What was your first ever job?

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Mike Rotch

Mike Rotch

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MistaX's thread gave me the idea for this thread.

What was the first job you ever had?

Mine was in the holiday between graduating from high school and going to university. I was hired as a "Multiple Housesitter". Basically I got assigned 10 or so properties for the holidays, to look after. The owners were on holiday and it was my job to feed the pets, collect the mail, open and close curtains in the morning/evening for each property etc. It was ok, except for the driving around (no aircon + summer = :hot: ).

Two memorable events included a black cat called Boots and two hungry dogs (A German Shepard and some sort of mongrel).

The house with Boots was supposed to be an easy affair. Go twice a day, play with the cat, feed it, leave. Except I arrived one afternoon to find Boots had thoughtfully vomitted up mornings breakfast all over the lounge carpet, attracting vast quantites of ants. Wasnt fun explaining this "plausible" reason for the stain on the carpet to the owner on his arrival back.

The other occasion, the owner hadnt fed the two dogs for two days prior to my arrival on the scene. So i stick my hand over the gate to unlock it from the inside and find two seethingly angry dogs trying to get some lunch. Took me an hour to figure out how to calm them down. Had to eventually resort to pepper spray. Lousy owner. :grumpy:

I eventually got the sack because I tried to dispose of one owner's Labradors and Collies "landmines" by throwing them into the plants in the garden instead of pooper-scooping them. The owner found out my harebrain scheme, and that was that. :D
 
Grease monkey at a Toyota dealership where I got to wash/check/test new vehicles such as the Toyota Kluger, Toyota mr2 spyder, Lexus SC430 and so forth.

Best job ever, even though I didn't get paid for it.
 
Mine was quite mundane.
I spent a good deal of my 15th summer painting my chiropractor's office building.
My best after-school/part-time gig was working at an ice skating rink.
I got to drive the Zamboni, and the place was loaded with teen-aged girls in those short figure-skating outfits.:D
 
Lawn Mowing.

Still, to this day I love the smell of fresh cut grass. No, the kind on your lawn.

It was great. I was outside, working on my tan, getting exercise and getting paid. I'd time myself on each lawn and keep a book. Just to track improved times.

AO
 
kikkoman
Did anyone else notice that this thread was closed for some time?

Or no?
Click to expand...

I did.... :odd:

Anyway - My first "real" job was helping out in a hifi store - and being the age of 13 IIRC, it was as close to heaven as one could get !.... 7 weeks in a summer holiday..
 
Der Alta
Lawn Mowing.

Still, to this day I love the smell of fresh cut grass. No, the kind on your lawn.

It was great. I was outside, working on my tan, getting exercise and getting paid. I'd time myself on each lawn and keep a book. Just to track improved times.
Click to expand...
Easy to see where your interest in OLR comes from :lol:
 
Embarassing but my first job was at a Jewelry store... I was the only guy too. The only good thing about it was making gobs of money. Then my sorry ass wasted it all on crap. :rolleyes:
 
Well, I've never had a 'real' job, but I have worked for my dad. My job for him was painting machines and sweeping the floors at his shop. It was probably the crappiest job I will ever have, I couldn't stand how mundane and repetitive it was.
 
14 years old I worked as a "floor boy" in a sweater factory. I had to say I was 18 to get the job. i know from that job were the term "sweat shop" comes from , I had to supply the piece workers with material and since the materials all paid different and were different to cut, you may think they broke my stones and you would be correct. I had money at the end of the summer and a great appreciation for what people would go through to make a living.
 
When I was fourteen I worked at the deli in the local supermarket. Yep, fourteen and working the meat slicer. I got fired after a week for eating a piece of salami whille helping a customer. I've worked continuously for the past 19 years.
 
Sunday Paperboy... did that for 5 years...

Also did a thursday paperround for free papers... but got the sack after about 2 years cos I wasn't delivering them to peoples doors... (I was delivering them to a field!!)

