What was your first job?

[puma guy]

I just saw a piece on Fox News asking many of their reporter/commentator staff about their first jobs. Made me think about mine.
I started working at about 8 years of age in my dad's veterinary practice and really continued even when I had other jobs. My first job for someone else was 7th grade working at Ida Mae's Grill inside Epp's Supermarket for 35 cents an hour.


What was your first job?

[snatchel]

My first paid job was when I turned 14 at Angelo Burger Company here in San Angelo. I worked there 40 hours a week until the day I graduated 4 years later and went off to boot camp.

[RPB]

12 years old, newspaper route on a bicycle at Apartments on Beechnut near where 610 and Beechnut is in Houston
When I was 14, and 15, Summers, in addition to Paper Route, I was a manager at a motel swimming pool on Main near 610/Buffalo Speedway scheduling, hiring/firing lifeguards etc
16, Jepco Electronics, in Ballaire, Parts Dept manager and front desk and repaired electronic stuff
at 18, I managed Electrical and Plumbing and Hardware Depts at Handy Dan and was EXCITED to get a raise to a DOLLAR 35 an hour.

My 16 year old niece on her first job now makes 11 times that as an "activities" person (that's her title) at a Marriott resort (watches kids while parents play golf etc ... A/K/A babysitter/child care person).

Reminds me of my grandpa's pay records I have in a book, when he picked cotton or pulled bolls (there's a difference) for a nickle a day and was raising (or trying to raise) 2 kids and a wife on that wage.

[puma guy]

Reminds me of my grandpa's pay records I have in a book, when he picked cotton or pulled bolls (there's a difference) for a nickle a day and was raising (or trying to raise) 2 kids and a wife on that wage.

You're prpbably one of the few here that are aware of the difference. My mother and her sister pulled cotton until the war when they moved from Farmersville to the big city of Dallas to work.

[WildBill]

Busboy/dishwasher at the Bonanza Steakhouse. I earned $1.45/hr and a ribeye steak for dinner every night. Back then, the ribeye dinner came with a baker, Texas toast and a salad for $3.57!

[C-dub]

Musician, trombonist, for a VFW to march with them and play in parades. I had that job for two years in high school and that was actually my only job in high school that I got paid for. I had a few others that I volunteered for like, coaching a couple soccer teams and as a referee in that same league, but different age groups.

[Heartland Patriot]

First part-time job for someone other than family was for a gas station in Cotulla. My brother and I cleaned up his station, including scrubbing the forecourt (he liked it kept clean). My first full-time job was the summer between junior and senior years of high school. I worked as a surveyor's apprentice all through that summer as we tied in gas wells on a grid, mostly in Webb County, but in several other South Texas counties, too. I cut a LOT of brush with a machete to allow the laser range finder to shoot the distance. It was a VERY fancy machine for the time (late 80s) and the surveyor still had to do all the math to figure out the angles, etc. And it would only shoot a certain distance (I don't remember how far), less when the reflected heat of the day affected the shot. I also got to take the prism that reflected the laser to several odd spots, including up a hill (covered in shed rattlesnake skins) that had a geodetic brass marker that had coordinates, and to climb up some tall "christmas trees" for gas wells...don't remember the pay for either one of those jobs, though.

[jimlongley]

Farm work and paper route followed by working at a local filling station/grill/bar, never had a W-2 for any of those, the first job I ever had a W-2 for was as a camera salesman at Two Guys department store in Menands, NY. Then a 28 year career with the phone company.

[JustMe]

Besides the usual babysitting--started working in a hospital kitchen after school for !.35/hr(under 18 minimum wage)--did that for 1 year while taking a nurse aid course--switched to nurse aid senior year in hs at !.65! Graduated & went in USN--then nursing school--my first job as an RN was 5.65/hr--& 35 cents of that was shift differential for working nights

[74novaman]

My dad farmed, so as soon as I could reach the pedals (and before, if he needed extra hands) I was working on the farm.

Didn't work for "someone else" until college. Spent some time as a shop porter/go-fer/car detail-er for an auto body shop while I was taking classes.

[gigag04]

Cleaning tack/saddles at the stalls for $2/hr at age 12. In the summers I would work with my uncles construction company doing rough in for sewer and water lines on job sites.

First official job was a sacker at Brookshire Bros at age 16.

[Sidro]

Cowboy, 15 yrs old for $150 a month.

[jocat54]

First real job was sacking groceries at Jitney Jungle Food store in Corpus Christi, thought it was great when I got promoted to stocker and cashier--started at 14 and worked there until I graduated HS(1965) and went straight to Air Force(1966). Don't remember what I made at the store, but got a whopping $78 per month from Uncle Sam.

[nyj]

My first job was at a veterinarian office, as well. Day 2 of the job, a cat is in a see-through acrylic box, in a net, with the other half sticking out. The cat was given some sort of gas through the box and looked frozen in time. My job was to pull the cat out and hold it on it's back while a needle was injected into the heart for euthanasia.

I quit the next day.

[Piney]

First job that generated a tax form was a Herfey's Hamburger joint--
It got robbed one night at closing-- I promptly resigned.