Tell me about your first job WINNER PICKED

Thanks for the chance! I´m in :)

Well, my first real job I got paid for was in a hospital where I worked as a caretaker. I need to say in Germany summer holidays are six weeks and I worked these six weeks about three years. So no summer holidays for me in three years. But I needed the money and I learned a lot of from the guys in there. We were installing electric facilities and repairing air conditioning as well as wash-dryers, mowing the yard/grass cleaning the cars, changed tires, repaired the clinic cars and all these things. I really learned a lot of things in there, which I can use even today very good.
These three-times-six-weeks made me pay my driving license in cash. That was a big deal for me at that time and I was happy to have some money left.

Now the hospital is closed and the guys that worked in there have other jobs around. Every time when I see one of them, we are talking to each other about the great time we had there. These are great memories, imo. :)
 
Not an entry, but thanks anyway.

My first job was while I was still in High School. I worked as an environmental service technician (janitor) at a local hospital. I worked almost a full time work week every week. My duties were to clean the rehab wing. (occupational therapy, that sort of thing) I'd vacuum, clean toilets, dust, etc. Every Wednesday night, I had to scrub the hydrotherapy walls with this stinky chemical, cause the betadine would stain the walls yellow.

I was friends with some of the head nurses and other dept heads, so it wasn't so bad. I do remember one time bombing up and down the halls in a wheelchair, and I turned a corner and my boss was standing right there. He didn't really say anything, just shook his head and walked away. I guess he knew I could have turned him for drinking on the job. He used to disappear down to Maintenance on certain nights and would be gone all night boozing it up.

I did occasionally have to clean up certain nasty stuff, but that wasn't normal.

I'm sure I carried a knife, I think it was a Ranger Lockback, the smaller one. That's what I could afford at the discount store. They had the cheap china knives (that I used to buy), but from time to time they would have some decent knives like the Colonial one that I mentioned.
 
Interesting subject. I delivered papers and cut grass when I was too young to have a real job. My first real job was working for a company in DeKalb, Il called DeKalb Ag Research. I was on a crew that walked experimental corn fields pulling off the tassels so the corn plant germination could be genetically controlled and therefore produce better corn seed. Cool description of a killer of a job. We were out in the fields from sun up to sun down, hot, sweaty and many, many bugs. It was by far the most money a kid my age could make over the summer. Provided all my spending money for the school year. Plus, we were all way too tired at the end of the day to go out and get into trouble. I did this for two summers during high school.

Chris-
 
Great thread. My first job other than odd jobs was an after-school job at age 12 for a large animal Vet less than a mile from home. My duties included cleaning pens, watering & feeding animals, and moving feed & equipment around but I found out on my first day on the job the main reason I was hired. The feed room had become infested with mice and rats which had attracted numerous snakes and my job was to get rid of all of them. My tools were a shovel and the soles of my boots. About an hour into my job I learned the hard way why some guys tuck their pants into their boots when I had cornered a bunch of mice in a corner and some of them tried to escape my stomping by scurrying up my legs. The next day I came home from school, ate a quick snack and was headed out the door with my jeans tucked in my boots and my pellet gun on my shoulder and my mom asked me, "does Dr. L not need you today?" and I said "yeah Mom, he's paying me to hunt!".
 
At age 13, in 1960, I worked as a "stock boy" at a very small local department store in Fart Worth, Mathews Center. I placed quotes around stock boy because I ended up also being janitor, yardman at owner's house, and I painted his house until my Dad found out and he made me quit because I was being "cheated". He was a house painter and he "let" me work for him the rest of the summer. Best part of the job? I was assigned to clean out the wooden roofless room where trash cans were stored for pick up. There were a good number of "girlie" magazines thrown away with front cover removed and...I got my first exposure to female breasts. Wonderful!
 
