First job experiences?

[hazabaza1]

Howdy ya'll!
So, by some random stroke of luck, I have happened to stumble upon a job! Crazy, I know.
So yeah, at the ever exciting age of 18 I've just got my first job at a bank firm called Nationwide. Not sure what I'll be doing exactly, but whatever it is I'll be doing it for £10 so whatever.

I was just pondering what everyone else's first job experiences may have been like? Good? Bad? Well paid? Dull?
Share it with us!

Jesus christ, what the hell did you put on your CV? I've been looking for work for months, and I've worked in practically every industry under the sun. I mean, congratulations and all, but please don't mind me resenting you for the rest of your life.

I just got what was supposed to be an interview with some bloke, went to the agency, did a typing test and that stuff and got a phone call the next day.
I'm just lucky I guess.

If it makes you feel better I think it expires (or whatever) sometime soon next year.

 

[DugMachine]

Lifeguard at a waterpark. I sat around for 8-10 hours watching people not drown in 2 feet of water day in and day out.

Only upside, I was practically payed minimum wage to sit and watch cute girls in bikinis all day ;D

I've been to a few water parks in my time. Do life guards ever get offered dates, or do people keep their distance?

I only got one number as a lifeguard so can't say it never happens. And no people don't keep their distance... a lot of times they think we run the park or something. We get complaints about the rides, food, security like jesus people that's not our job.

 

[game-lover]

It was an office assistant position at a community college I went to. I think I was 19.

Only job I've had so far. Now I'm unemployed and still searching for an official one. Since that last one was when I was going to said college...

 

[Krantos]

My first job was at a gas station Pizza Kitchen, when I was 14 (shh!). A lot of fun, though stressful, and I now know how to make kick ass pizza's by hand.

After I left that job (Change of owners, etc.etc.), I was forced to take a job at McDonalds..... And was unable to get a job absolutely anywhere else (despite being multi-time employee of the month, then manager) for 8 years. Thankfully, that stage of my life is finally over, and I now work as a Software developer.

 

[snowy556]

My first job was working at my neighbor's computer repair shop. Worked there for about 2 years, and I have to say it was pretty sweet. I got paid about $5 an hour, when there was work, which there usually was. And I mostly got paid to hang out with my neighbor and his dog, listen to music, and I was always invited to a home cooked dinner. The pay wasn't that great, but it was easy, fun, and gave me some great knowledge.
My first actual job with a schedule and all that jazz is working Retail, which I had to pick up as business for my neighbor essentially stopped. I'm a cashier and I make about $8.25 an hour. However, because the store I work at is the second best in my state, we get all sorts of bonuses. We usually get pizza ordered, we have had ice cream sundae days, where there will be like 5 gallons of ice cream and a bunch of root beer in the break room. And as for the other staff, most of them are still pretty young, in their mid 30's, no old angry horrible people. The customers are almost never angry in my line however, because we were told that we can change prices for anyone, and essentially just do whetever you can to keep people coming back.

All in all, I am liking my retail job so far, Everyone will tell you it sucks, but you just have to make the most of it. I have made a bunch of friends working there, and I even have one of my best friends working with me, since he didn't have a job either. Retail is what you make it, and if you try your best to be happy and outgoing, there will be almost no customer that will try to shit on your happiness.

Unless they have annoying children who are out of control, seriously, get your shit together. However, I usually bribe the kids with stickers to keep them calm for a few seconds.

 

[Gizmo1990]

I'm nearly 25 and I've only just got my first job.

I ain't gonna say where, because I don't want you jerkbags ruining it for me

It's a customer service/administration role, and I've learned a very important lesson.

Customers can be the whiniest, pettiest, most entitled fuckwads in the universe.

I feel your pain. I lost my first job about 5 months ago and it was running IT support for schools. On average 25 different teachers a day, screaming at me that it was life or death that little Timmy have his account fixed or that their computer was being slow so they needed a new one delivered in an hour because they had a lesson that required a slideshow and because we were selling them our support I could not tell them to carm the fuck down.

 

[Phasmal]

I got my first job at age sixteen under huge pressure from my parents.
It was waitressing in a small café with only one door in or out of the kitchen, which was just awful.
Waitressing was probably a bad idea for me, as I have balance issues, so I dropped things sometimes.
Also, cause of the whole one-door thing, I got several cups of hot coffee and tea on me by someone coming in while I was trying to go out.
I was there for a week, 8hours a day for about 3 pounds an hour and I just burned out and never went back.

Good luck with your job.

 

[trooper6]

My first paid jobs were working in television...I did a pilot and an episode of a local TV show. I was...about 13? I was doing lots of semi-professional theatre at the time...but that didn't pay...so I suppose that doesn't count as "a job"--though...it certainly was a lot of work.

I worked in a lawyer's office in 11th and 12th grade doing clerical work. That was cool.
Then I joined the Army.

