What was your first job?

[simplydamon]

My first job was at a pizza place. I lasted about one month there because my boss was driving me crazy (or, as is probably more accurate, my teenage hormones were in play).

I've made it a point not to work at a restaurant since that point. I find the work to be extremely hard for extremely low play.

As the community expects, I do have some stories from the place to share :D

My favorite:
1. The pizza place was a gourmet pizza place in California.
2. Being a gourmet pizza place meant that our prices were actually quite high for a pizza place.
3. A customer called to ask how much a pizza would cost. I gave him a ballpark estimate because he was ordering a bunch of expensive toppings on the pizza (seafood).
4. He came in to get his pizza.
5. The order came to about 50.00.
6. The guy blew a gasket;)

***While not directly tied to me, a friend of mine did come in and apply for the job. While he was talking to the potential boss standing behind the counter, he started to, errr..., relieve himself while interviewing (he was on the other side of the counter from where the boss was). The boss did not "hear" what was going on while a puddle was slowly dripping down the other side of the counter.

I won't mention what my friends did to the pizza sauce.

[George]

Mental not never visit that gourmet pizza place in California...haha.

The first job I got was at a chinese restaurante...man that was some hard work for pennies. Since than I will never work in a restaurante again. Knock on wood. :D I would only go to eat...hehe.

[simplydamon]

The pizza place is no longer in business:) Even though it was in a expensive area of California, I do think that the cost of the product probably led to its demise.

I can imagine a Chinese restaurant to be very grueling. It would be worth it, however, if they gave you some free meals (I am as sucker for dumplings & pork buns).

[George]

That was the benefit...all the free chinese food...hehe.

[scifi4me2004]

I ran a babysitting business with a bit of house sitting thrown in when I was 10 and went to work in a supper club as a dish washer at 12. My babysitting business did real good, lasted 6 yrs. My supper club job lasted 2 mths. Back then I think a kid couldn't be in a liquor establishment after a certain hour. My parents did not know that??? but I was working til 2 am both friday and saturday nights, someone blew the whistle and that job went poof! :p

[lifesab-andthenyoudie]

I started babysitting when I was about 11 or 12. But my first real paying job was assisting the coach at a summer tennis clinic. I think I was about 15. The next summer, I worked as a lifeguard at a country club. That was fun. A few years later, I got a job as a camp counselor at an overnight camp for very wealthy families. These parents would drop their kids (as young as FIVE) for 8 weeks while they toured Europe, or something. I taught tennis there, too.


I always wanted to get a job lifeguarding at the beach, but the competition was fierce. Hence, the chambermaid job.

[lifesab-andthenyoudie]

The camp wasn't for families, it was for kids. But the kids' parents were insanely wealthy. And bratty too.

[kd5145]

If I remeber correctly I worked at a grocery store. But I think that only lasted a short time. :)

[simplydamon]

I have also worked at a grocery store. Very hard work, work that was made more hard by the fact that it was in Florida (getting carts in that humidity...ick).

[kd5145]

I don't remember the work being so hard. Although, I wasn't out there busing carts and stocking shelves either. I think it was more like I was 15 and hadn't realized that you don't like everyone you work with. :)

[simplydamon]

"Although, I wasn't out there busing carts and stocking shelves either."

I had to do that as well. Actually, you just reminded me of a funny story from that job. I will think about posting it

[kd5145]

We all love a juicy story. Bring it on!

[simplydamon]

One of my jobs at this place, unfortunately, was also cleaning the bathrooms (male and female) at the store. A fairly attractive female co-worker happened to come in one day while I was cleaning the bathrooms (the bathrooms were far away from the rest of the store). I could swear she was hitting on me, as she kept on asking me to "check" something that she spilled on her uniform & having me touch the affected area (lower body region).

Being young and naive, something which I am to this day, I kind of got freaked out about her asking me to keep on "checking" this area. I ran out of the bathroom as quickly as I could. In hindsight, I probably could have had a much "better" story to tell if I understood what she really wanted.