My first real job was as a hod carrier. Probably the most unpleasand job I have ever had. Carrying up to 20 ft oak planks covered in dry cement and block 12 hours a day for the short construction season in Alaska. Tearing down forming and mixing "mud" by hand etc. Soon after that I started work at KFC! But I was still full time in the summers by age 16.
 
Fun subject matter and no, I do not need to enter the contest. First job was busing tables at a Mr Steak making 1.25 an hour and glad to have the job. I think I was 14 at the time. Graduated to washing dishes, prep and the grill. Great job as I met my wife of 34 years there. Worked at a block plant in the summer for 3 years - I don't know if I was obstinant or stupid, because thats how long it took to figure out how horrible that job was. Pay was better but boy was it unpleasant. Stacked fluted split face 12" concrete block by hand as they were too heavy for the automatic banding machine - about 100 lbs apiece and there was one coming out of the kiln about every 60 seconds and yes, they were hot. Cleaned out the mixer with a 20 lb air hammer. Cleaned out the block machine with said hammer. Swept the crumbs off the floor every night - usually about 3 tons worth. Dumped color/cement in the mixer when they were running colored block - 12 sacks of white portland and 60 pounds of buff color every 10 -15 minutes. They always saved that special job for the summer help - cleaning out the kilns. The blocks were cast on 1/4"x 2'x3' steel plates that would get locked up in the kilns on a fairly regular basis - they ran in a steel channel and would sometimes get overlapped and jam. When one of the 5 kilns got too many rows locked up, they would shut it down and we would have to climb in, pull the block out and then pull out the steel pallets until we got to the two that had gotten locked up, hammer them apart and repair the channel. This in the middle of a Kansas summer, in a kiln full of hot metal, next to or between 2 others that were up and running. The year after I quit, I worked in a warehouse running a forklift loading trucks for a garden supply wholesale company and that job was heaven compared to the block plant. The thing about those jobs was I learned how to work - there was a schedule to keep and if you didn't keep up, you got run over. I am now in sales, ride around in a truck and have turned into a fat bastid.
 
Alright, I've never had a crummy job. I've been very lucky in that respect. Thanks to dear ol' dad.

When he was my age (25) he built his own barn shake machine. He learned to weld and bought a second hand welder. Went into the bush with his friend's and cut cedar barn shakes for roofing. He sold and installed those. He's the hardest worker I know! He's now 65 and a whole lot smarter and owns a company selling roofing supplies only. No installations.

This is and was my first and only job. I worked for him during spring and summer breaks off middle and high school. Then when I graduated in 2006, I came to work for him full time. Starting packing shingles and doing grunt work and moving my way up, now I do lots of his work and am running the office with another employee. Dad still comes in every single morning at 7am and stays a half day. He will never leave the company. He loves keeping close with our regular customers and keeping tabs on everything that's going on.

So...My current job IS my first job. From 18 years old until now, at 25 years old, and I love it. I think we're the ONLY(and I might truly mean only) father-son team and can work together EVERY day, hang out on the weekends, and still get along and not be at eachothers throats. Actually, to make it even more impressive, when I first started working for him, I was still living at home in his basement. So that makes, Father-son team - Live together, work together, ride to work in the same truck, eat dinner together - Still get along and can hang out on the weekend.

I will probably take over this business one day and I'm excited to take over dad's legacy. -- This is my first job.

Thanks for the chance.
 
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Amazing responses guys! Some of your tales are making me feel like the luckiest guy in the world for having a job as easy as busing :D
 
I was 14 and I worked in the South Bronx @ my Uncle's Chinese restaurant busing tables on the weekends. It was a long 12 hour shift on Saturday and to a lesser degree on Sundays! My first job after college was a little different. I was a paralegal for the 3rd largest re-insurance law firm in the world. That is to say it was a law firm that represented insurance companies who would essentially reinsure percentages of one another's books of contracts. Basically insurance that insures insurance.