Then I worked in a convienience shop... then a pub... and now there are too many other jobs to count!!

C.
 
Last summer, I had a job working for my parents as a press operator. I spent 2 months operating a Heidelberg two color printing press. I REALLY enjoyed the job. I didn't have to report to my brother, and I had my own discretion on most of the print jobs that came into my hands. In addition to that, the pay was fricking awesome - $25 an hour... but the job was tiring. I had to pull a couple of 14 hour shifts because of a couple of rush orders. Overall, I really liked running the thing and in the end, I was wishing that the guy I was replacing could come back from his holiday a bit later.

This summer, I didn't get to run the press :(. Instead, I had to replace the graphic artist who, decided to slack off and get fired. I didn't get her paychecks (but my parents did cover my tuition)... this time around and the demand on me from my brother was unbearable.

Now i'm doing grunt work and stocking for a computer store until the morons from the corporate office get their act together and let the local managers set up the store in a way that makes sence. Once that's done, i'm going to be a salesperson
 
I worked for one of my uncles assembling 'IBM clones', as they were called at the time. I put together XT/AT 286s and 386s made to order, all from cheap knock off parts. That was back when you could make a mint off selling hardware. I also went with him to various wholesale trade shows to sell the stuff. That was cool, but the hours were lousy.

Ah.. the good old days of the AT.. 8088... 80286... 8, 12 mhz CPUs... 8 and 16 bit ISA slots... CGA/EGA graphics... the 'turbo' clockspeed switch on the case... haha. I was Da Man when I got my 386/16 with a 1 MB VGA card.


M
 
I worked at Wnedy's. I could barely undertand what anyone was saying there... that was one job ago...
 
Counselor at a Boy Scout winter camp. I had a blast and the kids all seemed to like me. The pay was crap though.
 
kikkoman
Did anyone else notice that this thread was closed for some time?

Or no?
Click to expand...
When it's 6am, and you're running well towards a 50 hour work week, and very little sleep, that "Close thread" button is a might bit close to the "Submit Post" button.

Sorry about that.

AO
 
Babysitting for my old elemntary school. It was great, I basically got paid $20 for playing basketball with a bunch of 6 year-olds for 2 hours on 8ft high rims. If they got sick of basketball, we'd pop in a Disney Classic. They stopped calling me lsat year, though, because the PTO presidents daughter turned 14, so she could run it.
 
I wash tow trucks and wreckers for a guy I've known since I was 4. Pay isn't too good, but it's about the only thing I can do at 15. Plus I can pick my own hours. 👍
 
First odd job would have been babysitting and cutting grass/shovel driveway

But my first "real" job which is where I currently am, working at a grocery store doing B!#ch work
 
Computer technician. It was fun even though it was only for the summer and consisted mostly of moving and rebuilding computers.
 
My first steady job was at an autoparts store. The only thing I remember about it was the unique autoparts store smell it had, and the Dr. Pepper machine I used frequently to mix with my Jack Daniels. Lucky there was a pizza parlor right next door, and the smell of autoparts store, and pizza parlor still to this day permeates my sense of smell.
 
milefile
When I was fourteen I worked at the deli in the local supermarket. Yep, fourteen and working the meat slicer. I got fired after a week for eating a piece of salami whille helping a customer. I've worked continuously for the past 19 years.
Click to expand...
Brilliant. I would totally tip you, just for that. Even if you didn't normally get tips.
I worked this last summer (I'm fifteen) doing some load testing and data collection and market research for CarsDirect.com. That's what the resumé says, anyway.
Now I teach little kids to read.
 
Mine first was 6mths ago. (Im 14) I brought Swap Magic and Slide card sets from auction sites for about $35NZ and sold them through the clasified add paper(Where the un-computer literate go) for $75NZ. I have stopped now becasue it was a bit to much effort but I earnt enough for a 32inch TV for my room and a nice big stero system :D
 

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