[kd5145]

Well, hindsight is always 20/20. :)

[simplydamon]

"Well, hindsight is always 20/20."

Mine is more like 14/17. While probably not a real number, my ability with hindsight meets the low expectations I set for myself:)

[kd5145]

Thanks for that. I just had soda come out my nose. :)

[Parklane64]

Ah, night shift at Jack-in-the-box when I was 16. My first 'real' job. Not including shoveling driveways, delivering papers, selling seeds, or helping my Dad as an electrician.

[hyena8]

I sold pizza, sandwiches and wedgies.

Have a lifelong chronic hip problem due to a stupid *BLEEPING* co-worker who left a puddle of grease on the floor and I fell and my right hip twisted out of the socket. Yet I continued to work there until my car wreck.

I hate working with food!!

I also worked in 2 delis. I would die rather than work there again!!

[Wysiwyg101]

Ok, probably doesn't sound too original, but since I actually worked for this old guy, I like to think of it as my first real job. I had a schedule, I had a specific salary, and I worked for someone else.

Imagine if you will, West Texas (Odessa to be more exact) in the summer. All the dry heat that you could want and then some. Your'e 15 yrs old. You get up at 5:15 am get dressed and stumble out the door cause your ride, Old Mr. Crabtree (and I am serious, that was his name...or was it Crabapple...heck, it was Crab something or other) is out there honking his horn by 5:30 am. You have to wonder if his old clunker of a van that looks like it's seen better days 20 yrs before is going to make it. Sure enough, it hobbles down the road in it's very own cloud of exhaust. But, you went back to sleep so you don't know any of this.

He pulls into one of those real small mom and pop diners that opens up early just for folks like him. You both go in. He orders enough for two and looks at you kind of funny. When you don't say anything he just shrugs. His order comes out, he eats part of it, wraps up the rest and grumbles that it is time to go. You're left thinking about what you could have done if he had given you an advance or something and you know, without a shadow of a doubt that you will be enormously hungry within the hour.

You drive to your first house by 6:15 am. He has you unload the two mowers and the edging equipment. He has you edging until 7:00 am. Then, by his judgement, people should already be getting up so he starts mowing the front while you take the back. This begins a cycle for the rest of the mowing day.

At noon, you load up the van and he takes you home. You are hot and sweaty and not in one of those ways that ladies are supposed to swoon over. Uh uh, you are sweaty in the way that someone standing next to you leaves as soon as they can. You are seriously hungry cause of that growing teenage boy syndrome and cause he ate right in front of you. And you got muscles that you didn't know you had screaming out at you for putting them thru this.

You get out of the van, he beckons you around to his side of the van (the window is already down because the AC don't work), and then he hands you your pay. In cash too. Whatever will you do with a whole $25 to spend!! He reminds you that he will pick you up same time tomorrow so that the whole painful cycle can start all over again.

You do this everyday for a week or two until you come down with a cold. He shows up, you come out and sneeze all over his over-alls. The next day, you tell him you are sick again and he has to "let you go." You stand in front of hi m and a HUGE sigh of relief comes bursting out of you.

And that was my first experience with being a member of the workforce.

[oriondarkwood]

If it means getting paid for work, then my first job was at age 4 (I grew up in the rural south, we never heard of child labor laws). Was making sure the water cooler was full of cold water and picking up loose tabacco leaves for a dime a hour.

If you are talking about the first job that paid serious money then it was probably selling beer, adult mags and ciggies to friends in middle school (yes I was the one your mother warned you about). I did pretty good made about $50 a week on average, sadly I had a killer video game habit that was about $30 a week.

If you are talking a job with a paycheck and taxes taken out with a W2 at the end of the year. Then it was working at a cleanup person at a chicken processing plant during high school.

Finally slightly off topic the weridest job I ever had was being a assisant to a undertaker (ie helping him prepare the bodies, load the bodies into the coffins, keep the cotton and chemicals stocked, killing the flies that got in etc.. etc..)

