Speaking of days gone by... first jobs

A

Aunt Marg

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  • Do you recall what your first job was?
  • Remember what you got paid?

As for myself, as much as I think of my first job as being a side-gig more than a job, I started earning money babysitting. Babysat for an aunt for a number of years, and had a ton of babysitting jobs in and around the neighbourhood for mothers of little ones.

When I first started, I made a whopping .25¢ an hour, and was thrilled, and being that moms around the immediate neighbourhood knew that I had hands-on experience helping my mom care for baby siblings, the phone rang off the hook.

I made the same .25¢ an hour for years, right up till I started high-school, at which time I started making .50¢ an hour. Still, it was enough where I was able to buy myself special or needed things, and being that mom and dad were poor and didn't have extra money to handover to us kids, having a job or side-gig where one could earn a little money was a necessity for me and my siblings.

Also did a little dishwashing for a family that owned a European restaurant, which was a huge pay raise for me from the .25¢ and .50¢ an hour I had become so accustomed to making, plus I ate for free when working at the restaurant.
 

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My first job was mowing lawns for several elderly neighbors....started doing that at about age 12. I made 1 or 2 dollars...depending upon if I needed to do trimming. Then, in high school, I started working at a gas station, evenings and weekends...pumping gas, etc., for about $1/hr. After high school, I joined the USAF, and that put me on track for a nice career in electronics.
 
Don M. said:
My first job was mowing lawns for several elderly neighbors....started doing that at about age 12. I made 1 or 2 dollars...depending upon if I needed to do trimming. Then, in high school, I started working at a gas station, evenings and weekends...pumping gas, etc., for about $1/hr. After high school, I joined the USAF, and that put me on track for a nice career in electronics.
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That's exactly how my baby brother started out, cutting lawns, snow-shovelling, sweeping lots, delivering newspapers and directories, and whatever else he could find in the way of man-type work.
 

My first job was as a milk delivery girl...delivering milk to doorsteps at 4am until 7am 7 days a week .., I was 12....

At 15 I started training while still at school to be a nurse... ( my mother was already a nurse)...but me and nursing were not good bedfellows...

My first job after leaving school was as an Office Junior in a Punch tape operating pool.... .... The money was terrible £4.10 for a 40 hour week (there was no minimum wage law in those days) ....that's just about £75 today... In actual fact these days the under 18's get paid per hour, what I got paid back then for 40 hours...

In those days factories paid almost twice as much as office work but I didn't want to work in a factory, I'd have a month's trial and I hated it...and office juniors under 18 were paid dire wages... but anyway I moved on to bigger and better things quite soon after..
 
Started off baby sitting for a long time for 25 cents a hour. Started working after school at the Dime store for a few hours each day. Don't remember how much.
 
hollydolly said:
My first job was as a milk delivery girl...delivering milk to doorsteps at 4am until 7am 7 days a week .., I was 12....

At 15 I started training while still at school to be a nurse... ( my mother was already a nurse)...but me and nursing were not good bedfellows...

My first job after leaving school was as an Office Junior in a Punch tape operating pool.... .... The money was terrible £4.10 for a 40 hour week (there was no minimum wage law in those days) ....that's just about £75 today... In actual fact these days the under 18's get paid per hour, what I got paid back then for 40 hours...

In those days factories paid almost twice as much as office work but I didn't want to work in a factory, I'd have a month's trial and I hated it...and office juniors under 18 were paid dire wages... but anyway I moved on to bigger and better things quite soon after..
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I feel somewhat embarrassed reading everyone's replies. You guys all had fun and exciting jobs!

Gosh, I remember milk delivery so well! Still remember how friendly the milkmen were, never driving past without a wave, and on good days, stopping for a moment to talk with us kids.
 
Aunt Marg said:
I feel somewhat embarrassed reading everyone's replies. You guys all had fun and exciting jobs!

Gosh, I remember milk delivery so well! Still remember how friendly the milkmen were, never driving past without a wave, and on good days, stopping for a moment to talk with us kids.
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oooh lol..I don't know about fun and exciting, it was very hard work, and especially rotten in the icy winters of Scotland on dark mornings with 3 inches of snow, and then to have to go to school afterwards... but hey... all a learning curve for sure.. :D
 
hollydolly said:
oooh lol..I don't know about fun and exciting, it was very hard work, and especially rotten in the icy winters of Scotland on dark mornings with 3 inches of snow, and then to have to go to school afterwards... but hey... all a learning curve for sure.. :D
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Did you have a cart on wheels that you had to push from house to house?
 
