First Jobs - How old, and what did you do?

[studemax]

Nowadays, you are issued a Social Security Number at birth. Didn't used to be that way.... You got one when you scored your first job. So let's hear about your first job, OK?

I was 12 years old, and went to work at my mom's printing shop. I used to run an old Addressograph making metal plates for addressing machines (today most folks use them for making dogtags). I worked 48 hours a week during the summer, and worked some nights and Saturday's while school was in session. I started at a buck an hour in the late 60's! Not bad for a kid! Did that until my senior year (1973-1974), when I went to work in the automotive department of a local store similar to Walmart.

[pdub]

Summer job. Early 70's 14 years old or so. My friend's dad owned a bunch of rental duplexes on the poor side of town. Tear out the insides and paint the outsides. They let me spackle windows. And tear out the walls, I didn't know how to put anything together so they let me tear stuff up. I'd draw targets on the walls and throw hammers at them until they told me to get back to work.

2 bucks I think, big money.

[DanStokes]

My first "regular" job (not lawn mowing for the neighbors or such) was at Thompson's Greenhouse in Michigan. I was 14. It was a large commercial greenhouse owned by a friend of my Dad's and I took the job because I was promised that I would work on Saturdays doing fleet maintenance on their fleet of Ford box trucks. Their son (he was OLD - like 22 or something) was the main guy though they had a career mechanic who came in during the week and did most of the heavy stuff like engine rebuilds and so on.

I also got sucked into various odd jobs around the facility and learned that production work was NOT for me. They had a line where they bagged sterilized soil for house plants and I did enough dirt bagging to know that I COULD NOT work on an assembly line!

One of my claims to fame is that I mowed down 20,000 Christmas trees. Mrs. Thompson saved my job when she came by as Mr. Thompson was chewing my butt and was (I'm sure) about to fire me. Mrs. T sweetly said to her husband "Did you tell him there were trees in that field" (they were about 10" high and the grass was at least 14" or more) and he sort of looked at the ground and said "well, no....." and grumpily let me off the hook.

All in all, a great first job that set me up for most of the jobs I've subsequently held.

Dan

[Barry Donovan]

paper boy in woburn mass.
like SAC command and carburators.. I was the last in a leave it to beaver neighborhood.
It did hang on longer than others... that was 1986.

I was in my 3rd year of military in the 90s, before I made that same amount of money again.

[Monster]

Our Dad applied for us kid's SSN's when we got to 6th grade (12-years old). My first job was at the local McDonald's putting the condiments on the burgers and frying the fish fillet, fries and apple pies. Good training for a young man entering the private sector .. "If you got time to lean, you got time to clean" !

[Dan Barlow]

My first steady job was mowing the grass for our church when I was about 12. And since my dad was the pastor and we were living in a house on the property, I got to do it for free . Started out with some sort of wower with one of those loop handle bars , motor between my legs and a trans with F-N-R. Thing had about nine inch solid rubber tires anout four inches wide . And quite litterally before the chuch bought the property it was a horse pasture. It was slow and beat me to death . Took 2 days to mow it. My first paying job was at a warehouse for the National Starch & Chemical Company , loading box cars and semi trailers with 100 lb bags of food starch. I weighed 100 lbs. It bought my first car .

Edit - $3.50 in 1978

[squirrel]

I started working at the junkyard in 79, when I was 18, just about to start college. Part time, cash at the end of the day, a few cents over minimum wage, no bennies...but I learned a heck of a lot about cars.

[Dan Barlow]

I used want to work at a junk yard . Now I'd like to own one !

[nesabo]

Paper route in 7th grade. Lasted 2 years, then worked in a grocery store when I turned 16.

[corvettedad]

Started when I was 10, me and my two older brothers ran a paper route for several years then worked part time in a restaurant cleaning tables and what ever else needed doing. First actual full time job was with state roadway Dept driving a dump truck when I was 18

[Cyclone03]

Mowed lawns at 9-14. Then a job on Sundays at the Simi Swapmeet at 14. When I turned 15 I got my SSN and a job at Fox Shell in Simi Valley,Cockran and Sycamore. Then Simi Tire till I turned 19.

[BangShift McT]

Odd jobs starting around age 12. Weeding, minor car repairs. Got roped into splitting wood and construction site clearing when I was 13 or 14. First job with a W-2 was working the Little Caesar's Pizza Station at a K-Mart in Colorado Springs. Quit after two weeks because the girl I worked with was having in-depth conversations with the hot-dog roller.

[pintoboy77]

I delivered fruit and vegetables door to door when I was 9yrs old after school and on weekends till I was 12yrs old I got paid 13 dollars a week.

[Schtauffer]

My dad took me along hanging garage doors since I was maybe 6. (We don't do it that way anymore... I started taking my little guy with me when he was a couple months old. But I digress.) My first job that I went out and got on my own was when I was 12; I was coming home from work, pounding out my homework in an hour or two while getting good grades with little effort, and was pretty much bored. So, I did what any bored 12 year old would do and rode my bike to the neighboring farm and asked for a job. The farmer paid me $15 a week to feed the calves after school that winter, then started paying a little more the next summer to help pack eggs. I've been working 60+ hour weeks since the age of 13.

[Russell]

Started feeding dad's calves about 5 years old.
Then I worked on a neighbor's tobacco farm at the barn for $5 a day. Later I moved up to tractor driver at $5 / hr. The summer after high school I worked as a laborer for masonry company. Worked on summer at a junk yard. Worked one summer on a survey crew. Worked on summer as an intern at an Engineering firm. Now I work for the Man...