[simplydamon]

"If you are talking about the first job that paid serious money then it was probably selling beer, adult mags and ciggies to friends in middle school (yes I was the one your mother warned you about). I did pretty good made about $50 a week on average, sadly I had a killer video game habit that was about $30 a week."

What happened to the other 20 bucks? :D

[oriondarkwood]

"If you are talking about the first job that paid serious money then it was probably selling beer, adult mags and ciggies to friends in middle school (yes I was the one your mother warned you about). I did pretty good made about $50 a week on average, sadly I had a killer video game habit that was about $30 a week."

What happened to the other 20 bucks? :D

Had to pay my suppliers, I was underage at the time myself. I usually got my beer and ciggies from a store that the dude didn't ID you as long as you slipped him a little under the talk. Adult Mags I got from the local dump since I grew up near a miltary base thier where usually boxes and boxes of them lying around the ones that where in bad shape I took a exacto knife and cut out the good pics and sold them a buck for 5 pictures. Basically it was something like this

A can of beer, around 60 cents a can. I usually sold it for 1.20 - 2 bucks a can (depended on how good the client was and how much they purchased)

A pack of smokes (aka ciggies) usually set me back 1.25 - 2 bucks I sold it for 3 - 5 bucks

A adult mag usually I got for free and sold for 5 - 20 bucks

It was pretty good started when I was 14 and closed up shop when I was 17 (cause my buyers started to become legally able to purchase the items or savy enough to find thier own sources).

Also as a side note I think I hold the unoffical record for most money spend in a arcade/longest stayed in a single day. One day I spend $67 (and this was back when most games where a quarter). I got thier when it opened at 9am I stay until it closed the following morning at 1am. My eyes where so red and crusty I could barely see and had to walk to a local store to get some water and stuff to wet my eyes to be able to drive home (not to mention get something to eat because they didn't have anything to eat at the arcade)

[George]

WOW 9am-am at the arcade, thought I live in an arcade when I was young.

[oriondarkwood]

WOW 9am-am at the arcade, thought I live in an arcade when I was young.


Yea I loved the old video games, some of my faves where Ms. Pac Man (never could get into Pac Man for some reason), Gyruss, Street Rumbler (you had to save your family from terrorist in a car that had a cannon on it), Total Carrange, Chiller (you had a gun and shot at undead, in the 3rd stage that had some pixel porn that I never knew was there until a couple of years ago when I was reading some triva on it), Mad Planets, Double Dragon (the first one, the rest kinda blew) etc.. etc..

[simplydamon]

Ah...the old video games. These are the ones I was addicted to:

1. Spy Hunter.
2. Paperboy.
3. Galaga.

[oriondarkwood]

Ah...the old video games. These are the ones I was addicted to:

1. Spy Hunter.
2. Paperboy.
3. Galaga.

Every heard of a program called MAME? it is a acrade emulator, also thier is a site called the Killer List of Video Games. As far as Spy Hunter it was okay after a while IMHO got kinda boring not to mention to easy to crash and burn. Paperboy was fun but I always lost like all my houses but a couple. Galaga was good I remenber so bug that if you stayed on one side of the screen and didn't shoot for like 10 mintues the enemies stopped shooting at you..

[QuestorTheElf]

My first job was also deep down in Florida. It was when telemarketing was cool. I sold papers 4 hours a night over the phone for the Miami Herald. I remember every day hoping I'd not miss the next-to-last K bus if sales were doing well.

It was particularly great to discover an area that just had new housing, and people wanted to buy the paper. I actually discovered I liked cold calling. (Nowadays, I hate when employers write "no phone calls please.")

[QuestorTheElf]

Ah...the old video games. These are the ones I was addicted to:

1. Spy Hunter.
2. Paperboy.
3. Galaga.

Arcade owners didn't like me. My "treasure" was limited, so my goal was to master games on a single quarter. Yes, it did take many to get there.