I worked there for 6 months before getting let go. The last straw was that they sent me to Hartford, CT for a week and I had to stay in a hotel. That wasn't the bad part, the bad part was I was put into a room with no windows with an avalanche of boxes that were stacked 7 feet high over the entire room filled with documents written in Spanish. I was given a piece of paper with 10 Spanish words in it and was asked to pull any document that had that list of words in it. This was for an ongoing huge trial that was 6 years in the making over who would cover the damages for a hurricane that happened in the Carribean that essentially each insurance firm accused the other of owing money to pay for and for fighting people who requested insurance claims to be paid out.

Needless to say glad I was let go and it diminished any thoughts of ever going to law school after that experience!
 
My first job was unloading trucks for a grocery store chain. This was in the 1970's and the pay was $1.35 per hour. In the summer it was brutal with outside temperatures reaching 120 degrees in Arizona. I had to wear a shirt and tie. Nasty work. I got promoted after about a year and could then work inside the store.
 
Great thread!
Not an entry I have plenty of knives!! :)
My first job was as a Paper Boy (I want my $2!) for Newsday on LI when I was 11. My older sisters had routes so I wanted one. Had it for over 4 years and took over one of my sister's routes. I carried a SAK of some kind to cut the bails of papers apart so we could put the parts (sports, comics etc) together into a complete paper.
In Winter and Fall I used to shovel driveways and rake leaves for my customers. I never seemed to save a penny however.
After that I cut a lot of grass until I bused tables my summer after HS.

It would be great if while telling of that first job as a kid/teenager tell us how old you are now or what year it was.
I would love to see a comparison of when older generation and today's generation's first jobs. I bet the older you are the earlier you got that first paying gig.
 
My first real job was as a stock boy in the local Food Lion grocery store at the age of 14. The state law at the time was that you had to be 15 to work but my dad went along and had a talk with the manager and I had the job. After a month or so I cut my thumb to the bone opening a box with my pocket knife (Buck 112) and had to go to the ER for stitches. After a few days off to heal a bit it was back to work stocking shelves and unloading trucks etc. I wound up working there through high school and became a mid level mgr. Along with some odd jobs in construction clean up for my dads company. I bought and paid for my first car, a used '73 f150 w 390 4brl, I loved that truck and won must burn outs behind the wheel after school. I still have the scar from cutting my thumb almost 30 years later but not the beloved ford:(
 
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My first job was cutting roots out of the ground for my tutor once in a while along with weeding,
trimming bushes, spreading pine straw and planting flowers. I do not remember
how much I got paid, but it was a decent amount. I was about 15 at that time.

This summer, I scored a position on a grain farm. My responsibilities included
mowing, cleaning grain, sweeping the barn, weed eating, cutting up and splitting
trees(with a log splitter), stacking them up, tilling, bush hogging, fixing fences
,and whatever else my boss might need. I really can not complain though,
because it is a great job. I do not deal with traffic, my commute is short
, the pay is great ($8/hr untaxed) and I even got off early on somedays
or did not even have to come. I can come in his house for lunch and take as long
as I like(although I do not get paid for lunch breaks), It is pretty quiet
and I do not have to deal with anyone else because I usually work alone.
As for the knife I carry, I wore my Condor Bushlore to work everyday to work this summer
and my boss is completely okay with it.

I have worked ever since I remember on the farm I live on. Thanks for the opportunity at another stockman!
 
Not an entry.
I was raised on a 100 acre, hard rock, dairy farm. I started doing a man's work on the farm at about 14 years old. My first job OFF the farm was in a Sawmill. 40 hours a week, $2 an hour. The same guy owned the Sawmill, also owned the Feed Store in town. When the Big Boys went to the woods to cut Timber, they sent me to the Feed Mill. I was too inexperienced to cut Timber, but I could pack 100 pound bags of feed all day. After that, I was a Deckhand on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers for most of the 70's. Never went back to the Farm!
 
