What was your first job?
 

Other than babysitting, I was a ride operator at American Adventures. It's basically the kiddie section at Six Flags, but its own park. Didn't enjoy it. Didn't hate it. It paid. That's all I was there for.

Edit - oh, I was 14 when I started.

when i was 13 i got payed under the table working with my step father and grandfather roofing. oh, what fun that was.

i got confused as a mexican a lot those days.

I was 18 when I worked at an airline sending and receiving emails for the most obnoxious man in the universe.

Dear population,
It's not the techie's fault you know nothing about anything. Please do not be rude to us for doing your job better than you.
Love, Xerxys.

Golf caddie! Man did I love it. Love to do it again, but for pro's this time.

McDonalds! I worked at the busiest location in Oregon (at that time). It wasn't that bad. I quit because I didn't really need the job after summer was over.

I grew up on a farm in Southeast MO, so first "job" was in the first grade feeding and cleaning up chicken and rabbit coops. Everybody has ajob on the farm but my first job away from the farm (that wasn't working for other farmers) was at the four lane bowling alley in town. My brother and I set pins. The pins were placed by hand into the setting machine and the machine was dropped manually. We had a blast! We got hit by flying pins from time to time but you learned quick which bowlers brought the thunder!!! I think we made about $3 a game and set about 8 - 10 games a night. I started when I was 14 and did this for 3 or 4 years.

My buddy and I started a painting (houses, interior/exterior) business towards the end of high school... did that on and off for a year before university. Man the money was really good at 17!

I had a part time repairing computers at my step-dad's computer shop for 3 years during High School.

Pony breeding farm. I worked there from 16 years old until I went to college, and still did some work for her on college breaks. Coincidentally, I'm working for her again now since I haven't found full-time work.

Test subject in the Hearing & Speach Department at the University of Tennessee. The first time I ever got into the offices in Neyland Stadium. And they paid $10 an hour, which for an 11 year old in the early 80's was awesome money.

Other than delivering the Philadelphia Inquirer for a couple years, my first job was a summer job in high school when I turned 16, at Edward's Shoes on 12th & Vine downtown Philly. I was moving stock around the factory/warehouse. The minimum wage at that time was $1.10/hr so that's what they paid us.

The most interesting thing was getting to meet a few strange adults. Like Moe, who told us he drives over to South Jersey most weekends to fuck sheep at a farm...his stories sounded true to us; and Angel the short PR guy who rolled up the Daily News and stuffed it down his pants with a string tied to the end to make it move and look like he had a giant penis and all the women would giggle. One of the other high school guys I worked with was a champion level swimmer until the day he crushed his foot between the elevator and the floor and couldn't be on his swim team for a year. The place across the street on 12th made fantastic, large hoagies and sandwiches.

Youth Soccer Ref.....my mom made me quit after a coach called me a bitch. (I was 15...he was in his 40s) I red carded him and threw him out for cussing out a 7 year old boy on his team. I got a standing O from the parents from BOTH teams though.

Stuffing envelopes in a print shop as casual labour. I think I was 14 or 15.

My friend's brother worked there and from time to time they needed help.

Don't know if anyone remembers, but where I grew up on the first day of school every kid got this grey envelope to take home which contained an insurance policy for the kid - if your parents wanted to buy it.

Basically, if you died, or got your foot chopped off, your parents would collect X dollars. (My parents never bought it.)

Anyway, those envelopes came from a print factory where I toiled folding the papers by hand and inserting them into envelopes, then putting the envelopes into a box, then on a skid. You get the picture.

It was a postively Dickensonian environment in that print shop, but it paid 3 bucks an hour in 1979 or 80.

Security work at Tucson Int. Airport. Age 18-1977.

McDonald's. Back in the old paper hat days. Like Snowy, I worked in an extremely busy location. We were located on Exit 10, of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Anyone who's ever driven I-76, through Pennsylvania, knows that exits are pretty far in between. At that time, it was either us or Wendy's. There were no other fast food locations. During the summer months, it was not at all unusual to have a half dozen buses pull in, in succesion.

*raises hand*

Another McDonald's person, here.

I was 14 and wanted a horse. Mom and dad said, "Oh no. We're not buying any horses. But if you buy the horse and pay for its feed, we'll build a nice stall and corral for it."

So I saved all the babysitting money I earned, began cleaning houses for the neighbors, and, finally, lied about my age to get hired at McD's.

Heh. I don't think mom and dad really expected me to buy that horse!

Gee, Bill, I thought your first job was as the guy who handed Socrates the bowl of hemlock. I didn't know that there were McDonald's in Ancient Greece. Learn something everyday here at TFP.

Well, Jazz...while it wasn't quite that long ago, I was there for the unveiling of the very first Happy Meal. The theme for the box was the summer release of Star Trek, The Motion Picture. That was 1979. We also introduced the McChicken sandwich. But, McNuggets were not yet on the menu.

Paper route when I was 10. I used to love the still, quite, dark, mornings where I could look up at the stars.

My next job I volunteered to work in the school librabry. I would spend hours after my shift, looking though all of the really old National Geographics. Yes, I am a total nerd. :)

baling and stacking hay for a dollar an hour under the table every summer during haying season starting after 9th grade until i left home after hs graduation. damn hard work, sunup to sundown, but grew a few muscles and got some valuable experience...

I refereed hockey... and I did up to two years ago. Good exercise and if you're a hockey fan, you learn another facet of the game. And if you get good at it, you can make decent money. I would referee right before my hockey games on friday nights and I could make 100 for three hours and around 300/ weekend.

On a related tangent.....

I hired 2 university students this year to work with the company I work for for a co-op term. Both had the same job, both made the same salary. Both had completed their second year of Engineering from very good Universities here in Ontario. Both had good grades.

One had previous work experience with an Engineering firm that I know very well and he came with a good recommendation.

The other had worked at McDonalds throughout High School and even while he was studying Engineering (how he managed that I don't know.)

Anyway, the kid who had worked at McDonalds was a gem. Enthusiastic, smart, eager to work, happy to work with the crew and earned the respect of the Supervisor - a very hard to please guy.

The other guy was a disappointment. Lazy, caught sleeping on the job, unmotivated. Like it was killing him to work. We gave him several breaks and a couple of warnings along the way.

Lesson to me was that in the future when hiring University students for summer jobs (career related I might add) always hire the kid who worked at McDonalds. Lazy kids don't work at McDonalds because the work is too much. I won't make that mistake again (i.e. being impressed by a kid working in his field at a well known Engineering firm.)

I want the kid who worked at McDonalds, or who grew up on the farm.

McDonalds certainly taught me what it means to spend 8 hours on your feet, with a smile plastered on your face, while maintaining a polite attitude. It's a lesson I've put to work in many jobs since, from manufacturing fruit leather to retail to education.

I landed my first real job at 16 working for Sears as a Customer Service Rep, I kept it for close to 3 years. While I had my fun with some friends there I always somewhat regret not going for a job at McDonalds. I remember going to their Christmas parties with my friends, and bumming around there on nights when I had nothing else to do... fun times.