My first addiction was Tempest. An early 80's magazine stated that the programmer had left this "easter egg" that if you got above 180,000 and finished your score with the digits 11 or 12, the machine would award you 40 credits. This code was purposely left to guard against illegal copying; during litigation one could ask, "What is the purpose of this segment?" (Atari, however, sent updates to arcade operators once this become public.)

I later got very much into Star Wars because similar to Tempest, it used colored vector graphics. Only 7 colors used for drawing, and everything was composed of lines.

And if my "name" sounds familiar, you may recognize it from the game that really defined life for me from teenage years onward -- Gauntlet!

I really do attribute this game with molding so many things for me, especially workwise. Gauntlet tells you any problem has solutions, maybe even more than one path to the exit. Gauntlet shows you how to cooperate with a team while also making sure you take care of yourself. No one hero is the perfect hire, they each come with strengths and limitations (I hate the word "weaknesses.") Gauntlet can also be played solo.

Gauntlet showed me that too many "employers" look only for Warriors with visible muscles and Wizards with extensive track records of magic. The other 2 characters were frequently unclaimed yet they had talents worth examining too. The Valkyrie was a good generalist, and the Elf was the fastest. I had people ask me regularly why would I choose a scrawny Elf who didn't look like he could do much. Yet they saw me get to certain levels, and it'd be great to have them return weeks later and say, "You know, I tried that Elf guy and got to see a lot. He's actually pretty good."

That's why I really feel obligated to tell people in more ways than one to take a chance on the Elves. I think job candidates in particular can feel like the Elf, capable of doing almost anything through fast learning yet easy to overlook. Elves can also serve as leaders. What I liked most about him was that even in heated battle, he'd every so often laugh when reaching for something to eat or drink.

Speaking of which . . . I need food badly!

[varknight]

My first job was at a grocery store I actually stayed there for 15 yrs before they closed down. The job sucked but the money was decent enough for a grocery store.

The games i liked back in the day

Ghost and goblins
Dig Dug
Galaga
Astroid

[oriondarkwood]

Arcade owners didn't like me. My "treasure" was limited, so my goal was to master games on a single quarter. Yes, it did take many to get there.

My first addiction was Tempest. An early 80's magazine stated that the programmer had left this "easter egg" that if you got above 180,000 and finished your score with the digits 11 or 12, the machine would award you 40 credits. This code was purposely left to guard against illegal copying; during litigation one could ask, "What is the purpose of this segment?" (Atari, however, sent updates to arcade operators once this become public.)

OD - I did not know that, I love Tempest I wonder if the easter egg surived the translation from arcade to MAME ROM?

I later got very much into Star Wars because similar to Tempest, it used colored vector graphics. Only 7 colors used for drawing, and everything was composed of lines.

OD - Star Wars was good as well they got a new one out that is full graphics and almost like the real thing (cost a buck for one play thought)

And if my "name" sounds familiar, you may recognize it from the game that really defined life for me from teenage years onward -- Gauntlet!

OD - Everything I learned in life, I learned from Gauntlet, sounds like a book idea :D

I really do attribute this game with molding so many things for me, especially workwise. Gauntlet tells you any problem has solutions, maybe even more than one path to the exit. Gauntlet shows you how to cooperate with a team while also making sure you take care of yourself. No one hero is the perfect hire, they each come with strengths and limitations (I hate the word "weaknesses.") Gauntlet can also be played solo.

Gauntlet showed me that too many "employers" look only for Warriors with visible muscles and Wizards with extensive track records of magic. The other 2 characters were frequently unclaimed yet they had talents worth examining too. The Valkyrie was a good generalist, and the Elf was the fastest. I had people ask me regularly why would I choose a scrawny Elf who didn't look like he could do much. Yet they saw me get to certain levels, and it'd be great to have them return weeks later and say, "You know, I tried that Elf guy and got to see a lot. He's actually pretty good."

OD - Hmm to expand on your idea, aleast from the IT field

Warriors - good at grunt work coding, slogging thur mundane patchwork, fixes and code but have no clue how to design a application or come up with creative fixes.

