What/Where was your 1st job?

Part time..full time..?

Next week I'm going to start applying for my first part-time job, fun times. Any advice?

:)

8 - 5, Mon. - Fri., minimum wage. :)

I made $4 and hour which I thought was good money at the time because it was 65 cents above minimum wage. I was 16.

quit after working 12 hour day with only a single 15 minute break

goes out of style. It will set you apart from the rest and, imho, can be one of the most important keys to success. BTW, ANYONE that you are servicing is a customer (such as patients are the Drs. customers, clients are an attorneys customers, students are a school administrators customers, book buyers are the book seller customers, on and on). My whole point is that I've been in the career education business for a long time (a good part of that time I was the Director of Career Services) and all of the research I've done proves that great customer service is critical. GOOD LUCK!!!!!! (oh yea, my first job was a bagger at a grocery store).

great minds . . . :hi:

for the customer service advice; I can definately see the importance in that. :)

For a restaurant. Namely Don Pablo's a Tex-Mex restaurant pretty big in the South and Southeast. Food service industry is . . . interesting. At the very least, navigating a restaurant full of people while carrying dishes, helps you to develop good coordination and balance, as well as hone your periphereal vision.

All I had to do was yell "Get your scorecards and peanuts here!" and I got to see ALL the home games FREE! I sold cokes to Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams once when they were BS'ing outside the locker room. Best job EVER!

Don't turn down a job in fast food just because it might be a cliche. I learned A LOT in my 2 years (while high school) at Del Taco. I learned how to make "Mexican" fast food, yeah, but more importantly I learned how to work with people, and I learned invaluable customer service skills that serve me to this day.

Whatever you do, try to learn EXCELLENT customer service skills. They'll come into play in SO many ways over the course of your life.

Good luck! :hi:

Man, it sucked. I lost a ton of weight having to see what they do to food before they serve it to people. NASTY.

:puke:

1983

That was for a friend. My first job for a company, where I got a real paycheck, was sorting negatives for a photo processing company (Drewry Photocolor). It payed $2.90/hr, plus a .10 shift differential because it was the swing shift. It was the summer after my freshman year in college. I HATED it...and have pretty much hated every job since.

Every single person should work food service at least once in their lives. Plus... I got all free food. For a kid about 16 or 17 years old, that's worth more than gold.

back when one huge computer needed it's own room and air conditioner ... long long time ago while I was still in high school

Really, I think that it is an awful first job for children if they have to collect. Some people just wouldn't pay. Some even lied and said that they paid and there was nothing that I could do to prove otherwise. A few even threatened me. I am really suprised that there haven't been high profile murders, assults on newspaper delivery children. Collecting in person can be a high risk activity.

I had one hard-sell on my route who didn't like to pay. Other than that, everyone else I had to collect from were peachy. Most sent their money into the paper though. Then there were the perks around Christmas of tips and even better, gifts of baked goods from the grandmothers whose paper I would put on the porch for them.

Another perk: the really hot girl a grade above me who answered the door once wearing nothing but a towel.

TlalocW

I do remember having to wear snow boots and snow suit as I walked my route on Fort Richardson in Anchorage Alaska. I also remember being really happy when I got paid for the first time.

$5 a day plus room and board. I was 12.:) We lived on a ranch in Nebraska.

Mowing lawns and selling Olympic Cards to get prizes, I became a paper deliverer in 8th grade. I grew up in a small farming community in Kansas, and in between 6th and 7th grade, Dad asked me, "What would you think about me getting you and your brother a little motorcycle?" By little motorcycle he meant mo-ped. I really wasn't for or against it as I was the school nerd - more into computers even back then, but he got us one (Old Yeller - it was yellow and prone to dying on us, and I wanted to shoot it eventually)... and then another (Blue Thunder - was blue and had no muffler)... and then got us jobs as paperboys after he put some big ol' chickenwire baskets on the back of the mopeds.

So I started in 8th grade - driving around town at 3 in the morning before I had a license. The cops didn't care - they knew we were good kids, and we gave them a free paper whenever we ran across them.

Did it until I went to college, and the first semester there, I would consistently sit up straight in bed at 3 in the morning, think to myself, "I've got to go deliver papers," look around and see where I was then go back to sleep.

TlalocW

at Cheng Sen Chinese Smorgy.

Working for my Dad... I was a Data entry... kept his checkbook balanced and pretty much just entered information for his bussiness accounts. Problem was I was too quick for my own good (Without trying to be quick) so never really worked that many hours.

Since my paper delivery job only consumed an hour in the very early morning, I would get extra jobs during the summer. One time I went into Manpower Temporary Services in Wichita. I had just gotten done helping my brother-in-law tear something down so I was sweaty and grimey. They looked at me and asked, "Are you here to apply for manual labor?" I said, "No, I'd like to try your office skills tests." They looked at me like I was crazy.

Then I shattered every record they had for speed and accuracy on each test. :)

TlalocW

Best job I ever had. I worked my way up to lifeguard the next summer. Woo-hoo!

I think I was 16...I did a lot of crappy scut work like making beds and cleaning sheets after patients left and would have to get hot packs and stuff ready for the PTs. That job confirmed the notion that I didn't want to be a PT...soooooo boring!

Farm jobs were the only one's available to a 14yr old. Learned one important thing working in the fields. That I wanted a job that was not in the fields. But for 8 weeks in the summer, 48hrs/wk it was decent money considering I was just a kid.

my first real paycheck type job was working as a short order cook in a bar. My dad moonlighted there as a bartender and got me the job, but I wasn't allowed to be seen because you had to be 21 to work in a bar then and I was 18.

....clerical for Brown & Root/Northrup, NASA contractor, in 1964. I got paid $350 a month which seemed like really a lot back then.

When I was 13, I went to work at a riding stable in exchange for lessons. I worked full time in the summer and part time during the school year.

When I was 15, I went to work for actual money (!) - my job was to keep up the salad bar at a local restaurant. That was part time but I still worked at the stable as well.

Advice - ALWAYS show up to work your scheduled shift on time. So many people are habitually late and punctuality makes a big impression.

Don't bring your home problems to work and don't bring your work problems home.

Look for things to do at work. Don't wait to be told. When someone tells you to do something as part of your job, don't ever make them tell you again - remember it and do it all the time. You will earn a reputation as a hard worker and a dependable employee.

Don't expect work to be fun all the time. Don't expect to always like it. But try to stay positive and find something to enjoy about it.

Good luck! :hi:

I went into the Army the next year.

It lasted four months.

LOL! I laugh when I think about it.

And no, it's really NOT any fun. Gawd, it was horrible. Hurry up, put this on, hurry up take it off! Hurry up put this on!

Stumble, trip, fall, stumble, trip, fall, SMILE!! LOOK GOOD!!! SHAKE IT!! WALK WALK WALK WALK!!!

Hurry take it off, hurry put this on.

For TWELVE FUCKING HOURS.

It was only sporadic work, AND I hated it. Quit after a month.

Blech. Didn't even get to keep any of the ZZ Top-fabulous clothes, either.

I was a Bean Boy

Don't do it-it's just not worth it. You will never eat there again.

I was 14 y/o. Worked 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 in the blazing sun. Hated it..quit after two days. My advice...think of something you like to do and then get a job doing it or something related to it.

Good Luck!!:hi:

Great old Democratic paper; sadly long gone now.