What was your first job?

[ghostofdavid]

Paper boy. I was about 12.

I've had a job just about ever since with the exception of a few times in college.

Now that I've graduated, I've had the same job for two and a half years. I still have no idea what I want to do or what I want to be. Are the two different? Yes, I think.

 

[MTpilot]

Started bussing tables at 15. Worked my way up to waiting tables by the end of high school.

Funny to think that at 24, I'm still waiting tables even though I have two other jobs and a degree. It's just such easy money.

 

[Spyk'd]

I hotdipped end mill tips and acid etched the part number on their sides, by hand.

I was 16. Best summer EVER!

:cross:

 

[david_42]

Paper boy. Started about 10 and had 3 routes by 13. And I worked in the local library re-shelving books.

 

[Ryanh1801]

Mowed yards and such when I was younger. The day I turned 16 I got a job at sonic as a cook.. Worse job I ever had, quit after 5 weeks when I almost got into a fight with another cook who did not like white boys.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Actual first real paying job after delivering papers was a shoe shine boy (early-mid 60s), shelf stocker at a hardware store, shelf stocker/bagger at a grocery store, busboy, bartender, cooks' assistant (not an assistant cook)telegraph deliverer (on a 10-speed) for Western Union, vacuum operator (pulls moisture out of salt water taffy), orderly at the hospital then the Army. . .

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Not counting my paper route and lawnmowing jobs when I was 12, I was the guy that put the books back on the shelf at the public library when I was 15. That was the first one that actually provided a paycheck where they took out taxes, etc.

 

[TxBrew]

Dishwasher at a country eatery.

 

[Professor Frink]

If you don't count paperboy, then it was a this little mom and pop bagel shop when I was 15. Later, I used to go in at 2 am to make the bagels. Best job I ever had.

 

[BierMuncher]

1974.
Southern suburb of Kansas City, Belton.

Greasy spoon called "Snack Shack".

I was a short-order cook. Place was renound for their deep fried tacos and intalian steak sandwiches.

We used to slice the french fried potatoes by hand.

Turns out...the place is still in business and still does a great volume of thier fried tacos.

 

[olllllo]

Worked at my parents grocery store since I was 10.
Milw Co Lifeguard was my first real job.

 

[Catfish]

manually "nursing" farm animals for artificial insemination

 

[Catfish]

I meant to say dishwasher, followed by picker (buying vintage clothes from goodwills and garage sales for resale) and then ice cream man.

 

[wild]

My first summer job was lifeguard at a privately owned public pool once I passed my certification. (I was only 10).
My first paycheck jobs were lawn maintenance at a church. Mowing 2 acres with a push mower and of course the obligatory newspaper route both started when I turned 12.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

I was the guy that misted down the supermodels before photoshoots.

 

[Neomich]

Projectionist at a movie theater in high school. That job rocked! We got away with so much mischief. You ever seen a 30 minute long trailer? Or how about single frames of eyes wide shut spliced into the sesame street movie and any other "G" rated films? The highlight of my career there was the "disappearance" of an entire print of star wars and all the related marketing supplies, including a life sized replica of Yoda. Even the management was involved with that one. And +1 on the concession/user chicks. Lots of dark places and high school hormones are a good mix.


Best. Job. Ever. Too bad it didn't pay well, but when I retire, I know where I'll be applying again.

 

[the_bird]

manually "nursing" farm animals for artificial insemination

"It's important to have a job that matters, boys."

 

[FlyingHorse]

At age 8 or 9, I used to sub for my friend's paper route when he went on vacation.

My first "real" job was clubhouse attendant at the local country club...1$/hr, started on my 12th b-day. Schlepping clubs for self-important members ("dude, it's a 9-hole course carved out of a cornfield in Indiana...get over yourself already"), running the register in the pro shop, taking care of the carts, etc.

Free golf, and some wild after-hours adventures with the carts (well, they seemed wild when I was 12), including flipping one into a shallow creek during an ill-advised high-speed sidehill corner...

 

[quickerNu]

My first job was washing and detailing cars at a car dealership on weekends and during summers through my high school years. I've probably washed a couple thousand cars by hand.

Needless to say, I hate washing cars now, and use car washes exclusively.

Ugh, I did that for a year. My dad was Service Manager at a Mazda/ Jeep/ Eagle lot. $4.25 an hour for washing cars by hand on a blacktop lot in the Texas heat. We would take bets in the morning on if the time/temp display would get over 115. That Job beat my true first job- laying sod. Half the crew were ex-cons, half high school football players. Started With Harley the day after graduation from high school, been with them ever since other than my 2 year attempt to actually use my Agronomy Degree to make money.

I did take a couple extra campus jobs at A&M to pay the bills. I worked in a vet lab as a weekend necropsy assistant (animal autopsy). Best paying job on campus for a reason! You haven't lived until you've stood IN a Clydesdale shoveling out its intestines. Man, the stories......

 

[user 574]

Pre-16 it was cutting grass, paper routes.

16-17 me and a buddy maintained the house / horse ranch for a major stock holder in Briggs and Stratton. Her grandfather the accountant pulled them out of bankruptcy when they were getting started for 40% ownership. She was an ugly fat bearded lady who apparently liked teenage boys. Never touched me but I think my friend was getting paid for other stuff besides shoveling horse sh!t. Gross.

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

1974.
Southern suburb of Kansas City, Belton.

Greasy spoon called "Snack Shack".

I was a short-order cook. Place was renound for their deep fried tacos and intalian steak sandwiches.

We used to slice the french fried potatoes by hand.

Turns out...the place is still in business and still does a great volume of thier fried tacos.

I always thought deep fried tacos were a myth.....

 

[JeepGuy]

Started a paper route around age 12, pretty easy route, it was in a retirement home a few blocks from my house, didn't have to roll the papers or anything, just drop them in front of the door. At 15 I drove the golf ball picker at a local driving range for a summer before I started work at McDonalds. I hated Mickey-D's. Loved the job driving the golf ball picker though. Delivered pizza for a bit, cut meat for a bit in a grocery store, and am now a draftsman for a mechanical engineering firm.

 

[FatMonsters]

First job was at a local sandwich shop at age 16. I stayed at this place for way too long, into my junior year of college...Looking back I'm not sure why I stayed so long? After junior year, got an internship as a process engineer and it paid great for being in college!! Been in the engineering work world since...

 

[TheJadedDog]

Worked at a movie theatre in high school. Talk about an interesting scene; most of the other staff were in college, I went to some wicked parties.

 

[McKBrew]

My first paying job was doing yardwork for a guy for 4bucks an hour. I basically dug out part of his basement he was building by hand, and had to weed-eat this big axx yard with an electric weed-eater because he didn't have a mower.

Did the busboy thing at a restaurant, but that only lasted 4 days.

Worked the following summer at a fish-processing plant (tons of dead salmon), hard work with abnormal hours.

I also worked a few months in a railyard south of Fairbanks Alaska in the middle of the winter. Probably my most physically demanding job ever. I had to wire up big heavy posts frozen to the bottom of rail cars to hold loads of logs. Then I had to place heavy cables in the car. Depending on where the cables were unloaded I'd have to drag them several hundred feet through the snow. Then I had to climb up on top of these cars probably about 15 feet in the air to strap down the log loads. All of this in 20 below weather, for 7 bucks an hour. I actually kind of miss that job.

I joined the Navy 15 1/2 years ago at 137#, now I've gained about 90 and spend most of my days on my axx in a chair.