Comments on: Your Take: Your First Job?

By: CJ

CJ — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 05:28:22 +0000

Aside from a paper route for many years…Taco Bell. Good times.

By: jillianlou

jillianlou — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:21:02 +0000

Working at a leadership conference for $800/11 day session (4 sessions during the summer) – and all expenses paid (housing, food, travel). It was the summer before college, and I spent every single dollar of that money on god knows what freshman year…if only I knew then what I know now!

By: Jane

Jane — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:09:16 +0000

I had one of those easier first jobs. Lifegaurd at a Lake in county park. I think I started out at $6.50/hr because it was “skilled” labor. So yes I got tan for two summers and during that time only 1 rescue was preformed.

By: Deby

Deby — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:00:15 +0000

I had several “pre-jobs” before I was old enough to have a “real job”: worked in a dog boarding kennel; mucked out horse corrals; a little babysitting; and worked in the school cafeteria during lunch, that I remember getting a whole 14 bucks a week for. My first “real job” was at the same McDonald’s my mother was working at at the time. Paid for my second horse, so not a bad job at all

By: Corporate Barbarian

Corporate Barbarian — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:19:16 +0000

I also had a paper route. My next job was at a miniature golf course, where I did maintenance work such as mowing the lawn, dumping garbage, etc. I held that one through high school and college. I miss working in the fresh air!

By: Erin

Erin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:35:24 +0000

Ok, I will eventually learn to proof before I post…I just realized that i misspelled paid. Twice. Yikes.

By: Erin

Erin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:34:00 +0000

Ok, dont laugh at me, but I didn’t actually get my first job (not counting babysitting once a month in high school) until I was in college. But hey, give me a break, I spent every summer starting my sophomore year in high school taking college classes at the local junior college.

An older lady from church payed me $10-11/hour cash to clean her house (it was only about 6-10 hours a week) when I was a freshman. But my first real job and interview was for a job as a mentor to first generation college students when I was a junior in college. It payed $10/hour and I got to work 10-15 hours a week. Wasn’t too bad when I added it to scholarship refunds…

By: DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad

DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:00:58 +0000

My first job was a business– cutting lawns. I then diversified to cutting lawns and delivering newspapers.

By: ddan7

ddan7 — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:10:41 +0000

My first job was using a pressure washer to clean out a pig barn. I would come home literally covered in pig crap. I did this for a few months until I started milking cows for a different neighbor. I would then come home covered in cow crap which -believe it or not- was 100 times better! I milked cows for 6 years.

By: Sandy

Sandy — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:23:39 +0000

My first job was at a New Orleans’ department store, Maison Blanche, slightly before the age of 16 (they never asked me to prove my age) working as a hostess in the restaurant. The place was so small that when it was busy, we put small groups together at larger tables. Some people said, “We won’t share.” OK, back to the line. I eventually worked in sales in various departments but don’t remember how much I made. I was offered a permanent job but my mother said to the woman, “She’s going to college.”

By: Kim McGrigg

Kim McGrigg — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:09:31 +0000

My first job was pulling weeds at a resort. My training consisted of: find weed, pull weed. I was hoping to make my way up to flower waterer, but the mosquitoes and sunburn foiled my plans!

Thanks for the opportunity to reminisce!

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:48:55 +0000

I actually worked at a blockbuster at 16 It was OK for a while, but it sucked to only get paid under $6 an hour and we were not allowed to sit, even when the store was empty. What made it worse is that the manager did nothing but sit in the back of the store and talk on the phone. I learned that I didn’t want to have a retail position for my full-time job in life.

By: Donna Freedman

Donna Freedman — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:22:09 +0000

At 8 or 9, my best friend and I picked strawberries and flowers and sold them in front of her house.
At 11, I got my first babysitting job: 75 cents an hour.
At 13, I picked tomatoes for $1.35 an hour. I felt rich!
“Real” jobs were hard to come by because I lived in a rural area and didn’t have a car. But at 17 I got a weekend job in a bakery, working from 11 p.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Saturday, and then from 11 p.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Sunday. Yawn.
At 18, I got a summer job in the glass factory. Shift work, lots of overtime, little sleep.
Since then: Housecleaner, typesetter, secretary, clerk, newspaper reporter, freelance writer, mystery shopper, handyma’am, subject of medical experiments, apartment house manager, personal finance columnist. Still doing child care off and on, but now I earn $10 to $12 an hour. Times change.

By: Kristen from FiLife

Kristen from FiLife — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:42:54 +0000

I was 16 when I had my first job where I clocked in and clocked out and collected an official paycheck. I taught soccer and tennis at the local tennis club. It was probably one of the most fun jobs I’ve ever had.

By: Ronni

Ronni — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:17:33 +0000

My first job- other than babysitting and paper routes- was being a maid at a local motel. I cleaned the motel rooms the summer between my JR and SR years and the summer after graduation. I made about $5 per hour. And I learned that people are slobs when someone else is cleaning up after them. Also walked in on a few things my young eyes probably shouldn’t have seen. I also learned to clean a bathroom in 6 minutes! A skill that I have kept to this day!