a high school science assessment.

Even after all that I somehow gave no leeway to my better judgement and asked her out. She ended up being my first girlfriend and the best girlfriend I ever had. I still miss her though we parted ways because she had to go to a university in another state. She did calm down after we started going out and she actually started studying and she's now a lawyer, believe it or not.

I should really see how she's doing and catch up, it's been a few years since we last spoke. So yeah, my first day on my job was the day I met the craziest yet best girlfriend I ever had.

 

[Stryc9]

First job was as the trapsetter at a gun club. I sat in a concrete bunker putting clay pigeons on the thrower while people with shotguns shot at them. It was once a month for about four hours, I made minimum wage, got to shoot one round (25 targets) and was fed lunch. It was mostly fun except for when it was the dead of December\January\February and it was fucking ass cold in the bunker with a shitty space heater that I'm pretty sure didn't work.

 

[The Eupho Guy_v1legacy]

My first job was working for a contract labour company. My first shift was at a wine packaging facility, working on the tirage line, where we were decanting sparkling base into a portable tank to be blended. It was eight hours of high temperatures, heavy work gear* and exploding bottles. The pay was good though.



*= On top of the normal uniform of a long sleeve shirt, long trousers, high visability vest, steel capped boots and safety glasses; The tirage workers had to wear a heavy canvas smock, kevlar wrist guards, rubber coated kevlar gloves, a peaked cap (worn backwards) and a wire meshed face shield. The reason was that the bottles are stored under pressure, which means that if the bottles are dropped or disturbed they would explode rather violently.

 

[Dimitriov]

Hey, Escapist, maybe this is a good time.

I'm a 20-year old shut-in. Well, 19, but I'm turning 20 on April 28th.

I've been given an ultimatum by my parents: I either get a job, here, now, somewhere, or I get out. They're selling my computer tomorrow, and I don't even have a phone. They said I can buy a new one when I get a job and the money.

I suffer from social anxiety, probably due to the fact that I've always lived in small Canadian towns all my life, and never been around people. Hell, I spent four years at a farm without any contact outside of my family and no real internet (Save dial-up.)

I have no idea how to talk to people, I get panic attacks just thinking about it and my entire life revolves around my computer. I can't help but get depressed without something to fill the void in my life.

The main issue is that I'm scared. How do I get a job? How do I work one? My mother says that she can talk to the grocery store owner (This town has around 400 people).

This is all that I can do. I'm shaking, scared, I feel lonely and realizing that I have no choice now. I don't know what to do. I can't talk to people. I get these severe panic attacks, where I lock up, can't breathe and get faint. I've never had a job in my life, I dropped out of school at grade 4 because I suffered from severe Tourette's Syndrome and was bullied tremendously. My mother home-schooled me to graduation.

I guess that I'm crying right now. I haven't cried in a long time.

How can I work a job? How do I do this? Please help me. I'm so scared feeling.

Just remember that there's no way it will possibly be as bad as you fear it will be, and that even the worst day comes to an end. Just get through it and it will get easier.

Good luck!

Incidentally my first job was working at a grocery store. Mostly just bagging groceries, collecting shopping carts from the parking lot, and so on. I was super nervous and honestly, in retrospect, I think I was a pretty shit worker because I was too nervous to ask what I ought to be doing, and so did very little.

But hey! None of that matters because I haven't even seen or heard from anyone there in over 8 years!

 

[Voulan]

Snip

The first thing is to calm down. It is never going to be as bad as you think. You're thinking always of the worst case scenario, which is almost never going to happen.

Now, in terms of finding a job, the easiest path is to either work towards something you know you're good at so you have the confidence for success, or to work in a familiar environment. This can mean asking your friends, or even your friends parents for some work experience at their work. I've found that knowing someone in the workplace will massively ease your anxiety. This will likely mean that you'll only get to do menial or physical roles, which I think is a very good start for you. My first job was actually work experience at my friend's mum's work, and it involved purely number crunching and envelope filling things. However, they found me so useful and diligent that they hired me for real. You'll find that many jobs you can get is more because of the people you know. And with work experience, you won't usually have to do a job interview, which was a massive hurdle for me that I bypassed.

When I graduated I went for a more sophisticated role at the same workplace, and while it did involve a panel interview, I already knew everyone because I'd done the work experience. And I got the job!

You'll get there, don't worry.

 

[Vault101]

Hey, Escapist, maybe this is a good time.

I'm a 20-year old shut-in. Well, 19, but I'm turning 20 on April 28th.

I've been given an ultimatum by my parents: I either get a job, here, now, somewhere, or I get out. They're selling my computer tomorrow, and I don't even have a phone. They said I can buy a new one when I get a job and the money.