Don M. said:
My first job was mowing lawns for several elderly neighbors....started doing that at about age 12. I made 1 or 2 dollars...depending upon if I needed to do trimming. Then, in high school, I started working at a gas station, evenings and weekends...pumping gas, etc., for about $1/hr.
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About the same here... shoveling snow in the winter.... 1st tax paying jub was at the local Sunoco... IIRC $.2.35 Hr, gas was .54 a gallon.
 
I was paid $1 per hour for babysitting when I was 16. Sometimes, people decided they wanted to stay out much later than they'd said - that's when they'd empty out their piggy bank to count all the coins.

My first "real job" was as entry-level clerk typist position at an insurance company, which paid all of $85 per week, if memory serves me correctly.

Once I moved across country and started working for the government, the pay-scale was better, and the benefits were extremely good. Accumulated sick days could be used for vacation days. Three guaranteed raises per annum, etc.

Wanted to train as a court typist, but that didn't pan out. Mostly I worked in data processing. It was interesting work, typing up incident reports for the police.
 
old medic said:
About the same here... shoveling snow in the winter.... 1st tax paying jub was at the local Sunoco... IIRC $.2.35 Hr, gas was .54 a gallon.
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.54¢ a gallon, wow! I know they say everything is relative, but without a doubt the dollar went farther back in the day than it does now.
 
Aunt Marg said:
Did you have a cart on wheels that you had to push from house to house?
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hahaha... :ROFLMAO::LOL: where did you think we lived ? in the caves in roman times? it was 1969 AD ... not 69BC :ROFLMAO:... no we had an electric milk float...like this... with a steering wheel and everything... :sneaky: The white box at the back was the fridge that held the chilled goods like yoghurts, cream and butter

another-real.jpg.653x0_q70_crop-smart.jpg
 
Pinky said:
I was paid $1 per hour for babysitting when I was 16. Sometimes, people decided they wanted to stay out much later than they'd said - that's when they'd empty out their piggy bank to count all the coins.

My first "real job" was as entry-level clerk typist position at an insurance company, which paid all of $85 per week, if memory serves me correctly.

Once I moved across country and started working for the government, the pay-scale was better, and the benefits were extremely good. Accumulated sick days could be used for vacation days. Three guaranteed raises per annum, etc.

Wanted to train as a court typist, but that didn't pan out. Mostly I worked in data processing. It was interesting work, typing up incident reports for the police.
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$1 an hour babysitting? You did well! Was that back in the 70's?

Got to love the option of transferring accumulated sick days into vacation days! :)
 
J.C. Pennys, shoe dept. age 18. I had my own apt. in another state., thousands of miles away from my parents. I loved my parents but was anxious to be out on my own and experience whatever possibilities presented themselves.
 
hollydolly said:
hahaha... :ROFLMAO::LOL: where did you think we lived ? in the caves in roman times? it was 1969 AD ... not 69BC :ROFLMAO:... no we had an electric milk float...like this... with a steering wheel and everything... :sneaky: The white box at the back was the fridge that held the chilled goods like yoghurts, cream and butter

another-real.jpg.653x0_q70_crop-smart.jpg
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Excuse me while I remove my sabre-toothed tiger skin! ROFLMAO!

In my mind I was thinking, no way, Holly, would have been too young to drive. :)
 
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Gaer said:
J.C. Pennys, shoe dept. age 18. I had my own apt. in another state., thousands of miles away from my parents. I loved my parents but was anxious to be out on my own and experience whatever possibilities presented themselves.
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Good on you! I admire you for venturing out on your own at such a young age!
 
Holly. I'm laughing so hard right now I can't stop! :ROFLMAO:

Boy, would it ever have been one long day for you delivering all that milk using a push-cart! :unsure:
 
jujube said:
I had a summer job as a cashier in a sleazy loan company the summer I graduated from high school. I was 17 and made $50 a week.

One day we were robbed while I was in the restroom primping for an after-work date.

My dad made me quit.
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I would have stood behind your dads decision to see you out of there had I been his wife. No amount of money is worth a life.
 
Growing up in Indiana farm community, it was, baling hay, working fields, and assisting various other farm type activities! $1.00 per hour! Would love to hear complaints from kids nowadays having to do that kind of labor! lol
 

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