What was your first job?

Hmm71

Yogibear wrote: »

I was a apprentice Jollier in a Pottery in Portobello when I was 15

I give up Yogibear, what was a Jollier? And did you become a Master Jollier?

janey183

Pick and Mix counter at Woolworths. 4 hours every Sat afternoon. Horrendous nylon dress uniform

Denene

Independent shoe shop, catering mostly to ladies of a certain age who had bunions, corns and other foot-deforming problems. Sideline in school uniforms, eighties handbags and ballroom dancing shoes. Miasma of 90 years of grime pervaded the shop. The owner ate egg-and-bacon sandwiches and ground his fag ash into the carpet.

Despite this, I quite enjoyed it. It was oddly satisfying to find shoes for customers which were comfortable for them or which matched their wedding outfit or whatever. The customers were almost all lovely: I got tipped £1 once for "putting up with your grumpy boss".

Did come home smelling of other peoples' feet, though

InsideInsurance

Working for a mail order catalogue company initially on the New Customer Services team (setting up accounts, credit checking, placing orders) when I was 15 for the princely sum of £4.01 an hour but after 6 months or so I moved across to the enquiries/ complaints team for a payrise to £4.60

For 90% of the time it was ok but unlike subsequent call centres I worked in the majority of the other staff were middle aged women.

Occasionally they would decide to try and implement stricter working conditions like clear desks other than training materials during work, no chatting other than to customers etc so when they'd badly overstaffed you were supposed to sit there in silence reading the manuals or just looking at the screen (we're talking mid 90s with green screen dumb terminals so no internet etc)

Went back for the summer holidays after first year at uni and they'd replaced the green screens with a terrible new system that was painful to use and couldnt actually deal with all queries. They;d overstaffed and blackmailed me by being told I could stay at my correct pay rate for the rest of the summer but my friend would be let go or I could take a pay cut and they'd keep us both on for the rest of the summer.

SandC

Waitress in a Toby Grill, can't remember the hourly pay but it was around £2 per hour I think. Hated it. But made me realise that waiting on is not easy peasy but really exhausting and customers can be horrid. This was at 16 just after o levels and on to FE college.

Took a cut in pay to £1.39 to go and work for a large garden centre which was a lovely job. They upped to the pay to over £2 per hour some months later as they found they were struggling to recruit and realised they weren't paying the going rate.

Turned 18 then started working in pubs at around £2.25 per hour til first full time job as a secretary at 18 nearly 19 and just worked out that my £5,500 salary worked out at £2.80 per hour so not so much of a step up.

Noctu

Sales assistant at Matalan at 16 years old, part time, £3.62/hr (2002). Horrendous and left after a month.

Sales assistant at a small-ish chain of toy shops, now in liquidation, £4-odd/hr. Better than Matalan but bad management and screaming kids (and parents!)

Stock control assistant at a head office of a large firm. Enjoyed that one but still quite restrictive despite the professional 'aura' (no mobile phones at the desk, no internet access even at breaktimes)

Sales assistant at Paperchase. Enjoyed this and loved the stationary! 50% off made it even better.

In the meantime I finished my MSc, took work as an hourly paid lecturer at two local universities. Now studying for my PhD in the field and thinking about (trying to) become a full time lecturer once qualified.

antw23uk

I worked at greyhound racing kennels when i was at school. £15 a day which was excellent in those days. shame i was always too knackered to enjoy it, lol

BillTrac

Antw23uk,

I worked at the local greyhound stadium as well(it's shut now). Part time when in term-time and full time during the holidays. The dog trainers and track bosses were right con-merchants. Feeding the dogs they didn't want to perform well milk and biscuits just before a race..:(
All the kennel maid wanted to do was go skinny-dipping:eek:

Long time ago (1972 onwards) but some quite happy memories, and not just the skinny-dipping:o. Earned £5 per week on a full-time week of which my money-grabbing mother took half! But that's another long story.

And then started an electrical apprenticeship on my 16th birthday, and now contrary to what some knobhead planks say on another thread I am in electronic security:T

busiscoming2

I worked for my dad's friend on a Saturday in his office looking up things in big ledgers. I was 14 and earned 50p an hour (it was 1977).

My first full time job at 16 was as a Clerical Assistant in the Met Police.

sweetilemon

I did Avon, it was a nightmare! The area manager dealt with so many complaints she wouldnt answer her phone, Avon never sent the goods out to me on time so always had customers complaining, never made any money until you reached a certain amount then Avon tried to claim I owed them money! The cheek. I lasted a while but what a waste of time!