I suffer from social anxiety, probably due to the fact that I've always lived in small Canadian towns all my life, and never been around people. Hell, I spent four years at a farm without any contact outside of my family and no real internet (Save dial-up.)

I have no idea how to talk to people, I get panic attacks just thinking about it and my entire life revolves around my computer. I can't help but get depressed without something to fill the void in my life.

The main issue is that I'm scared. How do I get a job? How do I work one? My mother says that she can talk to the grocery store owner (This town has around 400 people).

This is all that I can do. I'm shaking, scared, I feel lonely and realizing that I have no choice now. I don't know what to do. I can't talk to people. I get these severe panic attacks, where I lock up, can't breathe and get faint. I've never had a job in my life, I dropped out of school at grade 4 because I suffered from severe Tourette's Syndrome and was bullied tremendously. My mother home-schooled me to graduation.

I guess that I'm crying right now. I haven't cried in a long time.

How can I work a job? How do I do this? Please help me. I'm so scared feeling.

I've kind of been there, but not as bad as this

while I understand the need fir Somone your age to have a job your parents don't sound very supportive, assuming this is difficult for you and not just a case of lazyness you obviously need help and they need to help you get help

There has to be some kind of unemployment system or whatever that can help you with all that stuff, I don't know if your anxiety or Tourette's could qualify as having a disability and allow you to get support in that regard

Having a job in think will be really helpful both financially and for your own peice of mind, even if it is a basic job once your out there and see the world is not always as scary as it seems

 

[Strain42]

I was 14, got a job at a Subway that was about a 15 minute walk from my house. I was in high school obviously so I only worked for a few hours a day. Very part time thing.

My co-workers treated me like garbage, forced all the crap jobs on me, would often just leave to take smoke breaks (and in one case one even brought her boyfriend over for a quickie in the employee bathroom) while I wasn't even allowed to have the break I was legally supposed to get for working as long as my shift was.

After about a month they finally "trusted me to use the cash register." and then they left. I made sandwiches, stocked food, baked bread, and yes, used the cash register like I was supposed to until someone finally came back to take over for me.

The next day I come into work to find the owner's wife furious at me. Apparently $150 bucks was stolen from the register, and despite that my manager taught me how to use it and said I was to use it, I "wasn't supposed to be using the register yet." So naturally they thought I did it (note: I totally didn't)

So I just left. I got up and left. Never went back to work there, didn't even really officially quit. I was only in that Subway one more time ever and that was to get my last paycheck (and I went when most people I worked with wouldn't be there) I was never further contacted about the missing money by anyone so I can only assume they worked it all out on their end.

After that I vowed I would never work in food services again, and I continue to have the utmost respect for those that can put up with it. Seriously, I salute you.

I actually did end up working at another sandwich place briefly in like 2011, just for a few months, that's when I was reminded why I made that vow in the first place. So now I am re-vowing to never work in food services

So yeah...that was my first job.

 

[Nickolai77]

I got my first job when I was 19 and started tour guiding for my university's history department. I was pretty nervous about doing my first tour, but once I got into the swing of things you generally feel better. It's like an exam really, the worst part of it is before you actually start the test. The thing is, like an exam you need to prepare properly, and for my first tour I hadn't adequately decided what to say about the university library. So I ended up saying to a crowd of adults and prospective students

"This is the library...this is where you can read and take out books....and, um" I honestly wasn't sure what else to say about a library and ended up stuttering and stammering my way through the presentation. Quite embarrassing, but the next tour I did was better prepared fortunately.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

My first job was doing office movals within a college.

It was only an 8 week temporary job in the summer, between years of University study.

The first four weeks were abysmal though, it involved the hardest work, but there were only 2 of us at the time. The latter 4 weeks were so easy in comparison and, on top of that, there were 4 of us.

The highlight was moving 24 IT desks up one floor, as they wanted the IT room in the identical room above it. There was no lift/elevator, we just carried them up the stairs.

The ending four weeks had some fun moments though, as often there wasn't enough work to fill the day.

We were filling the skip on one of these days with office equipment we had brought down a few floors for disposal (chairs, desks etc.). We were chucking them on the gravel floor to break them apart, so they would be more efficient space usage in the skip. A nearby contractor noticed us and said we could use his tools in the back to help break things up... He had a sledgehammer... Never has a job had a more therapeutic method of release against something that has caused you so much trouble & pain. Smashing those desks, chairs etc. to pieces with a proper sledgehammer was truly revitalising!

Another highlight was the day the fire alarm system broke and Tom got sent around the building, checking all rooms, one-by-one, for fire. Amazing.

Can't say I'd go back, but I can still hear me and Jack following people around campus humming the Stewie (family guy) tuba song that he plays to follow around fat people (not loud enough for them to hear, just our amusement). Make the fun of it you can with the people around you, is what I learned.