 

[Floggo]

I got my first job at the age of 12, just cleaning around the local servo during the summer.
Though, next month my REAL job starts, being a TA for a contracted builder in the next town over.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Customers can be the whiniest, pettiest, most entitled fuckwads in the universe.

you can say that again...

---

My first job was hosting at a hibachi restaurant at 18 years old for about $8 an hour. I stayed for three years and while it was an easy job the hours were lacking (they only had me in on weekends). It was a really relaxed place though and very easy but I couldn't live off of what I made.

 

[Tiger Sora]

14-15, working at the concession stand/building. $5 and hour, make myself some fries or w/e if I wanted. I was pretty much unsupervised. Got to watch baseball all night (House league). Knew a lot of the people down there, had a rather good time I guess.

My first real job was a stacker at the local grocery store. Minimum wage, $10.25. Shit work, boring as hell. Some of the people I worked with were ass hats, others were really cool. But my supervisor was one of the previous vulgar word sometimes. One night he had me face the entire store by myself, I went f this after doing about half and walked out. I figure it was a hazing thing now, probably should of stayed, really it wasn't to bad looking back on it.

 

[Dawns Gate]

My first job was when I was 15. I installed signs and sign cabinets, shitty pay, shitty hours, and nobody respects you.

You have no idea how many times people nearly killed me by running through large, bright, reflective cones. Or how many fights I got into with people saying the truck is blocking the parking spot. A friend of mine actually got stabbed in an argument over blocking the sidewalk so nobody gets crushed by a KAL-TIRE sign.

Thank Christ I made it into army.

 

[Call Me Jose]

My first real job was a stacker at the local grocery store. Minimum wage, $10.25.

I'm too lazy to search but where is minimum wage that high?

 

[Johnny Impact]

Customers can be the whiniest, pettiest, most entitled fuckwads in the universe.

You will continue to learn that lesson on a regular basis. I would take a 25% pay cut to do the exact job I do now, without the customer service element. Most customers are okay, but the ones that aren't make up for all the rest.

OT: At the age of fifteen I got a summer job working the floor at a Bradlee's department store. Housewares, mostly.

It was minimum wage, of course, but not too bad a deal. Just straightening boxes on shelves, moving the occasional large item with a pallet jack, and ringing people up. Complaints did not come to me (or at least I didn't have to deal with them) and there was no serious responsibility.

This was right around the time Wal-Mart had Bradlee's collective nuts in the vise. The store I had worked at closed the following spring.

 

[Tiger Sora]

My first real job was a stacker at the local grocery store. Minimum wage, $10.25.

I'm too lazy to search but where is minimum wage that high?

Ha ha lazy bugger. Ontario, Canada. It's not that great, economics people say it needs to be about 5 dollars higher to be a 'livable wage'. Taxes are high here, so you lose a lot out on it.

 

[IrradiatedFish]

Don't know if it counts, but I did unpaid volunteer work at a veterinary clinic for a summer when I was in high school. My first paid job was physical labour for minimum wage for a company that manufactured large insulated wall panels. I've never been so hot and itchy in my life; not really a pleasant experience.

I think I was 15 when I was doing the volunteering, and 16 the next year at the manufacturing site.

I'm hoping that my first "true" job (as in, what I plan on making a career out of) will be at a nuclear power plant as a stationary/power engineer. In the meantime, I've still got a couple years of education to grind through.

I've gone through other jobs too, but those are my "firsts".

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

I washed dishes at a pizzeria. I did that for a few months until they promoted me to chief. In the beginning, I almost always worked night shifts and ended up getting off hours after I was supposed to. The pay sucked and the work was fulfilling.

I got all the free pizza and beer I could get my hands on. I spent the day snacking on bread sticks. After the place closed, we sat at the bar and drank until midnight. One time, we catered a 4th of July party and ended up staying. That night, we took shots from an ice sculpture shaped like a dog taking a shit with the alcohol coming from its ass. Classy. We had a pet rat named Tony Mozzarella who lived in the ceiling with his rat family. My boss, the sole-proprietor, was an out-of-touch stoner who ran the place into the ground to the point that the place closed down with no notice to the employees. It was the best job ever.

 

[likalaruku]

I'm one of those parasitic women that will do (almost) anything to avoid getting a job, so long as it doesn't' involve sex or jail time.

 

[xDarc]

It was 1996. I was 14 and I worked weekends at Meijer pushing carts 4 hours on Saturday and Sunday. I started at $4.15 an hour.

 

[GTwander]

Customers can be the whiniest, pettiest, most entitled fuckwads in the universe.

Hey, I don't remember calling you at work...

Anyway, my first job was a line attendant at a buffet restaurant. It sucked.
Here's a little tidbit for you guys; when you hear someone's name on the intercom saying something like "Jimmy, line 5. Jimmy." he's not getting a phone call - it usually means someone purposely shot on the ground next to a toilet in the stalls again... and it's poor ol' Jimmy's job to clean it up.

It was like 10 years ago, got paid $7.25 an hour (I think). Which was minimum wage at the time... which has risen 75 cents since then. Shit is still hard to survive on.