Describe your first job

Describe your first job and a memorable lesson it taught you.

As a kid my first job was a drug peddler, I kid you not.
Here's the rub, I delivered scripts for the pharmacy on my bicycle.

My first job was as a milk delivery girl age 11 or 12..getting up at 4am.. and delivering milk to doorsteps before school....

I worked on a farm for 4 years during high school. We farmed crops, mostly corn and soy beans, but we also had some tobacco and we had different herds of cattle, which included a beef herd, a milking herd and a breeding herd of Heifers. We also had other smaller animals that were raised as the owner’s kids 4-H projects. I was especially fond of the goats. I really enjoyed working on the farm. It taught me a lot and in a large way prepared me for life.

Not long after I started working on this farm, the owner bought the farm next to his, which I was told that we had over 3000 total acres. During the summer there were anywhere from 6-9 hands doing the work.

Icer at at Winchell's Donuts, sounds yummy I know but the smell of the icings
was sickening after awhile. Officer Malataca also kept trying to set me up with
his horny-toad son I went to HS with, so I quit.

December 1966. I was 17. I worked at Alexander's Department Store in their Toy Dept. for Christmas!
When we were all hired, we were told we could stay on after Christmas as regular employees. Christmas Eve--they fired us all! My lesson was don't believe what people say, it's what they do.

It was in 1977 I delivered searches to the local law firms in downtown Buffalo
It was hard work, pay was 25 cents over minimum wage{$3.25} My boss docked me when I left early to be with my mother during the start of the Blizzard of '77.I was po'd when he did that, quit a couple months later

When I was 14 I worked behind the counter at Woolworths during my summer vacation from school.

I learned how to operate a cash register very similar to this one, and to count out correct change.

Ronni said:

When I was 14 I worked behind the counter at Woolworths during my summer vacation from school.

I learned how to operate a cash register very similar to this one, and to count out correct change.
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yes I had to use one the same Ronni.. when I worked in the Co-op....

I also worked in Woolworths but that was when I first moved to England.. when I was 19.. and I worked in the office within the store as a wages clerk...

Dad was a contractor. Finished basements in the city, built additions, dormer's, garages in the burbs. Therefore, I became a sort of slave laborer.
I didn't know at the time, but, It gave me a skill set that paid dividends in my later life. (able to build my own house for instance).
I now knew how to properly; frame a building, roofing, finish the interior, do the house electrical, mix cement.
Got me to where I am today.

First paid job was on a Mink ranch, ten years old. Started off simply cleaning things up, hosing down equipment, raking out the mink sheds, worked there on and off thru high school and eventually could do anything on the ranch.

What I learned was being responsible and how doing things right was important, also to be tolerant of criticism. The guy that owned the ranch was a real taskmaster and an eccentric, he would cuss me up and down than take me out coon hunting that night. He also was instrumental in educating me on machinery, which is a skill I still use about every day.

My first full time work was summer jobs:

1962 - junior counselor at a local YMCA summer camp - - just a glorified camper really, but got paid a little. And for the first time, I was treated like I had some real authority.

1963 - janitor at local YMCA - - painted the whole gym with three other guys - first time up on scaffolding to reach the ceiling, and got to visit the paint factory and watch our custom colors being mixed.

1964 - lifeguard at local city facility - - pulled a dead body out of the lake one afternoon. Not a memory I needed at 17, but I really came to terms with death that day. I had just handled a dead body, hugging it against me while swimming toward shore, and it wasn't frightening or troubling in any way. When I found the body, my training kicked in and I did what was needed.

When I got the body to the dock, I expected the guys to spring into action, but they just stood there staring down at me, frozen in place until I said "come on, get him out" and they all came back to life. That was the second time I had seen grown men frozen into inactivity like that. The first time I was the victim, having hit my head on the diving board during a swim meet at that same YMCA where I would work a few years later. I came to the side of the pool with blood gushing from my forehead and the adults just stood there staring down at me until I asked for help. The lesson? When people are paralyzed by the unexpected, just speak to them.

Anyway, after the body was pulled onto the dock, I remained in the water watching the resuscitation attempts. I soon had a sense of peace and quiet surrounded by chaos. The stillness of the dead compared to the desperation the living. And it seemed that everything was as it should be. Yes, a man had died. But he looked so peaceful. No more troubles. No more pain. On to the next life, if there is one. All is well.

1965-1968 - machine shop at local factory - - started on simple tasks but learned quickly and needed little supervision after the first year. The skills and knowledge I gained those four summers has served me well over the years, and my little garage workshop sees lots of activity to this day.

My first paying job at about age 10 or 11 was a daily morning paper route. That really sucked getting up at about 5:30 AM 7 days a week, especially in the midwest winters.

My second job at 16 was working in a factory after school and on Saturdays in a factory that made leather and cotton work and dress gloves. My job to take a sewn, but inside out leather glove and turn the glove right side out. I think minimum wage back then was $1.40/hour.

My first and only job as a civilian was working on the family farm.

My first job was at 14 yrs old, detasseling corn. I don't think I learned anything useful (learned that I wasn't a morning person, and learned the lyrics to 99-bottles-of-beer-on-the-wall).

Waitress in a local diner at 16.

I graduated HS at 16 and did a bunch of things till I went to college. I cleaned houses for neighbors, clerked, waitressed (?) and similar.

At 14 I inherited my brother's job in a local luncheonette/candy store, when he joined the Navy at 18 yrs old.
I worked there after school and on Sunday. On Saturdays I worked at the dry cleaners across the street from the luncheonette. In my spare time I babysat and bathed dogs.

I learned that if I was pleasant, reliable and a good worker I would have good references and be in demand

I turned 15 in December and started my new job in the January in the Filing Department for an Encyclopaedia Book Company. I taught myself to type and eventually graduated to being a Dictaphone Typist. I did get good references when I left because I was very pleasant to people and was always available to help out in other departments when they were stretched for workers, but I didn't get extra money. That's when I decided to leave.

Tom52 said:

My first paying job at about age 10 or 11 was a daily morning paper route. That really sucked getting up at about 5:30 AM 7 days a week, especially in the midwest winters.

My second job at 16 was working in a factory after school and on Saturdays in a factory that made leather and cotton work and dress gloves. My job to take a sewn, but inside out leather glove and turn the glove right side out. I think minimum wage back then was $1.40/hour.

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believe me it's a lot worse in Scottish winters delivering ice cold milk bottles in the snow and have the frozen bottle stick to your fingers... very painful... and also falling over in the ice, and having bottles smash in your hands... , remembering also everything had to be delivered very fast, which meant jumping off the milk float with a hand crate full of pint bottles before it had even come to a full stop....especially just a kid... and even worse, I wasn't paid for it....

Fresh donut maker. Winchell's Donuts. Get there at 1:30am. I learned to make all kinds of donuts, even "French" ones.also make all kinds of frostings. I was 16 and I went to a party on a work night and a few beers. I was worse off than I thought. I created a total mess. The boss took one look and fired me.

I had a summer job between high school graduation and college at a sleezy loan company. Really sleezy. They were low-class people who catered to low-income people. Questionable practices all the way.

One day, they got robbed. Fortunately, I was in the bathroom primping for an after-work date and missed the whole thing. My father made me quit the next day.

Substitute teacher at the age of 18 in a local school. Taught me that I never wanted to teach children. So when I graduated from McGill University in Montreal, I ended up teaching in two colleges for 2 years or more for my second job.