What was your first job?

busiscoming2

My first job was on a Saturday, when I was 14 working in an office. I earned 50p an hour. That was the early 70's.

Abbafan1972

I had a paper round when I was at school, which was 4 mornings a week.

When I left school in 1988 I began a YTS which led to a job with the Provincial Insurance. I was a clerk which would move around departments doing filing for claims dept, motor dept and Fire/accident, plus post room duties. I would also cover the switchboard (which I hated!). Later on I got promoted to motor dept. I ended up being there for 8 years until I got made redundant in 1997.

gsymoo

My first job was a Saturday one working in the local video library in the late 1980s. My boss and colleagues were lovely and I sat behind a counter with about 10 TVs in front of me (we sold them as well). I also got to have free videos and always got the new releases when they came out.

dogcat_2

My first job was in a jewellry workshop in Hatton Garden....loved it!

barnaclebill

First Job was in 1962 age 16, got an apprenticeship in a large shipbuilding company, it was for 5 years and started at £3 4s and 2p old money. The first year I did not get on with the other apprentices, they all smoked and did not want to work, I was keen and wanting to impress and never smoked.
At 17 broke my leg on my motorbike, was off work for 10 months and had time to reflect on things, when I went back I blended in and became accepted, it was so long I had been forgotten so I lounged around, swearing and being disrespectful (did not go so far as smoking) and survived the next 3 years.

*Robin*

First job was working for a local farmer, aged seven. Feeding the dairy-cows' calves twice a day, before and after school - no cash but my pony got free pasture and stabling.
Then in the summer holidays at harvest time, I drove Farmer's ancient combine (not on the road) while he stood on the back filling sacks and hurling them across to his son, perched on a trailer. Farmer's ten year old grandson drove the tractor which pulled it. Us kids earned a shilling an hour working from dawn to dusk - so long as we kept both vehicles close enough for the men to successfully transfer every heavy grain-sack.
Today both the farmers and my parents would probably end up with criminal records for allowing such young children to work long hours on dangerous machinery (and we'd have ended up in care of course).
In the 60s nobody blinked - Farmer trained us both well and we wouldn't have dreamed of slacking or mucking about; getting the harvest in before it rained was so important, we were very aware of the honour of being trusted to do a good - grown-up, useful - job rather than just playing with toys and getting under Mum's feet like our younger siblings.
I remember feeling so rich paying those first wages into my Post Office Savings Account! It was supposed to be a holiday fun fund, but most of it actually got spent on rescuing another pony from a research facility* who'd discarded her (my first auction - bid a tenner more than the knacker).
*Everyone who has benefited from IVF owes a small debt of gratitude to that little mare and her fellow experimentees..

trolleyrun

The worst job I ever had was in a hotel. I was employed to work dinner in the restaurant for the summer, but ended up doing breakfast (5am start), setting up for lunch, then cleaning hotel rooms, followed by lunch service in the restaurant. A couple of hours break, then dinner followed by working in the cocktail bar until 2am. I reckon I was working 16 hours a day, and in 3 months I had 3 days off in total. I ended up with pneumonia... Never again! I don't mind working hard, and I've had some seriously hard jobs in my life so far, but that one was definitely the worst.

PenguinOfDeath

Cold calling *shudder*

To be fair it was in a nice comfy office, 3 hours per shift and a good wage. Only lasted a couple of months though as I hated it therefore I was c*** at it

egoode

My first job was running a business with my brother when I was about 11 or 12. We were both competitive swimmers and used to keep breaking our swimming goggles all the time and then discovered you could actually get replacement parts (especially the nose piece) but the shops rarely sold them. So we found a supplier who used to actually send us the nose pieces for free and we would sell them for $1 each and we also sold other replacement parts and new goggles, swimming caps etc. We had low overheads as we had just a bag to carry the items around and didn't take a wage from the business but when I was 18 and stopped the business I had made $5000 and had only put in about $500 initially (gift from grandparents). Not too bad given I'd only work about an hour or two a week selling at club nights and it was only during the summer.

My first job working for someone else was at McDonald's I started working there when I was 15 and it was really fun as a lot of my friends worked there as well and they would often organise fun events for us to attend. I think it also taught me a lot of work skills like it was important to turn up on time or let someone know if I was sick or going to be late for some reason so they could find someone to cover my shift. That we needed to communicate with each other and work as part of a team. Also I just loved earning extra money that my parents had no say over what I did with it.

Gra76

Paperboy for the local newsagent who paid the princely sum of £6 per week! I worked in the newsagent for a few months after I was old enough.