Your first job ever.

[HaiducFolken]

Working at a pizza place. It was good just because I had like 4 friends from school who also worked there, plus there was a lot of downtime.

 

[Vanilla Gorilla]

A milk round when I was 14, I got 5 quid for an hour and a halfs work (oh and a curly wurly, in fact there was a bidding war between the 2 local milkmen, I took that particular round because of the Curly Wurly... actually the same would still apply to any job now)

 

[ace_of_something]

A milk round when I was 14, I got 5 quid for an hour and a halfs work (oh and a curly wurly, in fact there was a bidding war between the 2 local milkmen, I took that particular round because of the Curly Wurly... actually the same would still apply to any job now)

what the heck is a curly wurly?

 

[MarsProbe]

My first job was working for Royal Mail in one of their big sorting centres.

I worked in the evening and the weekends so it fitted in well with my university timetables. The pay was good for while I was at uni and they paid double time if you worked on a sunday It could be quite tiring, especially as I often went straight from uni and you were often on your feet for most of the shift hauling heavy bags of post around. You always knew you were in for a hard slog if you were put in the warehouse .

I eventually had to leave as when it came to extending to my temporary contract, they could only offer me a day shift during the week, which clashed with my uni classes. Hence, I had to leave, that was after just under 2 years.

 

[photog212]

I pose to you what was your first occupation? Tell us about it, was it great? Terrible? Why?d you have to leave?
Not counting my paper route from when I was 12. My first job was when I was 14 going on 15. My father was/is a steel salesmen. Like most steel salesmen his works out of an office attached to a mill.
They needed someone to help clean. My first job was not just a janitor but a janitor?s assistant. When I got out of school my oldest brother (who worked as a welder) would drive me there.
Basically, I cleaned the bathrooms and helped clean the duct work because the two janitors were too heavy and inflexible to do that.

Do you have any idea how dirty the air ducts at a steel mill get? I?m pretty sure I?m still picking soot and shavings out of? places? and it?s been about 15 years since I had that job. I would have to ride a cherry picker (I?ll admit it that part was fun) and use a telescopic dust mop and wire brush. Thankfully they hired a special company to clean out the inside.
The men?s room was a horror show. Most workers have very heavy insulated suits which would have to be mostly to completely removed to use the facilities. They were covered with metal shavings, soot, and grime. They would put them wherever they could while using the facilities so every day the restrooms were covered in a thick layer of grime. The toilets ?strangely- were rarely that bad. I also had to clean the ladies room; which wasn?t as bad there were only about seven women that worked in the mill. I distinctly remember that the women?s restroom had a couch in it. I found this odd.
I asked my dad ?Why is there no couch in the men?s restroom??
He replied ?I hope I?m raising you well enough that if you saw a couch in a men?s room you would have the sense to NEVER touch it.?
I said thoughtfully ?touché?

Once I turned 15 I got a job at an Old Navy clothing store because it was walking distance from my house.


EDIT: I realize there's many younger people who might not have a job yet; in which case. Tell us what you hope your first gig to be or what it will likely be.

That's nothing. I worked in an asphalt recycling plant. Hot, smelly, exhausting work. When I was tasked with cleaning the air ducts, I had to actually climb inside of them. All I got was a flashlight a paint-scraper, a rag, and a rope tied around my ankle so I could be pulled out because the duct work was to narrow to turn around in. The temperature was so hot inside of those things that once I got out the ninety degree weather felt cold. When I got home I had to bleach my shower after every use because the water flowing off of me was a nice poo-brown color. Three months after I left, I would still be coughing up black slimy globules. Nothing says "good morning" like a pillow covered in tar mucus.

 

[deadsparrow]

first job..i cleaned pools in florida durin a summer, think i was 17. it was an alright job. i had a killer tan. had a few fights with some snakes. and ruined 3 pairs of shorts because of the chlorine. decent pay too 9 dollars an hour. wake up at 6am work till 5. wouldnt mind doing it again if it werent for the fact that i hate florida.