Wizards - mundane coding is beneath them, good for grand high level plans. However they trip on small errors or get stuck in the mud when it comes time to grind it out

Elfs - quick learners, good for pinpoint troubleshooting or quick fixes. They are not good at application design because they are too quick to action and fail to plan for everything

Valkyrie - are good at everything but masters or nothing. A good glue to hold everyone else together.

I would probably be a Wizard

[Jeremiah]

my first job was at chain store Pharmacy Drug Store...

retail, facing and placing products

god i hated it

[hyena8]

Food and retail are two of the worst jobs ever.

:mad:

[Everythingismyfault]

putting coupons on door handles in associations for dominos pizza...sucked

[brianm]

taking cutdowns from my father and cleaning road equipment....(13 years old...lol)

[buffygirl]

I was 17 and I worked in our library as a page. I would put books back on the shelves (good because the supervisor was not breathing down my back, bad because this was extremely boring). I also would retrieve materials that were kept downstairs for people who requested them. They had a drop chute, ring doorbell type thing going on, so whenever I heard the doorbell I had to drop what I was doing and go downstairs. That part was pretty fun! But I got paid around $6 an hour!!! :mad:

[Rumrunner]

I delivered 'Grit' to about 50 homes within about 3 miles of our farm (Grit is a newspaper...not sure if it's even printed anymore). I was 13 and rode my bike (a second hand 'balloon tire' antique...it had two speeds, my left foot and my right foot) to deliver the papers. I also mowed lawns in the summertime for the elderly folks that lived along our road (I didn't get paid since we were all poor, but it was a job and I usually got a free meal out of the deal...).

When I was 15, I got a job at a country club bringing the electric golf carts up from their recharging shed to the front of the Pro Shop and cleaning them out (collecting any trash, wiping down the seats, etc.). Being used to the somewhat heavy manual labor of a working farm, I thought this was the easiest way to make money I'd ever heard of. When I was 16 I got my Red Cross lifesaving and first aid certificate and landed a summer job at the same country club as a lifeguard at the pool (was a fun job at times, but mostly boring watching a bunch of rich kids swim...on the other hand I was making double minimum wage to sit on my behind). I got a job in the restaurant of that club (when I started college) working as a waiter (more watching rich people play while I worked, but the tips were hard to beat and the work was easy enough compared to what I was used to).

It was about that time that I came to the conclusion that life would be a lot happier if I was rich. Whoever said money can't buy happiness is full of crap. I worked my way thru college and busted butt to move up the ladder and I am VERY happy with my six figure salary in the top tax bracket. If given the choice between poor and happy or rich and unhappy, I think I'd take reasonably well off and moody. I've been poor, and it was ok except for the part about having no money.

[Hane]

When I was 15 I worked at a pre school, I love kids so it was cool. I swept the sand back into the sandbox, mopped the floor, folded cots and tied a lot of shoes. It was worth it because at that age they say the funniest things! :D

[Rumrunner]

one of my nephews (6 at last count) just turned 2, and he says the most hysterically funny things, especially when he's trying to describe something he doesn't know the word for by combining two other words together. For example, he called a small dog he saw recently a 'Pierre pumpkin'. Pierre is our dog, he saw a similar dog wearing a pumpkin outfit for Halloween, so the dog became a 'Pierre pumpkin' to him.

[missydelite]

My first job was at Kmart. God i hated that place. I only worked there for 6 months. I was miserable the whole time i was there. I had to eventually end up quitting because i was in school at the time and they kept scheduling me to work 1-10 on fridays when they knew i had class till like 3:30. So i quit there and 2 weeks later i got hired at a clothing store and worked there for almost 3 years. Would have been longer if i hadn't quit to move in with my boyfriend in a different town, but that's another story. :eek:

[HDhug1200]

I worked in a bakery when I was 14 that both my mom and HER mom had once worked at (it was my mom's first job, too) - I got to take home eclairs if they hadn't sold, but they always did...I think I lasted a couple of months. My boss was a tyrant, and I decided to be a teenager instead.