Not an entry, I just like telling stories. :)

I'm a renaissance man, inventor/mechanic/engineer/artist/poet/teacher and so on. I've done everything from flip burgers to to building high-speed packaging equipment and everything within that periphery.

My current forte is troubleshooting, I like figuring out why things don't work or work properly and that includes organic and artificial systems, (although if you ask my wife shell tell you I'm best at annoying her ;)).

Now I've been working since I was 14, I started doing odd jobs around the neighborhood, (yard work, fixing cars and lawn mowers, anything to make a buck) but my first real job like many was at McDonald's.

Now I only worked there for two weeks before I quit, I learned early that I didn't like serving or dealing with customers, I was happier pushing a broom in the parking lot, I could have a cigarette, and shoot the bull with my friends with no one looking over my shoulder.

Back then it was 1976 and I was working illegally at night, (you were supposed to be 18 to close) the place was slow when a woman came in and ordered something to drink, an order of fries and a Big Mac with no special sauce, she got her order and walked away, more the girl at the register had been having a bad day already when the woman came back to complain about the burger.

The woman became demanding, insulting and abusive and while the girl was trying to get her a new Big Mac the woman threw the other burger at the girl, at that point the girl behind the register kept across the counter and began beating the snot outta this woman.

The manager runs over and separates the two while consoling the woman who again began to verbally abuse the girl and now the manager. There was no calming her down she wanted the cops and she was gonna get 'em.

So 10 minutes later the police show up and while getting the story from all the people involved the woman behind slinging racial slurs at the girl again so one more time the girl launches across the counter and begins beating the woman again except this time when the cop tried to pull her off the girl reached around and grabbed the cops gun.

At this point I ran into the walk in refrigerator, (the walls were about 20" thick) and hid, about 20 minutes goes by when one of the employees came in to get some cheese and saw me hiding behind the boxes, I asked them what was going on and they told me that more copies came and they took the girl away.
It was at that exact same moment that I decided I didn't wanna work in the fast food industry, it's too dangerous.

Some day I'll tell ya the story about my first maintenance job, got it after they all realized that I wasn't geared towards the monotonous assembly line mentality.
 
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My first job was in the summer 2000 at the age of 13 digging trenches in pea gravel for irrigation / field lines for a new nursery. All trenches needed to be 12 inches deep, and precise. I was working for my ex-girlfeinds dad, so that was a pain in itself since he already didn't care much for me anyway. I must have dug miles of gravel that summer in that 100* south Alabama heat! I made $5.00 per hr. and worked 7 day a week 10hrs. a day. In the end all the blisters from that shovel and the sweat in my eyes were worth it! It tought me the value of a dollar and what a hard days work meant! I look back and smile at the fact that he hired me to keep me away from his daughter, yet he ended up paying me $350.00 I used to take his daughter out on the weekends. She is now married to my best freind..... better him than me ;) Ahhhh memories. That just made me feel old before my time, seeing that I am only 26 haha!

Congrats on the new job! I hope it is all you want it to be and nothing less!
 
My first job was as a caddy at the age of 15. It was a real eye opener. I liked it but it was hard work. I got to know how the rich think. Not much different than the non rich but small differences in attitude make a big difference in life. Anyway 41 years later I'm nowhere near rich but still look back fondly on the lessons learned that summer.
Thanks for the opportunity.
 
I really enjoyed reading through this thread...hopefully next summer I'll have some stories of my own. :)
 
Not an entry.

Mowed grass, at age 10, for $2 a yard ($3 with trimming). Saved up $26 and bought a Benjamin pump air rifle (.177 cal.). Then helped an older boy, at age 12, with his paper route for $2 a day, seven days a week. Then hauled hay for $.02 a bale, at age 14. Graduated to driving a tractor pulling a hay rake for $1 an hour in the second summer. All cash jobs. But my first paycheck was from working part time at a Western Auto store ($1.65 an hour) for Mr. Summerhill (a W. C. Fields clone), at age 16 .
 
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