 

[Mask of 1000 Faces]

I was a dishwasher at a local italian place...

I lasted a week.

 

[sky14kemea]

when i was 16 i volunteered in a charity shop, but i had to leave after 5 weeks because i had a huge panic attack and almost fainted
i went the week afterwards, but i got dizzy again so i had to quit

 

[JokerGrin]

I covered my mate's paper round once. Monday to Saturday, so six days work. The pay? £5! Fuck off. I know as a 13 year old I don't have many outgoings, but £5 doesn't buy that many football stickers and I still hadn't got all the shineys.

 

[J-Man]

At 14, repackaging and relabelling products for John Frieda.

 

[Corven]

Working for my father who was the Maintenance Supervisor for the Hampton Inn & Suites, suffice to say I had to do everything no one else would, most of my time was spent in the parking lot picking up fast food garbage people threw on the ground from the Del Taco right next door to the Hotel.

The worst part was when I had to go into the gravel pit and clean out all the Hobo garbage, *shudders*, you don't want to know what kind of shit I've found hanging in bags from the trees down there, oh wait I've already told you, and sometimes I swear there was at least a few hundred dollars worth of recyclable beer cans and glasses ledt down there as well.

 

[TMAN10112]

I worked for a few months at a drop-off store for a local dry cleaners. Some customers were borderline retarded, the system worked like crap, my boss was the biggest asshole I have ever met in my life, and (even though I was the only employee who did what they were asked to do) I got blamed for any possible mistakes, even though I wasn't the one screwing stuff up.

In the end, the pay was okay (minimum wage) but not worth putting up with everyone(mostly my boss). My only regret is that I got fired before I was planning to quit (I was going to scream "I quit!" at him and walk out by the end of the week, depending on how everything went).

Luckily, I didn't have to get revenge myself, because karma finally caught up with him and the store tanked (failed), and one of his (ex)customers flipped out on him and nearly knocked him out only about two months after I left.

 

[poet_lawreate]

My first job was at 16, I worked in a speciality tea and coffee shop, grinding the coffee beans and dispensing knowledge. Was great, because the products were delicious and the clientele were delightfully pretentious.

 

[EeveeElectro]

Cafe.
Terrible.
Left because they treat me like crap.
Did it to get Christmas presents at 15.
Yet people still say 15 year olds are too lazy to get jobs.

 

[dalek sec]

A few years back, I worked at St. Jude as a data entry temp for about two years. I was let go because my time there ran out but enjoyed the work I did.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

I'm 16, no job yet. Did do a week of school-enforced Work Experience however. Fixed & Repainted motorcycles. Was damn cool - especially the shuffly chinese guy on thursday lunchtime who sells porn (every week apparently - it's also why the tv was taken away).

 

[Sewer Rat]

I worked at a retirement home as a waiter in the home restaurant. I was fired after about 13 work days for no apparent reason. Probably because one of the people training me was a complete ***** who hated me almost as much as I hated her and had a lot of sway with the bosses (I'm still preparing for the day we cross paths in the school hallway). Well at any rate I hate the placeand I am currently accepting donations of wild rats to loose in their kitchens.

 

[Ace of Spades]

I watered my neighbor's plants when I was 10 years old. Made a good amount of cash doing that.

 

[scotth266]

I was a buffet server at 16.
It was pretty good I guess. It taught me the value of hard work, using money properly, etc.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Planting chrysanthemums in a huge greenhouse when I was...12 or something. Only did it for a couple of weeks. It was almost literally backbreaking work. I was already pretty tall when I was 12, and had a pretty weak back, so sitting on a metal tube on my knees for hours on end planting tiny saplings wasn't exactly the job for me. Paid pretty good if you were good at it (you get payed for each box of flowers you plant; the faster you plant, the more cash you get), hence why it was a pretty popular job among local teens although it was illegal. That kind of work is getting done by Polish worker immigrants now, and they can do it legal ;-) Hence why I started working at the local supermarket as a jack-of-all-trades when I was 15, still work there (18 now). Pays....decent-ish, 3.56 euro's an hour.